Obituary of Everardo Jorge Martinez-Mazon

Everardo Jorge Martinez-Mazon was born September 18, 1942 in Havana, Cuba. He was the 2nd youngest of twelve siblings. He was known to his Cuban family as Bebi (Spanish for baby). When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, he was 17 years old. His entire family exiled to New York City to escape from the new dictator. While living in NY City, Everardo was one of among 1,500 Cuban exiles, recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency (with approval of then president, John F Kennedy), and transported to Guatemala to train for the invasion now known as the "Bay of Pigs", to attempt to restore Cuba to a democracy. During the invasion, Everardo was captured and jailed along with the other political prisoners, until the US negotiated their release and returned them to the US. Everardo married to Felicita and had three children - Fe', Felicia, and Jorge. He moved his family around quite a bit and they lived in several homes such as in Springfield, Brockton, MA, and Austin TX. He settled in Brockton, MA until his kids were grown and married. He then moved to Tampa, FL where he lived with his wife, Felicita for nearly 30 years. Everardo was a caregiver for his wife, for nearly 10 years as she battled cancer and then passed away in 2005. He then moved to Sterling, VA, remarried to Socorro Maria, where he remained, until his death on December 11th of 2019. Everardo was known to all as "Papi". He was a small business owner most of his life. He owned many small businesses such as candy stores, snack bars, grocery stores, Puerto Rican restaurant's, dress shops and cleaning & maintenance businesses. He also had business partnerships where they purchased apartment buildings, remodeled them and re-sold them. Everardo's memories of the invasion in Cuba was vivid, and he loved re-telling stories of events and his experiences during that era. During the exile of Cuban refugees in the 80's, Everardo assisted the Catholic Charities - (St.Martin de Porres Resource Center) it was instrumental to many Cubans to be employed and find housing as many were political prisoners to gain a normal life here in the USA. He gave the family the gift of Faith through many Charities. He was a practicing Catholic. Hobbies consist of shopping at pawn shops, horse & dog racing, collecting antiques, coins, clocks and his favorite collection, The Coca Cola brand. He is survived by his caregiver and loving wife, Maria de Socorro, his daughters Fe' and Felicia and son, Jorge, grandchildren and great-children.