Viernes Santo

14 Cuban Refugees Arrive at the Dry Tortugas
by Julio C. Zangroniz

Last Wednesday morning, March 23, just as the sun began to crawl over the horizon and light up the Dry Tortugas –the tiny group of Florida islands about 70 miles west of Key West— those placid grounds normally occupied by campers and vacationers became alive with excitement.

Did you see them… did you see the Cubans? nearly yelled one camper to another as he ran from camp to camp.

A group of 14 Cuban refugees, 13 men and one woman, had walked quietly into the grounds surrounding historic Fort Jefferson, then sat meekly at a picnic table, just as if they were just another group of tourists exploring the remote outpost.

Only four days before, on Saturday, another group totaling about a dozen Cubans seeking freedom had landed there. The second group, confirmed one of the rangers later, puts the number of Cuban refugees arriving at the Dry Tortugas at close to 250. Last year, some 450 made it to freedom there.

The park volunteer ran to notify one of the rangers, a female, who ordered someone to bring a couple of jugs of water and a stack of Styrofoam cups to distribute the precious liquid to the eager customers.

When the ranger noticed a visiting journalist snapping photographs of the group, she came over to warn him about “park regulations concerning the commercial use of photographs taken here.” The journalist assured her that he was visiting the fort at the express invitation of the top representatives of the National Park Service there, and that he would make sure to comply with any and all regulations. But in the meantime, he asserted that he would continue to fulfill his journalistic duties.

Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos, the journalist told the group, choking back some tears. Had there not been a park ranger closely watching the situation, it’s easy to see how there would have been a lot of hugging. It’s a Cuban thing, you know.

The journalist pointed out to the ranger: “It looks like you need help to communicate with these people.” That would be wonderful, she agreed, because none of the refugees spoke English, or maybe didn’t want to admit to it, and none of the park personnel spoke Spanish –hard to believe, considering that it is one of the closest points in the United States closest to Cuba, even closer than Key West.

The ranger wanted to know when the group had left Cuba. Sunday at midnight, a few of them replied, almost in unison.

Did they have a boat? Yes, they said. It was on the opposite shore of Long Key, where they ran aground, only a few hundred yards from the front gate of the historic brick building known as Fort Jefferson.

Did their boat have a motor? Again, yes. One of the members of the group elaborated: “The motor broke down when we were about 24 miles from Cuba, so we had to row for a while. Then we got it to work again, but it broke down a second time and we had to finish the trip by manning the oars.”

Where did they leave from, asked the ranger. We left from Playa Herradura, near the port of Mariel.

And they had landed on U.S. soil on Wednesday at about 6 AM, after nearly 54 hours at sea.

The group said they hadn’t eaten since they left Cuba, and of course they were tremendously thirsty, as evidenced by the way they approached the two jugs of water sitting on the picnic table in front of them. Though the rangers could provide drinking water, they had little else to offer the men and the one woman, who one of the members of the group called “our lucky charm.”

A few minutes later, the ranger warned some bystanders who had come from the camping area that some armed park rangers would arrive soon, to try keep the group of refugees under control, as well as to carry out an individual search, for weapons or drugs.

In reality, there was little chance the members of the group --who sat peacefully at two picnic tables—could hide anything, because most of them wore only swimming trunks or underwear. When they got out of their boat, one said, they had removed their clothes because they were contamined with diesel fuel. Only three of the new arrivals had anything that covered their upper body: the lone woman, a 21 year old, had a dress; one of them men had a dark blue windbreaker and a third one sported a yellow and black sleeveless t-shirt.
Others had lycra bathing suits and none had shoes. If they did, all footwear must have been abandoned with the boat. At least one of the men had a red baseball cap, another one a Miami Dolphins cap, and a third one had brought along a greenish ski cap. None of the refugees had a complete change of clothes.

