This is a living history interview with Fred Estrada, class of 1954, conducted by Marilyn Summers on April the 23rd, the year 2004. We are at his office in Miami, Florida, and the subject of the interview today is life in general, his experiences at Georgia Tech. Mr. Estrada, it's a pleasure to be with you today. Thank you very much. And I know just in the little few minutes we've been here, this is a busy place. Everybody's moving and doing things, so it's nice that you'll take time out for us on a Friday afternoon. Good. Tell me where your story started. Where were you born? I was born in Cuba, in Mitosis, Cuba, in 1933. Is that a little town? Mitosis is a city. It is a city. At that time, I think it was a city of about 100,000 people. Oh, pretty good sign. Approximately 100 kilometers east of Havana. Okay. What was your dad doing for a living then? My father was a civil engineer and he was in charge of the public works department for the province of Mitosis. So you were raised as a city boy? Yes, if you could go Mitosis. Well you weren't raised on a farm right? No absolutely not. And in towns? In towns, absolutely yes. How many children in your family? my brothers and sisters I have two brothers I had two brothers and two sisters so it's a pretty good sized family absolutely yes and where did you fall in there oldest youngest or in the middle I was the the last one except one so I was okay close to the bottom fourth child yeah so by the time you went to school you had had older siblings had been that way already absolutely and you started elementary school do you remember that time well where where where did you go to school public school system no i went to all the time i went to catholic parochial school system yeah not parochials in cuba they didn't have the parochial system so i went i went initially to the marist brothers school in Mitosis but then my family moved to havana when i was about 10 years old. And from then on I went to a Jesuit school called Belen in Havana. Now, the Jesuits are supposed to be the best teachers in the whole world. Absolutely. So you had a very fine education. Absolutely, absolutely. To me it was a wonderful experience to go to Belen school. Were you a good student? I was a fair student. I was a fair student, reasonable. So they had to put it in you, huh? Make you pay attention. No, not really, not really. But I liked certain subjects and I was good at those and some I didn't like and I wasn't so good at those. You didn't pay so much time on them. Did you get involved in sports activities? Oh yes, very much so, very much so. Because you're a big guy. Baseball and basketball, yes, when I was in high school, yes. I imagine you were a good son. I also played tennis and I played something in Cuba that was very popular called squash. Uh-huh, yeah. Squash courts. I was very good at that, yes. All very high impact, very action oriented. I guess so, yes. When you were growing up, your father being a civil engineer, did you always know you would go to college? I assume so. I didn't even think about it, but it would have been unthinkable that we wouldn't go to college. So you knew- My father was probably one of the first, if not the first, but I'm sure one of the first civil engineers who went to school in the United States. Where did he go to school? Yeah, he went to Ohio State, and at the time he went to Ohio State, very few people in Cuba went to college. Yeah, so he was quite a pioneer then. I would think so in that way, yes. So you were going to be following some big footsteps. I guess so, yes. So when you think about being in high school, you had a good time, you had a happy life. Everything was good and it was a happy life? I think I had a very happy childhood, yes, very happy. So how did you choose to go to Georgia Tech? What happened? Well, again, as I told you, I had two brothers and two sisters, and I think that decision was made for me before I went to Georgia Tech, because one of my older brothers went to Georgia Tech. Oh, really? He graduated at Tech about five years before I did this. Of course then, and you don't know how he happened to go? Well, I think at that time he sat down with my father and they decided that Georgia Tech was the right school for him. Unfortunately, my father died when I was about 14 years old, so I wasn't able to share that kind of experience with him. But my brother had gone to Tech, so when I decided to go to an engineering school, Georgia Tech was almost automatic. What kind of engineering degree did he get? My brother, the same as me, mechanical engineering. So you were pretty familiar then, at least from him or through him, of what you were getting into. I would think so, yes, yes, I would think so, yes. Had you ever traveled in the United States prior to coming to school? Not very much, but I had been to the United States with my family maybe two or three times before I went to Georgia Tech. And had you visited your