Interview with Irina Vilariño: A Success Story of a Cuban Restaurant
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Interview with Irina Vilariño: A Success Story of a Cuban Restaurant.
A republican political system, with its natural economic complement of a free enterprise model, brings out the best in people.
When Fidel Castro loosened the cracks on the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 —an attempted face-saving reactive strategy after the humiliation of having over 10,000 Cubans storm the Peruvian Embassy in Havana in less than 24 hours in search of freedom— the Cuban dictator had no idea how much talent and entrepreneurship spirit was leaving Cuba. The Vilariño family is one such example.
Irina Vilariño, one of the five daughters of Antonio and Nilda, bears witness to the opportunities rendered upon their arrival in the United States in 1980. Not speaking English, but fully determined to make the American Dream a reality, after much sacrifice and in search of opportunities, the Vilariño family opened their first restaurant in Hollywood four years after their arrival.
A young child, Irina remembers how her father ventured out to provide for his family, after the customary immigration vetting’s but without, as she pointed out in her interview with El American, “any federal favoritism,” meaning governmental financial assistance.
In fact, Irina precisely credits the non-interventionist nature of America’s competitive capitalist system with her family’s ability to build the successful Las Vegas Restaurant chain established throughout numerous locations in Southern Florida, including Miami Beach, Doral (two), Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale (two), Hollywood, (two), Pembroke Pines (two), Plantation, and Hallandale Beach.
Well-versed in politics and attentive to the many challenges now facing America from socialism, Irina cited valid concerns over the future of a free society, the middle class, the family, religion, and the nation’s entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaking as a business owner, she reiterated the hostile environment being fomented against small and independent businesses by leftism, statist policies, Big Tech, and Big Corporate wokism. No one should miss this informative interview!
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Julio M. Shiling is a political scientist, writer, columnist, lecturer, media commentator, and director of Patria de Martí and The CubanAmerican Voice. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. He is a member of The American Political Science Association, The PEN Club (Cuban Writers in Exile Chapter) and the Academy of Cuban History in Exile.