Babalu Blog

Gracias America!

About ten or so years ago, I had a distant family member come to Miami from Cuba for one of those 3 month humanitarian visas the Cuban government was allowing at the time. (I did not remember her as I left Cuba as a baby and she was a very distant cousin of my mother's.) At the time she came I believe she was about 60 or so, thin, leathery face, raspy voice, yet still had that guitar shaped body we Cuban men appreciate. A nice woman really.

She was staying with an aunt, but the family had gotten together at my parent's for a reunion of sorts. I remember they were all talking about Cuba and her way of life and how great it was here and how she should just stay and why didn't she stay and how come her children didnt want to come and she should just stay and its so much better here and how can you live under that tyrant and so on. She was visibly taken aback, somewhat terse in her responses. She was uncomfortable.

My mother asked me to go to the store for something or other and, noticing that this woman was introverting more and more I asked her is she wanted to come with me.
"Ay, si, " she said. "Un paseito me viene bien."
I drove us to the nearest Publix, the largest supermarket chain here, in almost complete silence. I parked, turned off the car, got out and opened the door for her.

The automatic sliding doors kind of surprised her, she laughed and called herself a guajira. As we slowly walked into the store, she looked awestruck. Lost in disbelief. Disoriented. I held her hand, walked her slowly to the dairy aisle and, right there, at the start of the aisle, with all the milks and cheeses and snacks lining both sides she just broke down, fell to her knees and burst into tears. She could not have imagined the shear magnitude of what she was seeing.
"Y todo esto lo pueden comprar?" she asked.
"Yes. We can buy any of this."

At that precise moment I realized just how much we take for granted. How the mere fact that we have certain things at our disposal every day tends to makes us forget the privilege it is to actually have them. So, tomorrow, the 4th of July, take a few moments to appreciate the true meaning of things, not just that we can go to the store and pick up whatever we want at any given time, but that Americans before us have sacrificed, toiled, fought and died so that we would be able to do so.

And, if my trite little story isn't enough, read this.