brother at Georgia Tech? No, I never did, no. You never did. He was there right after the war when there were so many military people coming in on the GI Bill. And by the time you got there, things had leveled out a little bit because you went to school in 1950. that had been to the Korean War. Still veterans? Korean War. Oh, Korean War, that's right, that was starting already. Yes, yes. So what was your first impression of Georgia Tech? It was good, you know. I always thought of Georgia Tech as a wonderful experience for me. And I went there, and I remember my mother took me there, because I didn't even speak any English at that time. My mother happened to be fluent in English because of her education. So she took me there and she left me there and then I was on my own. So I managed. She took you and left you. Exactly. You flew into Atlanta? Amazingly, no. We flew to Miami and then we took a bus and went from Miami all the way to Atlanta. Those were different times. Yeah, yeah, sure. So you arrived at the Greyhound station up the road there. I think so, yes. I think so. And got settled into the Towers dormitory. No, no. Then I was in another dormitory because the Towers was a new dormitory. To get to the Towers, you had to be... You had to pay your dues somewhere else. You had to pay your dues. So I went to a... I don't remember the name of it. The one right across the street from the stadium. It could have been Brown or... Brown, I think maybe Brown. Brown, Clawman, one of those. So I was there for a year, yes. So this is an experience in itself, coming into an old dormitory. Oh, you bet, you bet. Did you have roommates? Yes, yes, I had a roommate. From where? I don't remember. He was from somewhere in the northeast, and he was the laziest guy I've ever met in my life. So he did not survive. He didn't do anything. He survived, I think, barely the first year. He probably did not graduate. No, no, no. I think he was out of school after that year. Yeah, because there's no room to be lazy. Absolutely not. Were you well prepared academically for Georgia Tech? Well, academically I was extremely well prepared, extremely, because I had gone to a very good Jesuit school. As a matter of fact, my freshman year, even if I did not speak English, was very easy for me, very easy. Like in all these subjects that are normal for engineering, you know, mathematics, physics, chemistry and all that, I was in very, very good shape for all of those. So it was very easy for me. The only challenge must have been English, English literature. The language. But you probably learned quickly? Yes, yes, not so quickly, but I learned. I'm not that good at languages, you know. Survival, somehow you didn't starve to death. But I have a good story about that. Tell me. When I went there, for my mother, she was a widow at that point. It was a sacrifice to send me to Georgia Tech because the cost of a student in the United States if you lived in Cuba was pretty high. So I had an enormous interest in graduating very fast from Georgia Tech. So even though I got there and didn't speak the language, I managed to graduate from Tech in three years. So I worked very hard and I went to summer school and I graduated in three years. And I had problems with English, so I was in my senior year. At that time at Tech, you only took English courses as a freshman and sophomore. So I passed my last English course, which was a sophomore course, when I was a senior. But everything else I managed to do pretty well. Well, given the challenge of that, it's quite understanding. How did you adjust to the social life, the culture of Georgia Tech football games? Now, that was something new to you. Oh, absolutely. Completely new. You know, all this thing of football. I had no idea what a football game was all about. and you know everything that went with it but to me it was very exciting and very interesting and i enjoyed it very much you came at a time when the football was big time at big big time in all the time i was at tech we lost one football game just one football game so you didn't have to learn how to feel the nation that was at the time of bobby dot and we were first of the nation twice yeah so it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun usually when those kinds of things happen it makes and energy in the whole student body right. Another thing that was interesting is that at the time I was at Tech Atlanta and Havana were sister cities. That kind of went by the wayside. Not even when Castro came along but after a while. I'm not too sure what happened because I left Tech and I move on to something else and then I'm not too sure what happened. So we had these competitions every year called Havaclanta, Havana and Atlanta, where people from the social clubs in Havana would play sports with the social clubs in Atlanta. So for that reason, there was a relationship there between Cubans and people from Atlanta that was a little bit