Felix Sabates - Early Life

Early Life

Sabates, was the oldest of seven, three boys and four girls. As a youth and growing up in Cuba before Fidel Castro's regime conquered the Island, Felix remembers his fortunate and blessed lifestyle. Sabates' hard-working and prosperous Cuban parents had established great wealth and prestige through wise investing and a variety of businesses which carried their family name. The successful business included Sabates import and export, Sabates jewelry and Sabates optical stores, Sabates insurance, sugar, cattle, service stations and pharmacies. Suddenly, at the age of 15, everything changed when Fidel Castro and his guerillas seized government control, establishing a communist dictatorship still in existence today. The family businesses were seized by the government and they lost all of their personal possessions to the hands of Fidel Castro. After being stripped of their wealth and faced with the struggles of Communism, the Sabates family migrated to the United States. The effects of Castro's new imposed laws, the family strategically and intelligently escaped the Castro regime at different times. At age 15, Felix was the first member of the family to enter The United States. Soon after his arrival; he was reunited by his mother and six young brothers and sisters.

Forbidden to leave the country, it was many years later before Dr. Sabates Sr. was allowed to join his exiled family in America. Responsibility to help support his mother and siblings fell on the shoulders of Sabates. Upon their arrival to Boston, where the family originally settled, Felix found work at the local hospital washing pots and pans, and later in Columbia, Missouri, again working in a hospital. An American-based Catholic charity, active throughout Cuba before and after the Castro takeover, established Lexington, North Carolina as a resettlement site for thousands of refugees who fled the new regime. The Sabates' were among the new arrivals to that city.

In Lexington, Felix began working 12-hour shifts in a furniture factory, sanding furniture to help support the family. Four years later he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and began working at National Car Rental as a parking lot attendant and washing cars at the Charlotte Airport. While washing cars and starting a family, Felix kept his eyes open for opportunities to better himself and provide for his growing family. Seeing such an opportunity, Felix creatively persuaded the local City Chevrolet car dealership to give him a shot at selling cars. Although the dealership was not hiring, Sabates offered to work for free on the condition that if he out sells the other salesman within a month, that he would be compensated and offered a permanent sales position. Sabates was successful with record car sales. When a local newspaper article had recounted this story about the top salesman, it caught the eye of a local businessman who proceeded to offer him a different sales position with potential growth as a manufacturer's representative.