Mountain View’s fire chief had a brush with death nearly 40 years ago while fleeing with his family from Cuba that continues to define him to this day.
Juan Diaz, who has led the Mountain View Fire Department since 2015, was 14 when his family fled Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift. During a six-month period, as many as 125,000 Cubans fled in boats for Florida to escape the communist regime during an economic crisis that was making life for many unbearable.
Diaz’s story — and how he recently connected with the family of the boat captain who saved the lives of his family and hundreds of others during the boatlift; a story the family was not aware of until he met them — will be shared when PBS airs “Escape from Cuba,” an episode of “We’ll Meet Again with Ann Curry.”