unusual. And that was very good, and I was able to take advantage of that. I never heard that before. That's a really good, interesting story. And we had these events a couple of years, and then it, I don't know the details why, because I graduated, I moved on, so I don't know why it stopped, but it was quite exactly why I was there. So you actually competed on these, like intermural? No, I didn't compete, I didn't compete because I was already at Tech, and this was the people that were competing, not civilian, but people that were going to the same clubs that I was going when I was in Cuba, but I was not competing in those events anymore, so I didn't know, But, you know, I would go and I'd mix with them and talk, you know, that kind of thing. And it was great. Yeah, that would have been a great question. It was great because it helped us to meet certain people in Atlanta that we wouldn't have met otherwise. Did you have a good social life the first few years you were there? At Georgia Tech? Yeah. You meet lots of people? Yeah, sure, sure. Make good friends? Yeah. Very, very, very many good friends. I still have a number of friends from from Tech that I as a matter of fact my one of my roommates at Tech his name is Alan Pearson was was here in Miami about four days ago and we had dinner together his wife and my wife and the two of us so you stay in touch I've stayed in touch with with a number of okay that's but it's been a long time so you know you kind of but it's a lifetime usually a lifetime commitment those people because that's even though you don't think it at the time maybe it is the best time of your life but for you it was a very accelerated time of your life but you were able after even after the first year to to do academically well well no I did academically I did very well because you must have noticed that the boys from Georgia in the south were not doing as well as you. No, I wouldn't say that. They were not prepared. I wouldn't characterize it that way, but I had an advantage, no question. My high school education was, I think, superior to what most of the kids there experienced. Do you remember anybody on the faculty at all? Do you remember anyone that you would say was a good teacher? Yeah, Mr. Weber. He was the head of the department. But the one I remember the most is Dean Griffith, who was so helpful to me. And Dane Griffin actually helped you out some time. He helped me quite a bit because at the end of my time there, since I had this accelerated approach to the course, at the end I had passed all the subjects, all the important subjects, but I was still short six hours of electives okay so Dean Griffith gave me the opportunity to take some some exams and and I and I got six hours of a Spanish selected which was everything was on the level okay I mean that's something that that happens though so I was able to graduate because of that he He was a wonderful person, Dean Griffin. That's called catching a lucky break. Exactly, exactly. And you did well in your Spanish, no doubt. I did very well. What fun. He really was out for the tech boys. Oh, absolutely. He put himself on the line for them. You were very fortunate to be around some amazing men at that time. Absolutely. Bobby Dodd and Dean Griffin were great. Dean Weber was very good. He was not very well liked, but he was very good. You knew he was a good teacher. It was that beloved, you know, but he was very good. Overall, did you think that the tech education you got was valuable, was worthwhile? Well, I think I owe everything I have accomplished professionally, both to my Jesuit education, Belen School, and Georgia Tech. So that's why in my life as an adult, when I can do certain things to pay back, I've been trying to do my best to help both Belen and Georgia Tech. That's amazing. That's a wonderful way to think. You learned how to solve problems and how to think, and those things help you through life, there's no question. Did you date any girls? Did you get to know any women in Atlanta? You're going to start getting me in trouble. I don't want to get you in trouble. The last year I was at Tech, I was already engaged to my current wife, so you better watch out. You better watch out. I didn't meet any girls out there. That's your story and you're sticking to it, huh? It was very lonely, but okay. Did you meet her in Cuba? Your wife comes from Cuba? My wife comes from Cuba. Oh, okay. Well, we won't go there. We'll stop. You just went to football games and cheered the team on. Exactly, yes. Cheered to go to the movies and do things like that? Sometimes, yes. Well, all right, we'll go around that topic. I'm glad that you thought you got good instructors, that the faculty was... I thought it was great, yeah. And you never strayed from your mechanical engineering? No. You knew that's what you were going to do, and you did it? Yeah, I was. I never practiced as a mechanical engineer in my life, but I'm a mechanical engineer. It's