Exile shrine sparks plan for Tower

By Paola Iuspa
   Freedom Tower's owners have revealed final details for a museum that will pay tribute to exiles and be housed in the 75-year-old, 17-story building, which has sat vacant off Biscayne Boulevard for years.
   Scheduled to open in May 2002, the building's main floor will be dedicated to the trials faced by all political exiles — not just Cubans — Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, said on Monday.
   "We want," he said, "the person who visits the museum to learn of the hardships political exiles have to go through, no matter where they come from.
   "I will never forget how I felt the first time I walked into a Holocaust museum," Mr. Mas Santos said. "It will touch people's emotions and make them proud of being who they are and where they come from."
   The museum is one part of Freedom Tower's ongoing $20 million restoration plan. Offices of the Cuban American National and Freedom Tower foundations will move into the tower by May.
   The museum also will have a library and research area with scholars to assist with research or interpreting historic documents, Mr. Mas Santos said.
   He said the museum would maintain a list with names of families who had passed through the tower during the 1960s, when the US government used it as a service center to process refugees arriving from Cuba.
   Mr. Mas Santos said finding the money for the museum hasn't been difficult and he thinks it will get easier as the project becomes more tangible to residents.
   "We have gotten a lot of help from the Jewish community and historic sites preservation groups," he said. "They helped not only with money, but with recommendations and guidance."
   He said artifacts for the museum are welcome.
Details: Ashley Salvador, (305) 406-1833.
Freedom Tower almost ready for foundation offices to move,(details on next story)