Miami Gardens, Florida
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Mario Campos grew up deep in the hills of Cuba, a guajiro as the poor farmers there were called.
Despite his rural roots, Campos wound his way to a job with the national police. He kept his position for 26 years, until Fidel Castro came to power and those who worked under the Batista regime were tossed into prison.
Campos was one of the lucky ones. His association with the overthrown Batista government was through the police and not political, a distinction that may have spared him his life and certainly aided his relatively early release from prison. In 1961, as soon as he was freed, Campos fled Cuba for Florida.
He could not…