that background, that learning how to think thing, that comes to you. Exactly. Graduation in 1954 was held where? There at Atlanta. At the Fox Theater was it still? No, it was an outdoor ceremony. Your classes were too big by then weren't they? I guess so. Van Leer was the president at that time and I think he retired He passed away two years later. So it was probably one of the graduations they did in Grant Field, because there were so many of you. Yeah, I don't know if it was Grant Field. I remember it was outdoors, yeah. There wouldn't have been anywhere else. My mother went. She came. It was a good experience for her. So she had two Georgia Tech boys. Two Georgia Tech boys, yes. How much of the tradition of Georgia Tech were you aware of? Did you wear a rat hat? Of course, you know, you had to. But I really wasn't that aware of it, you know. It was so different for me, but as it went on and on, I learned to appreciate it, and even now I appreciate it more and more every year. As time goes by. Yeah, absolutely. Did you learn to sing the Rambling Red? Of course. Of course. Okay, those things were given then. Absolutely, yeah. And so you felt somewhat of a bond. Remember, for me it was a tremendous clash of cultures, you know. Oh, yeah. So different. You know, because this business, you know, the Red Cap and all that, I mean those things were, you know. What is this for? But I fell into it and I enjoyed it very much. You joined the Pan American Club. Yes, at one point, yes. We saw that in the yearbook and the Newman Club. Yes. So you did have some groups you could go with and be comfortable with. But I was working pretty hard because every quarter I was at Tech I took the maximum number of hours. So I was really working very hard. So I really did not spend a lot of time in social, you know, I did not, I worked very hard. And behind that, Mr. Estrada, was the need to, for your mother of that birth. I guess I needed to prove myself that I could do things. And help your mother. Like you said, you were very aware. She still had another child at home younger than you. Yes, yes. And so there was a lot of responsibility. Yeah, sure. By the time you graduated in 1954, got out, as we say, you finally got out. What was your thought? Where were you going to go to live and what were you going to do for a living? Well, I went back to Cuba. You knew you were going to do that. Yeah, I went back to Cuba and I went to work in Cuba. And who did you go to work for? Well, I worked for a short time for a company called Carrier Corporation, that's an air conditioning. Yeah, I've heard of them. A refrigeration air conditioning company. But a few months after I was working for them, an opportunity presented itself. to work for Shell Oil Company because Shell Oil Company decided to build an oil refinery in Cuba. So then they selected about 10 young engineers in Cuba and sent them for training in the United States and Holland, no sorry, in England and Holland to learn about oil refining and and i was able to join that program so i was hired by shell and then i spent a couple of years in uh in england and holland a couple of years yes oh that was very extensive training very expensive and and then after that went back to cuba and and had helped with the startup of the refinery and so i worked all together i worked about six years for shell and you were enjoying Well, it was a good experience. Good living. I went to Europe for two years, and then when I came back I got married. I married my sweetheart, you know. Your fiancé. For many years, yeah. Yeah. Why did you leave, Shell? Oh, that's… Tell me the story. Here comes Fidel Castro. What do you know? He showed up, huh? So he showed up, and at that time, most people sympathized with Castro, you know, it was a different situation. Well, you were coming out from under Batista, right? Yes, right, and so I joined the, I left Yale and joined the Cuban Institute of Petroleum and worked for the Cuban Institute of Petroleum for two years, and then after that I decided I was not in favor of what Castro was doing, and that's when I left Cuba. So it was better to leave than to try to change anything? To continue. Well, maybe it would have been wiser to stay, but I guess I took the easy way out and left. So when you left, it was easy to leave? You just packed up and left? At that time, for me it was easy, because I had a very high position in the government, so I could travel without restriction. So I just left like if I was going on government in business and never came back. Did you take your family with you? Yes. At that time I had one kid. So my wife left the day before I left Cuba. Because I was afraid if I left Cuba they would not be allowed to leave. So they left Cuba and went to Jamaica. At that time it was easy to go from Cuba to Jamaica. And then I left the following day and then we reunited in the United States afterwards. Uh-huh, so it was carefully