Cuban exile reflects on time with sponsor family in Sparta

Published: Oct. 19, 2022, 10 a.m.

When Ernesto Rodriguez of La Crosse was 24 years old, he left the only home he’d ever known: Cuba. He, along with 125,000 of his fellow Cubans, hopped on boats bound for the United States in 1980. They were part of the mass exodus known as the Mariel Boatlift, a rare moment when President Fidel Castro allowed residents to leave the island. And after he was sent to Fort McCoy, he moved in the Brandstetter family in Sparta, Wisconsin.