El Colegio de La Salle, Cuba was confiscated by the Castro regime in 1961 and like all religious institutions, was forced to close its doors. On November 27th, 1960, a few months before graduating from La Salle, Néstor Machado, better known as “Cawy”, was sent alone, ahead of his family, to Miami to live with his aunt and later with an acquaintance of his father’s that he had yet to meet. Néstor arrived in Miami at age 16 and had no choice but to work full time until he could start school the following September.

Néstor attended La Salle since age 4. First, La Salle Children’s Garden in Miramar, Havana, later Colegio de la Salle also in Miramar and finally Colegio de la Salle in Vedado for high school. Néstor and his lifelong La Salle friends, José María Arellano, Eduardo Arellano, Eduardo Sánchez, Oscar Bustillo, and Benny Benach petitioned Bishop Coleman Carroll in 1961 to allow La Salle to open a school in Miami where they could finally graduate. They were determined to make it happen. It seemed almost a miracle when they were told that a building and land had been designated to the Christian Brothers. The six friends painted and prepared the school for opening day in September. Now the next big hurdle for Néstor was paying for school tuition. He struck a deal with the priests that he would clean the classrooms after school and work in the cafeteria at lunch time to pay for his tuition and daily lunch. This aside from many other part time jobs that he held during those difficult years, such as newspaper delivery, sale of hot dogs at the Orange Bowl, gas station attendant, and Food Fair bag boy. This last job was in Coconut Grove were he fondly remembers taking groceries to the Sacred Heart nuns who would give him empty glass bottles in return, so he could cash them in.

The Machado family’s soft drink business, Cawy Bottling Company, was taken over by the Castro regime. Nestor’s parents left everything behind and came to Miami in hopes to reunite their family and build a new life from scratch. Nestor’s parents arrived in time for his La Salle high school graduation in May 1962.

After graduation Néstor attended Miami Dade Community College with a Cuban Loan that gave him $1000/year for four years. After two years he moved to Gainesville to continue his studies at the University of Florida where he lived in La Agrupación Católica with the Jesuit priests under the care of Padre Amando Llorente who would later marry him and his wife, Lourdes, baptized his two children and four of his eight grandchildren . On one of his trips home to Miami, his father died suddenly of a heart attack at age 55. He was just beginning the Cawy soft drink business in Miami, but all was lost again. Nestor returned to complete his senior year at the University of Miami and took full responsibility for the financial support of his siblings, mother and grandmother. He worked day and night shifts in accounting and payroll processing at the Burger King headquarters for 60 hours a week while completing his degrees in Management and Accounting.

Upon graduation he worked for Burger King and then New England Oyster House restaurant chain as plant manager. During this time, he met the love of his life, Lourdes, and they married in 1969. A year later his daughter, Lourdes, was born and he started his real estate development company, Cawy Construction, in honor of his father who taught him so much about business at a young age in Cuba at his Cawy soft drink factories. His second son, Néstor, was born in 1973 completing his family. Néstor built and, still at age 76, manages both residential and commercial real estate projects throughout Miami-Dade County. He had the foresight to invest in properties that became up and coming as Miami grew and expanded.

Néstor is forever grateful for the opportunity to be a member of La Salle’s first graduating class. The lessons, support and stability offered to him by the Christian Brothers were crucial during a very difficult time in his life and prepared him for a life of faith, generosity and service to others. Throughout all these years, the group of six friends, founders of La Salle, and as of recent the four that still remain get together for lunch monthly. They still discuss how fate had them escape Cuba before their graduation, so they could begin the La Salle tradition in Miami. His pride and joy are his two children, eight grandchildren and his wife of 51 years, Lourdes. He attributes many of his successes to a lot of hard work, positive attitude, perseverance, and never taking no for an answer.