planned. Yes, absolutely, yes. Did you have to leave everything you had behind? Everything, everything. That's not an easy decision to make. Yeah, I was young, you know. A little more reckless. Yeah, well, and I was well prepared for life, you know, because of my education, so I had no problem. Did your family, your mother, and your brothers and sisters? No, my mother stayed behind, and all my brothers and sisters stayed behind. Whoa. but they left gradually over a period of time okay but at the time you left you didn't know I think about the first one in my immediate family to go yes yeah and you settled in Miami I said in I went to Miami and then I went to Houston oh you and I got a job in Houston for this and now famous company, Halle Burton. Oh did you really? Brown and Root. Yeah, that's where you started out? Yes, and I was there, but I was there only a few months because a company called Marathon Oil Company decided to build an oil refinery in Spain. So I wrote them a letter and told them about my background and they hired me to run that project in Spain. So then from Houston, after three or four months in Houston. Then we, I with my family, we went to Spain and stayed in Spain about four years. Wow, that was quite an experience. That was a very interesting project, yes. Very interesting. And the project was over with it four years? Well, four years, yeah, the refinery was built and we started it up. I was the project manager and then the refinery manager. And then we had to train the Spaniards to take over. And when they did, I left and came to the United States. So you had done it for Shell and then And you did it for Marathon. For Marathon, yes. At a higher level. You know, when I was Michelle, I was not the refinery manager. Yeah. But you had the experience. In Marathon, I was the refinery manager. So where did you choose to relocate when you came back the next time? Then I came with Marathon. I left Marathon shortly thereafter. And then I went to work with Mobil Oil. So sticking again with Metrolion. With Mobil Oil, yes. Then I got into petrochemicals, and then I got into petrochemicals and fertilizers and so on. And I worked with another company called Occidental Petroleum. All big-name companies. Yeah, big companies. And then I worked with another company called Baker Industries, smaller company. And then I went on my own. I went on my own when I was about 44 years old. So, like, let's say 77. So, when we say you go on your own, when you say that, do you mean you started your own company? My own company, yes. You decided if you were going to make money, it might as well be for you instead of everybody else, right? I guess so. And then, did you decide it was going to be permanently in the United States then? So you were going to put down some roots here? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Although, let me see, when I was, so I was, because I did work also some time in Brazil, and I worked some time in Canada. And I went to, I went to Brazil with, there was a company in between called Combustion Engineering. I left, let me see, I left Occidental and worked for two years in Brazil for Combustion Engineering. Did you move your children and your wife each time? Yes, yes, we went to Brazil. So they had lovely international experiences then. I would think so, but you know, those things I always question, whether that's good or bad but they have turned out all right now brazil is portuguese not spanish the language yes yes but you know you manage yeah yeah yeah no problem no problem if portuguese and and and spanish are so similar that you can manage you speak spanish well you have to speak spanish well then you understand portuguese and vice versa if you speak spanish well to to people in brazil they understand what you're saying yeah no problem if you try to learn the language it's very difficult because they are so close that you make mistakes. But you speak Spanish and they speak Portuguese and you understand each other. Well, that's good. It worked. Now, when you decided to go on your own, what city did you select for your headquarters? I went to Houston, Texas. You were going to start the business in Houston. Because I had been in Houston a couple of times, you know. With Occidental, I was in Houston. With Brown and Root, I was in Houston. So I liked Houston. It was a good place to do business. So then I went to Houston and started my business there. And what business did you choose? What I did then is I started a trading company to trade in chemicals, mostly fertilizers. Like import-export? Import-export. And then I got together with a couple of friends, and we did one of those leverage buyouts, and we bought a fertilizer plant in the Houston Ship Channel. And we ran that for a number of years. Until we solved it. And then gradually, you started getting into other things. Into other things, yes. Almost anything I could think of, you would have touched it one time or