Unshakable — Lincoln Díaz-Balart’s life of challenge, triumph and unwavering service

Lincoln Díaz-Balart (1954-2025) led a unique life.

Readers of his newly published memoir, “Sketches from A Life,” will probably find it difficult to place him and his politics (he was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011) within the confines of a clearly defined, predetermined ideological box. Part of this is, without question, attributable to his upbringing and family history, and the exceedingly unique circumstances of his life.

When he was just 4 years old, an event took place that would shape the rest of his life.

Lincoln was in Paris with his parents (my grandparents) and his older brother. Lincoln’s father, Rafael, had traveled to France in late December of 1958 with his young family and his law partner to finalize an important business deal. That deal, were it to come to fruition, would have been a boon to Cuba’s economy.

Rafael had reason to be optimistic as they enjoyed a few days in the French capital. At 32 years old, he had just completed four successful years as Majority Leader of the Cuban House of Representatives. The month prior, he had become the youngest person elected to the Cuban Senate that year. Rafael and his family were received warmly by French officials. His future was bright and extremely promising. Cuba was experiencing significant problems at the time; there can be no doubt. But peaceful, political solutions were within reach, and Rafael – the master negotiator and committed Democrat – was certain to play a key role in charting Cuba’s future.

And then, in an instant, it was all gone.

On the morning of Jan. 1, 1959, my grandparents received word that the unthinkable had occurred. Fulgencio Batista had abandoned Cuba, effectively handing the country over to the ruthless dictator-to-be, Fidel Castro. In an instant, my grandfather became a man without a country for him and his family to call home. Castro’s thugs murdered friends and members of our family, and burned our family home in Havana.

Rafael knew what a future under Castro meant for the Cuban people. They used to be, after all, close friends, and even family by marriage. Rafael knew that his former brother-in-law was a violent psychopath like no one else who had ever governed Cuba, and that Castro would never relinquish power. Rafael understood, right away, that his beloved homeland was lost and doomed to destruction.

Adding to the gravity of the situation, Rafael was virtually alone in this understanding. At that moment, and for the months and years to follow, practically the entire world applauded Castro’s ascension. One can only imagine the solitude and the sorrow.

But then Rafael did what so many heroic Cubans have done throughout the 66 years of brutal tyranny that has plagued Cuba: He began to fight. In January 1959, he moved his family to New York City, convinced that the fight against Castro needed to come from the world’s most important city. There, on Jan. 28, 1959, he founded the first-ever anti-Castro organization: The White Rose.

In the years that followed, rebuilding a life in exile led my grandfather to move his family around so often that Lincoln would attend five different schools during his seventh and eighth grade years alone. Lincoln met my mom in high school at the American School of Madrid, attended the small liberal arts university, New College, in Sarasota (where he was the only Cuban American student and was elected Student Body President), and studied law at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. A college semester studying at Cambridge University profoundly impacted him. Finally, he moved to Miami in 1979 to begin his professional and political career.

Despite his unorthodox upbringing, Lincoln developed something along the way: a profound love for the United States of America.

My father, Lincoln (and, years later, his brother Mario), inherited the torch of service and dedication to democratic principles from their father. Together, the two brothers have carried that torch, fighting to strengthen and protect the United States while also keeping alive Cuba’s right to be free. For eight years, they represented adjacent districts in Congress and collectively have served more than 40 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The events of Jan. 1, 1959, are among countless impactful moments that shaped Lincoln Díaz-Balart. He had a front-row seat to momentous events and characters in history (in 1965, for example, at 10 years old, he met The Beatles in a hotel lobby in Madrid). The result was a truly unique individual and public servant, one to whom traditional political labels have never applied.

Throughout Lincoln’s 18 years in Congress, if you just read about his work in the English-language press, you would have been convinced that he was a “far-right” hard-liner and zealot. Then again, we’re talking about the author of NACARA (1997), the most sweeping immigration legislation passed by the U.S. Congress since 1986. In 1998, together with his colleagues Carrie Meek and Alcee Hastings, Lincoln co-sponsored legislation that gave similar protections to our Haitian neighbors.

His admiration for Ronald Reagan led him to become a Republican in 1985, and he was without question a loyal member of the GOP. But his unique sensibilities also led him – as a freshman Congressman, no less – to refuse to sign his friend Newt Gingrich’s historic Contract with America in 1994 because of a provision that discriminated against legal immigrants in the U.S. (Lincoln had the provision overturned through legislation in 1997).

He was unshakable in his commitment to human rights and steadfast in his opposition to tyrannies worldwide, especially those in our hemisphere. Sanctions against the Cuban dictatorship are enshrined in U.S. law. They can be lifted only after all political prisoners are released and a transition to democracy has taken place, because of his tireless work. While in Congress, he was, without question, Fidel Castro’s most formidable foreign policy foe.

He was also a stalwart supporter of the American worker, one of the few House Republicans to vote against GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).

One of his proudest and most lasting contributions was founding the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI) in 2003 together with his brother Mario and his dear friend, former Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The nonprofit continues to thrive as one of the few remaining truly bipartisan organizations in Washington and has presented hundreds of young U.S. Hispanics with often life-changing fellowships.

Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Lincoln’s treasure, and his heart, was in service of others.

The sum of all these unique parts, and many more (as you’ll find in this book), was Lincoln Díaz-Balart.

I thank God every day for the honor of having been his son.