Ovidiu Colea: A Refugee From Communism Who America Welcomed

The controversy over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) sending victims of Venezuela’s left-wing dictatorship to Martha’s Vineyard brings to mind a time when U.S. elected officials welcomed victims of communist regimes. Ovidiu Colea, born in Romania, which turned communist and totalitarian after World War II, came to America in search of freedom and was welcomed. Those denied freedom often cherish it the most. “I grew up with that missing spirit of liberty and freedom,” said Ovidiu Colea in Congressional testimony (Senate Judiciary Committee, April 15, 1997). “I spent time together with my father night after night and year after year enjoying the only liberty. For 30 minutes each night, we got together in the house with the lights turned off and listened to our only hope, two radio stations, Voice of America and Free Europe. This was the only freedom we could afford.” (Note: I met Mr. Colea when I worked on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.) After Colea turned 18, he tried to leave Romania and make it to the United States. “In the summer of 1958, I decided to cross the border to swim over the Danube River,” said Colea. “I hid myself in the cornfields for many hours near the river, waiting for the night. When I felt the cold metal of the guard’s gun pointing at my head, at that moment, my way to freedom and liberty was closed.” PROMOTED Colea was arrested and sent to a prison labor camp. His crime? “I wanted to be free, to have liberty and to reach America. Five years of starvation, physical punishment, long hours of labor in hot and cold weather, sleeping on the floor, eating the roots of the plants and digging for growing seeds in the soil and being punished for trying to learn a foreign language. None of this changed my determination of trying to come to America.” Another 15 years passed, and with help from the U.S. government, Colea secured a visa to leave Romania. “When I came to the United States, I was penniless, but this country gave me hope.” In an interview for a documentary on Romanian immigrants, he described the first sight he saw in America and his father’s words to him as a child. “He told me the story of the Statue, what it represented [and] . . . since I was a child I started to wish to go and see the Statue of Liberty,” he said. “So, I had to wait for a further 15 years [after prison] before I could fly away. I was on a plane with New York as my destination. What most impressed me during the flight was from the plane I saw the Statue of Liberty, my great wish since I was a child.” MORE FOR YOU 5 Cognitive Biases Blocking Your Success Preparing To Go Public: An Overview Of The IPO Process Immigrants Hope Registry Saves Immigration Bill Shortly after arriving in the United States, he worked three jobs, including in a casting factory and driving a New York City taxicab. After getting laid off from one job, he entered into a partnership to start a foundry company. The company’s big break came in 1982 when it won a contract to create commemorative replicas for the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1986, a more significant break came when his company received a license from the Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to create replicas of the Statue of Liberty. Moneyball 20 Years Later: A Progress Report On Data And Analytics In Professional Sports Colea received a patent for new techniques for acrylic sculptures, and by 1989, he started another company, Colbar Art Inc., which started with five workers and grew to 30 employees. At its peak, the company produced hundreds of thousands of replicas of the Statue of Liberty each year. Colea is now retired. At the Congressional hearing, Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) asked, “What does it mean to you to be an American?” Ovidiu Colea responded, “It is something which we cannot put a price on. It is something more than any other country in the world can have—freedom, liberty and the voice of the entire world. We can do that if we are together, and we can help ourselves, and we can help somebody else.” Colea added, “I am proud to be an American.” For more information, visit us at http://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/index.html.