another, right? Yeah, you'll be surprised. I think there's some surprises, yeah. Did all of this diversification, let's call it, going into these different fields, all happened just by accident, or just because of it? I don't know. I think it's exciting. You want to try different things? I want to try different things, and unfortunately I've been successful at some of them, and I have thoroughly failed at some others, you know. Learning a lesson every time. But I think the average has been fairly good. Yeah, that's good, that's good. And you kept your business in Houston until when? I stayed in Houston about five years, something like that, and then I came to Florida. And more or less this has become home. This is your permanent home. I'm going to die here. I'm planning to die here. I hope it will be a long time from now. I'm sure it will be a long time from now. We love Miami. We really like it here in Miami. So you just opened up new offices and started adding things to what you would do. Sure of, yes. You were going to explain to me about magazines, how you got into publishing. I got into publishing because I have a friend who was starting a magazine. and he came to me asking for financial help which I provided and that's how I got involved. You became an investor? Yeah but then as time went on the other investors lost interest in the publication and wanted to sell so I went ahead and bought everybody else then I became the sole owner of the magazine, and I kind of enjoyed the work. Actually, this October, it will be 20 years, it will be the 20th anniversary since I started that magazine, yes. That's pretty amazing. Now, it's both in English and in Spanish. In Spanish, yes. We started it as an English magazine only, English. For Hispanics, but in English. But then, as we went on, we decided that it would be a good idea to have it bilingual for a number of reasons and it became bilingual about ten years ago ten twelve years ago. And it's proved to be the right decision because it has very large readership. I think so, it has a very large readership, yes. We have about three and a half million people who read Hispanic every month, sorry Vista every month. So this is a monthly magazine. It's a monthly magazine. But it's not your only publication. I had another publication called Hispanic, but I sold it recently. How come when I put you into Google, it comes back Mother Jones? Sorry, I don't understand. Does that ring a bell? Well, we looked on the internet to see what your background, and it says you publish Mother Jones magazine? That's a mistake. That's a mistake. I never heard of it. You thought that was kind of funny. Yeah. So is Vista the only magazine you produce then? Right now. Right now. The other one you sold on? You don't say produce in this business. Publish, okay. What are some of the other things you're into besides the obvious magazines? Right now that's the only business I have in the United States. I've had other businesses but not anymore, okay? I think you'll be interested in knowing that for many years I had a company that specializes in Indian gaming. Have you heard of Indian gaming? Have you heard of all these casinos, you know, that the Indians own. Oh, that kind of gaming. Yes. I was thinking of Bang Bang Guns. We almost started that, I guess we started that in Florida. The Native American casinos. With the Seminole tribe of Florida, yes. No, the Seminole had one, but then we got into another. So I did that for about 20 years. It was a very interesting business, you know, and I got to know the Seminole pretty good because of certain experiences. So you were investing in that. So I was investing in that and that was a wonderful experience working with the Seminoles so many years. We don't do that anymore. So right now I have the magazines and then I have some businesses in Puerto Rico. I'm in the banking business and construction in Puerto Rico and then in Mexico where my business is connected with providing compressed natural gas for the automotive industry, as a fuel for the automotive industry. And those are the things I do. Very diverse. Yeah, very diverse. Very diverse, yes. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but, you know. But it works, if that's what it takes. She just probably shakes her head now, huh? Absolutely, absolutely. But she's been, we've been married 46 years. Yeah, that's a miracle. She's not going to question, I'm sure. Well, she questions, but, you know. You get a kick out of doing different things. Absolutely, yes. You don't want to keep doing it? You get bored quickly? Not really. Not really. But you're just willing to take a chance. Yeah, absolutely, yes. Absolutely. Willing to risk, so to say. Absolutely, yes. Yes. Yes. You travel a lot between Mexico, Puerto Rico, and here, right? Exactly, yes. You fly? Yes. Back and forth all the time? I have my own aircraft, yeah, so I can fly comfortably. So you don't have to... To hustle with