QUIRICO MIGOYA

MIGOYA, QUIRICO believed in the essential elements of the American dream: hard work, education, and a single Johnnie Walker black on the rocks at five o'clock. He passed away April 27 after 93 years that took him from persecution as a labor leader in Cuba to his adopted home of Miami. He was born in La Habana, Cuba, on 1919 to Emeterio and Herminia (Naranjo) Migoya. He was active in Cuba's textile union and part of its national leadership until pressure from the Castro government drove him to take his wife, Helia, and only child, Carlos, to Miami in October 1961. He pumped gas at a station owned by his uncle, just a few blocks from Jackson Memorial Hospital, which Carlos now runs as president and chief executive officer. Migoya briefly moved his family to New York, but returned to Miami two years later. His work ethic was legendary, continuing to work in manufacturing until he was 86. Never having the chance to attend high school, he was nonetheless a voracious reader and learner, devouring daily newspapers and becoming a self-taught expert on global politics and world history. He also insisted on education for his son, who earned degrees from both Miami Dade Community College and Florida International University. A doting grandfather to Carlos Jr. and Jose (and later Jose's wife Kim), he delighted in taking the boys to the park when they were young, visiting them in college and elsewhere as they grew up, and insisting on paying for their two-dollar cigars. He once hid a major car accident from his family so they wouldn't try to talk him out of a trip to Denver the next day to visit Carlos Jr. He was also a fixture in his Sweetwater community, meeting friends for Cuban coffee at a neighborhood cafeteria he referred to as "el club." That's where his family often found him if he wasn't answering his phone, holding court on the little folding chair that he kept in his car. Heartbroken by the loss of his wife 10 years ago, he pushed himself to new adventures. An avid sports fan, he joined his family at Super Bowls, World Series and other events, including front-row tickets to a Yankee Stadium that he couldn't afford to visit when he first moved to New York. The family will receive visitors on Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight at La Capilla de Ferdinand Funeral Home, 2546 SW 8th Street, Miami. Funeral mass will be celebrated on Monday at noon at St. Agatha Catholic Church, 1111 SW 107th Avenue, Miami, with burial to follow at Flagler Memorial Park, 5301 West Flagler St, Miami. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in his memory to the Jackson Memorial Foundation's fund for renovation of labor and neonatal rooms. The Foundation can be reached at 305-355-4999, www.jmf.org, or 901 NW 17th Street, Park Plaza East Suite G, Miami, Fla., 33136.