Rigoberto Narciso Caceres

1937 - 2025

Rigoberto Narciso Caceres

October 29, 1937 - July 22, 2025

Miami, Florida - Rigoberto Narciso Caceres was born on October 29, 1937 in Marianao, Cuba to Maria del Carmen Barbosa and Rigoberto Caceres. His father tragically passed away when Rigoberto was just two years old, an experience that would forever shape the value and emphasis he placed on family. Growing up, Rigo was mischievous and headstrong, but unwaveringly noble. He took care of his mother whom he loved deeply, and visited his grandparents every single day. At the age of 11, his independence and entrepreneurial spirit emerged and Rigo took a job cleaning bottles and glasses at a bar in central Havana. When he turned eighteen, Rigo took the first and only job he would ever work, a position at a bank that he secured thanks to his uncle's connections. Stubborn as ever, Rigo did not appreciate having to report to someone else, and his stint at the bank ended quickly. Instead, he decided to shape his career around the thing he loved most: cars. In his youth, Rigo would spend countless hours driving up and down the island, just because he enjoyed driving so much. Doing so only deepened his profound love for the island and broadened his horizons to its beauty. He opened a Renault dealership in Marianao when he was just 19 years old and saw significant success early on.

In 1956, another beauty caught his eye: his loving wife, Juana Miriam Perez, who he pursued relentlessly in a social climate where chaperones were mandatory and intimacy forbidden. MIriam would regale how Rigo was always trying to steal kisses and visit her alone, until he finally asked to marry her. They were wed on November 7, 1959, on the heels of the Cuban Revolution. As the Cuban Revolution began implementing communist-leaning policies, it became clear that a personal tragedy would once again irrevocably alter Rigo's life. For a person with such pride and autonomy, tolerating Castro's Cuba was impossible. Rigo would stand up to the revolutionary officers as they stripped them of their rights and belongings. The arrival of his daughters Esperanza (Picon) and Miriam (Wesolowski) in 1960 and 1962 only exacerbated Rigo's frustration and concern. Once his business was expropriated, Rigo understood that the country he loved so deeply had been stolen, and that his family's only chance at a good life would only be found elsewhere. Once the Freedom Flights were announced, he set to work trying to obtain visas for his family to settle in the United States, where Miriam had family. In order to exit the country, Castro obliged men of his age to work in the sugar cane fields the government had expropriated as its primary source of income. Conditions in these camps were severe, and Rigo skirted serious consequences numerous times with the guards who patrolled the fields.

Finally, the time had come for them to board the plane and leave their beloved island. They packed what little belongings they were allowed to, and landed in New Jersey on May 31, 1968 with $300 cash and sheer resolve and strength of will to make the United States their new home. After several months in New Jersey, he relocated his family to Miami, where he understood that a Cuban community was rapidly growing, and where there were more opportunities for Cuban immigrants like him. When they first arrived in Miami, Rigo took a job selling ice cream at a park in North Miami, near their home on 135th Street. Miriam meanwhile worked as an at-home manicurist and hair stylist while she raised their two daughters. Eventually, Rigo had saved enough money from selling ice cream to drive to a car auction in central Florida and purchase a single car. That car sat in his driveway with a For Sale sign until he sold it, and used the proceeds to buy himself another two. Siboney Motors was born shortly after, and Rigo purchased the property that would house his used car business for the next 40 years. Siboney Motors grew to maintain its principal lot as well as a rental car business that operated out of the airport, and became the go-to business when Latin American celebrities and glitterati were coming to town for Telemundo and Univision.

Like the importance of family, community meant everything to Rigo. He quickly developed a network of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who would meet at the end of the work day at Versailles, a local Cuban restaurant that was gaining traction among the growing population of Cuban immigrants living in Miami. Rigo and his friends went to Versailles every single day for over the next four decades, affectionately earning themselves the moniker of La Peña. There, Rigo came to be known as 'Mr. Coffee' because he loved to buy cafecitos for everyone in the room.

Outside of his thriving business, Rigo's principal joy came from his family. He was not a man who particularly enjoyed travel or hobbiesinstead, he spent all of his free time enjoying his daughters and their children, Nicole Silveira (nee Martinez), Natalie Jones (nee Martinez) Stephanie Floch (nee Picon), and Nicholas Picon. To his grandchildren, Rigo was a figure who loomed larger than life, towering at over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and the largest hands they had ever seen. They joked of his pot belly and played with his suitcases and mobile phone, a novelty in the early 1990s. They remember long mornings where their grandmother would comb and style his hair, before he would dress and spend an hour checking the stock market before heading to el lote. He took them on trips to Disney World, and showered them with love and affection. He cared for each of them in his gentle and loving way, always reminding them to tener mucho cuidado.

At 87 years old, Rigo was a lucky man, with seven great grandchildren (Olivia Noel Jones, Jack Lucas Jones, Elijah Rafael Floch, Max Rigo Silveira, Luna Clare Silveira, Benjamin Caceres Floch, and Harper Picon) whom he adored. Lovingly known among them as Papa Viejo, he would sit proudly at every birthday, baptism, and bris, devoted to the family he had built and nurtured.

He passed away peacefully on July 22, surrounded by his family. Though his body has left this earth, his spirit, his warmth, and his sacrifice will never be forgotten.