the airports. And hassle is the word, isn't it? That's absolutely the word, yes. So you do fly out of Miami or out of Fort Lauderdale? Miami. Miami. Opaloka. Opaloka? Yes. Okay. So that means it's very convenient for you. Very convenient. When you have to take a quick trip down to Mexico, it really can be a quick trip. Absolutely, yes. Yeah. But you don't go there to live at all. That's just all your workspaces. No, no, no. I go to Puerto Rico once or twice a month and to Mexico at least once a month. Just to keep track of what's going on. But then I travel also in the United States because I have offices because of the magazine. We have offices in other places. We have offices in New York, we have offices in California, we have offices in representatives in different places. So I move around quite a bit. Can't hit a moving target, can you? Absolutely. I have this feeling you're- Ask the IRS. You are very high energy, so if they know you're blowing into town, everybody's jumping. Not really. Not really. How many people work for you? All together, I don't know, maybe a hundred people, no more than that, about two hundred people. When I take Mexico and Puerto Rico and here and all that. That's a lot of people to be responsible for. Yeah, but I deal with them. I deal with just eight or ten people, yes. So you empower people to do the thing. That's the only way to do what I do, yes. You have to learn how to delegate. Right, yeah. Otherwise you really would be crazy. Exactly. Right? Exactly. We've discovered as we've toured around this area and interviewed people that most people are crazy for boating. No. Are you a boating person? No, I'm not. You're an airplane person. You're flying. I'm an airplane person. You've got time to pull around with a boat. Yes, yes. You are very interested in traveling, you must travel anyways, but do you do vacation travel too? Absolutely, yes. So you try to see the world? I don't want to see the world anymore, I've seen enough of the world. I'd like to travel to Spain, Italy, England, Ireland, places like that. I don't go anymore to China or to Thailand or Africa, places like that. I just like to take vacation trips to truly enjoyable places. You mentioned to me that you're very fond of skiing. Yes. Which is a very rigorous sport to take out. Well, not the way I ski, it used to be. It used to be rigorous, it's not anymore. For many years we had a place at Beaver Creek in Colorado. Ah, in Colorado. It so happens that I sold it like three or four months ago. because I don't think I'm going, I will not go so often anymore. Maybe I go now once a year. So there's no sense in maintaining it. I used to go like four or five times a year. It's a very rigorous activity. Yeah, it's a wonderful activity. Tell me a little bit about your family. Well, I have a wonderful wife of 46 years, you know. You cultivated and talked into marrying you in Cuba. Absolutely. Did you get married in Cuba? Yeah, I got married in Cuba, yes. Yes, sure, sure. And I met her when she was about four years old. Lifetime friendship. She went to school with one of my sisters, you know. So her family knew your family. Yeah, absolutely, for a long time. And then finally we discovered each other and we got married. Wonderful. And as I say, we've been married 46 years. And so I have three kids, you know, three wonderful kids. We're very happy with them. Tell me about your children. I say my oldest son. I have one boy and two girls. My oldest son, he works with me here in the magazines. He's a writer. He just published a book, Welcome to Havana, Mr. Hemingway, which is now making the rounds in Barnes & Noble. Yeah, I actually have heard that title, that it's a new book that's called. And he's writing another book and so on, but he works here in charge of this magazine, because I don't spend time personally on the magazine, very little, just the financial side and all that. So this is his primary occupation. Where did he go to school? He went to Harvard, Harvard undergraduate, and then he became a lawyer at UT, and he practiced law for a few years and then he didn't like it too much and then he came to As a writer, as a writer I run this. Yeah, there's a magazine and then he kind of writes on the side. He's very well educated, that's for sure. Absolutely, yes, absolutely. And then I have a daughter who lives in Gainesville right now. They're moving to Orlando in two or three months. She's also well educated. She has an MBA from Cornell, but then she was a go-ho businesswoman and then she had two kids and retired from business. So now her husband is an attorney, and they're going to live in Orlando. Which is closer. Yeah, which is closer. You'll see them much more. And then I have a daughter who's single who lives here in Miami. And that would be Anna. Anna. And she's involved in art. She's now going to the university and getting her degree in fine arts. A master's in museum studies. Oh, how interesting. Yeah. She's