When the two armed guards arrived at the picnic table, one stood about 10 yards away, holding an M-16 rifle, which he mercifully kept pointed at the ground. The second guard handed a single-barreled shotgun to another park employee and put on rubber gloves.

“Ask them to stand up one at a time and to go over to the officer near the table,” requested the guard with the gun. The refugees did so and each was patted down. The process went rather quickly, because there was hardly any hiding places, though it took some time to open up some of the small pouches most of the Cubans had brought with them. Most of the little containers held some cash –U.S. dollars, not Cuban currency—and a few had religious items. Two men admitted to have lost all their documents during the crossing.

One of the members of the group, Narciso Orioso Montalvo, 40, told the news reporter to inform the park ranger searching him that he had “some religious items” in his small pouch, which he had sewn shut to protect it while at sea. His prized possession: a small necklace of seashells. Another member of the group wore about half a dozen beaded necklaces, all very colorful, indicative of his Santeria beliefs.

Once the search was completed, the 14 were instructed to form a single line and to follow the guard with the shotgun into the fort. They did so and they were led into a small room in the innards of the huge brick fortress, where there was a bed, a sofa, a small table and some plastic chairs. Additional chairs were brought in so everyone could have a place to sit.

The one guard remaining in the room pointed to a closed door and said: “This is a bathroom, which you can use at any time.” Almost immediately, one of the men jumped up and virtually ran into the room. “I’m going to take a shower right now,” he declared, laughing. When the guard heard a translation of the comment, he told the translator to knock on the door and instruct the man NOT to take a shower, because fresh water is strictly limited in the fort –they only have whatever rain water they can catch and store in some underground cisterns, as well as a smaller amount made by a desalinization process. The Cuban, regretfully, sheepishly stepped away from the shower.

A number of the refugees asked that the ceiling fan be turned down, or off altogether, because they were getting extremely cold, so it was done. Soon after, yet another park ranger showed up with a huge box of clothes. Tell them these are for them, so they can feel more protected.

The group practically tore the box apart and soon each one was totally outfitted.
The members of the group of Cubans are as follows:

--Elida Bello Peraza, 21
--Lenier Corcho Perez, 21
--Moikel Corcho Perez, 21
--Adonis Danier Diaz Valdez, 27
--Jordan Perez Tirado, 21
--Giorlis Rodriguez Guzman, 29
--Driser Chirino Alonzo, 27
--Abel Martinez Martinez, 27
--Carlos Alberto Betancour Hernandez, 35
--Juan Carlos Garcia Delboys, 41
--Evaristo Martinez Bremer, 36
--Leonardo Torrez Pimienta, 39
--Narsiso Ariosa Gonzalez, 40
--Richar Valdez Rodriguez, 25

The park supervisor said that the Coast Guard had been notified already. The usual procedure is for the Guard to send a ship from Key West and transport any refugees back to the Keys, where they are processed and then forwarded to the refugee camp at Krome Avenue, in South Florida.

The NPS must, given its limited resources, move any refugees out of their facilities, so the new arrivals won’t impede with the normal activities of the park –particularly one with such limited facilities like the Dry Tortugas National Park.

The NPS efforts did not go unnoticed by the refugees. “Tell them we thank them for everything they did for us,” one of the men said to the reporter-translator.

On Wednesday, however, the Coast Guard did not have a boat available. Instead, the agency sent two armed escorts, who with a third armed park ranger, took the 13 men and one woman to Key West on a special boat that usually makes the crossing from the Dry Tortugas twice a week for the National Park Service.

As the ship left the dock, one of the refugees, peeking from the lower rear edge of the blue tarp rigged to protect them from the sun during the three-hour crossing, gave the reporter and those at the dock the thumbs up sign.

Welcome to America. Que país!

**Babalu Blog Exclusive. Must credit Babalu Blog**

(Ed.: Editorial forthcoming. You won't be disappointed.)

Posted by Val Prieto at March 25, 2005 07:42 PM

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