Miami has dozens of Fidel Castros

[AlphaCentauri]

For the past 18 months, Fidel Castro has searched for a job driving vans or small trucks in Hialeah. He has a clean driving record, and his resumé includes more than a decade behind the wheel. "I know every alley in this city," Castro declares, his upper lip quivering indignantly. "I don't need a GPS. I am a GPS."

But he's rarely called back for interviews, even when friends refer him to potential employers. So he continues delivering flowers for a wholesaler 20 hours a week. The 47-year-old struggles to make his $350 monthly rent for the apartment he shares with two other former balseros.

He has come to believe his name is the problem. Potential employers assume he's either a prankster, a wacko, or a mouth-foaming commie. It's like finding work in New York's Chinatown when your name is Mao Tse-tung. When his parents, who lived in Cuba's Pinar del Río, named him for the young leader in the first years after the revolution, they apparently didn't consider the boy's employment prospects upon his defection to the United States.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-03-11/news/miami-has-dozens-of-fidel-castros/

[Orrex]

1. That really sucks.

I imagine you'd have trouble getting hired in Iraq if your name were George Bush, too.

[Cleita]

2. He should use his middle name and/or his mother's maiden name, which

in Latino culture is usually the last name. It's quite legal. I notice that a lot of second generation Mexicans here in California do that as some of them have been named Jesus, so they use their middle name instead.