going to the University of Miami? She's going to the University of Miami, but now she's switched into a new course, being offered at the FIU. Oh, that's wonderful. Is she an artist herself? She was. She was a painter and she's a very good writer. You have a family of good writers. Yeah, I guess so, yes. That's really remarkable. You have been blessed. Thank you very much, yes, I have been. I certainly have been. I read somewhere that you were quoted as saying that if you you have all your priorities straight, putting your family first, that life has a way of working out for you. So you have always put your family first. Always, always. I hear when you're talking about traveling that you second-guess yourself, but I think you... What do you mean second-guess myself? Well, you're saying, well, maybe I did the right thing moving them to different countries. Oh, no, no, no. I didn't say traveling. I mean, when I worked at all these different places... because there are two theories about that you know that when you do that your kids are better prepared for what life is all about these days i think but at the same time there are a lot of stresses you know associated with moving around and you never know really how it's going to work out for each different kid you know that's true but overall if you think about the people that you know that lived in one place their entire life and didn't have anything new they're usually pretty dull people. But the ones that have had to make adjustments and changes are usually pretty interesting people. But no one knows the real answer. I don't think there is a real answer. It depends on the individual and the experiences which the individual has when those things happen. But they're all bilingual. They're all flexible. They know how to adapt to situations. Absolutely. And those are real gifts to give somebody in life because unfortunately life is all about happenstance and unusual. How many people now can, you know, be born in one place and grow there, you know, it's very, very few. So now you have to really be willing and learn how to adapt and if you don't accomplish that, you're in trouble. How many grandchildren altogether? Four. Four. Good number. I don't want to have 20 grandchildren. Too many names to remember? Too complicated. Four is complicated enough. Two Sofia and two Alfredo. And the other one doesn't have any kids. Well, that's, like you say, a gracious funny. And they're close to you enough that you get to see them and spend time with them. We see them all the time, yes. It's no secret that you have a great affection for Georgia Tech. You have remembered where you came from and what you learned there. that philosophy of giving back from where you came from is a strong philosophy for you it is, absolutely it's very important from the institutions that get your support that you do that I'm hoping that in the future, many years from now when someone listens to this they'll understand that a wise man named Fred Estrada learned the value of giving back I hope so I don't know about the wise man but I hope they listen to that Your best reasons for going to Georgia Tech, you never changed your mind about it. It was the right place. As I said, it was almost in place. Once I decided to go to engineering school, and then I was going in the United States, because in Cuba at that time, they did not have mechanical engineering. At the university in Cuba, all they had was civil engineering and electrical engineering and architecture. And I wasn't interested in either one of them. So, so then I had to go outside Cuba and then Georgia Tech was so, such a national for me because of what my brother did that I didn't even look at another university. Yeah. And it was probably good that you left Cuba and came to university. Well, now based on what happened afterwards, it was wonderful because when I left Cuba But I never had any problems because I had an education from a good engineering school in the United States. I knew the language, so it was very easy to learn. Have you ever been back? I was back once, once, and I didn't enjoy it, and as a matter of fact, I was going back for a week and I left after three days. Was it because things had changed so much? I couldn't take it. Yeah, things had changed so much. Very sad. I didn't come from the way I was sad, and so I left in three days. and who would have ever thought he was going to last this long absolutely he's changed the whole country yeah yeah so different subject different subject yeah entirely well mr astrada i this has been a very fast-paced interview um i i i can't thank you enough for taking time out of a very busy day i know you didn't expect to spend more than a few minutes doing this but we've managed to get you long enough to hear your story thank you so very much thank you very much okay all right that's great okay i feel like i feel like you're a tight spring and you're just waiting to go to