After His Father’s Murder, Carlos Frías Found Solace In Miami’s Ventanitas
The Sporkful

After His Father’s Murder, Carlos Frías Found Solace In Miami’s Ventanitas

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 7, 202636 min

Fernando Frías was a successful cafe and restaurant owner in Havana. But when Fidel Castro came to power, the government nationalized Fernando’s businesses and imprisoned him when he tried to leave the country. Eventually he got out, settling near Miami like so many other Cuban expats. Even though Fernando never went back to Cuba, he was always searching for pieces of his homeland in the Cuban-American community in Miami. This week Dan talks with Fernando’s son, Carlos Frías, who’s now an investigative editor at USA TODAY. Carlos was close with his father until Fernando was trag...

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Oh, Colala is about four ounces of that sweet Cuban coffee and a little stack of cups.

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 30%A2 40%B1 20%B2 10%C1 0%
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  • 180 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 104 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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This episode includes discussion of violence and may not be appropriate for all listeners. Oh, Colala is about four ounces of that sweet Cuban coffee and a little stack of cups. That's basically like a full coffee cup of espresso. and then it comes with like a stack of espresso cups

0:28

or plastic shot glasses. It's like the mini Cuban coffee version of one of those like Jug of Joe type things. Exactly, this is how you don't show up empty handed

0:38

is you show up with a colada and nobody ever turns it down. It just automatically kind of hugs you with culture. You know, it just kind of brings you in for the hug,

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