FLVC logo

Orlando Trujillo papers, 2011-2011, Date acquired: 04/14/2011

 

Summary

Creator:
Quintana, Alejandro
Extent:
1.00 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Orlando Trujillo papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_11_0026.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of Dr. Orlando Trujillo, who lived in Cuba during WWII.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Trujillo provides a short interview that echoes the main points of the other Quintana interviewees, Perez and Busot. Like Perez, he notes that Cuba enacted strict rationing, but that hunger or scarcity was not a problem. Where Perez only vaguely mentions the American military presence in Cuba during the war, Dr. Trujillo, he clearly states that the Cuban government allowed three air bases to be built, including San Julián Air Base, which served to patrol against German "Wolfpack" U-boat groups in the Caribbean, and details the points from which the Americans patrolled: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Miami, and Homestead Air Base. He claims that Cuba's only physical participation in the war were the three frigates rented, later bought, from the United States that were used to patrol against U-boats, the Maximo Gomez, Antonio Mace, and the José Martí.

Like Busot, Dr. Trujillo details Cuba's mineral contribution to the war effort, specifically how iron, nickel, and cobalt were sold to the US at preferred prices. He goes further than Busot in claiming that Cuba did also intern citizens of German, Italian, and Japanese descent, and recalls how one German was accused of espionage and executed. Dr. Trujillo says "other than the one ship that was sunk, no other major thing happened. There were some lost sailors in the sinking," referencing the Santiago de Cuba merchant vessel sunk by U-508 in 1942. These 19 sailors lost at sea would make up the only Cuban casualties of the war.

Acquisition information:

Alejandro Quintano

Donation

Custodial history:

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers

Terms of access:

This transcript is In Copyright in the United States. It may be cited or quoted with proper attribution. Further re-use or copying of the work beyond Fair Use may require permission from the rights-holder.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Orlando Trujillo papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_11_0026.

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA