Romero Rodriguez read tha the United States is the land of human exploitation in his junior high school textbooks in Cuba.

He heard Castro swear that the United States is "the worst country in the world to live in."

And yet several months ago, lack of food and oppression by Castro's regime drove the energetic 30-year-old floor-waxer to leave his wife, mother and daughter in Cuba and come to the United States in search of something better.

Life in the United States has not been easy, even for a man who was drafted into military service after the eighth grade, but Rodriguez says the freedom "is like being reborn. I can walk around or stand on the street for half an hour and no one will bother me. In Cuba, the police would."

"My most vivid memory," Rodriguez recalls--and his large, brown eyes flash--"is the concentration camp they brought us to for 72 hours before we got on the boat--thousands of people sleeping on rocks with no food. We were beaten and mistreated by police and police dogs."

"Propaganda is Castro's greatest weapon," Rodriguez states. "He uses it to discourage us from leaving. He told us that minorities have no rights here and said the CIA keeps tabs on all leftists."

He estimates that only one quarter of the 8 million persons in Cuba are pro-Castro.

Rodriguez is eager to find a job--any kind--and bring his family to the U.S. so they can "enjoy the rights all humans are entitled to."

"I have written them three letters," Rodriguez says, clenching his fist nervously. "But I've received no answers and I wonder if my letters reached them."

Rodriguez paid 300 Cuban dollars for fraudulent papers to leave the country with 41 political prisoners, common prisoners and dissidents.

His half-sister, who lives in Miami had written him saying that he "would not be rich" but that if he were "willing to work and to struggle," he could live without persecution in this country.

Rodriguez exercised his new freedom when he left his half-sister's home in Miami because he felt like a burden to the large family.

After 45 days in a refugee camp in Indian Town Gap, Pa., and a short visit to Miami, Rodriguez came to Chelsea on September 31, with 52 other Cuban refugees, mostly from Tent City.

Sheltered by his relatives in Miami and the World Relief Corporation in Boston, Rodriguez, who speaks no English says that he feels limited and that he "doesn't know what it's like to be independent here yet."

Rodriguez adds that the church in Roxbury where he moved last Monday with 26 other refugees is the best place he has ever lived.

The church, a converted dormitory, comfortably houses the men who quietly wander in and out, exploring Roxbury and following the daily job development program sponsored by the World Relief Corporation. The building sleeps six in a bedroom, with a bed for each man, spacious bath facilities, large recreation room and heating.

Rodriguez learned a little about Boston in Cuba. "In school," he says excitedly, "they taught us that Boston is the oldest city in the United States. And that the best pronunciation of the English language is in Boston."