July 11, 2005
This is a true story (UPDATED)
Imagine you are an engineer. A talented one. You live in a country (that happens to be an island) where the opportunities for your particular skill are, if not uncommon, limited and controlled by the type of government that runs the country.
You are very tired of life on the island, tired of the lack of basic foods, the lack of electricity, the lack of transportation, the lack of freedom. You are desperate to leave, as are so many, many others. You want to prove to yourself that you can live a normal life, working, being a professional. Something impossible in your country. You see people in your neighborhood creating crude flotation devices and leaving by sea. You don’t know whether they made it or not, but the hope you get from witnessing those departures impels you to leave the island.
With one mode of escape available to you (and as a talented engineer) you and a friend decide to design and build a boat, a boat big enough to take you, your father, and your friend to freedom. The boat will be a sailboat, with oars, of course, and you and your friend think and ponder about it until it's decided that the best solution is a design based on a catamaran hull. The boat is finally built from the design, and in the end, the three of you -- plus another friend who at the last minute decided to join the crew since you needed a fourth oarsman -- place the craft in the water, row away from shore, and leave your country behind you, and into the unknown waters of your future.
Oh, and by the way, imagine as well that you are a paraplegic, the result of an industrial accident many years before. You can't use your legs because you are paralyzed from the waist down.
Imagine all that.
The story we will be serializing on Babalú Blog over the coming weeks is just such a story. It is the story of this engineer who risked his life to leave the island of Cuba. I will not publish his real name and I will alter some details since he still fears for reprisals against family members he still has in Cuba. After I told Val the story, he, with his usual generosity and graciousness, told me to try to convince my friend to publish it.
I met him in the early winter of 2001, when I had just started a new job, in those dark and depressing days after September 11, when the world seemed turned on its head. By that time my friend had been in the US for about six years and had completed his Master's Degree in Engineering at a local university. In the course of getting to know the people in the office he casually told me of his journey and showed me photos of his departure from Cuba. The others in the office had already heard this, of course, but listening to it for the first time, I was to say the least, astounded. In the same circumstance, I cannot imagine summoning up the kind of courage it took to make that journey.
My friends, there are people you meet in the course of life that change the way you think about issues. When you hear a tale such as this you can never think about Cuba the same ever again. It's not that you didn't hold certain beliefs before; it's just that a story like this one crystallizes the mind in such a way that that a return to apathy is impossible.
I've heard many stories about the flight from Cuba to escape the evil regime of fidel castro. Having grown up in Miami surrounded by family and friends of the Diaspora of the 1960s, I would hear the harrowing stories: stowaways, Operation Pedro Pan, the endless waiting for the freedom flights that brought desperate family members to Miami, prison sentences, fusilamientos, reunions, and in some cases, resignation at the prospect of a painful loss. I've heard them all.
In the last decade or so, we started hearing the stories of the balseros, brave souls who were willing to risk everything to escape Cuba by braving the open waters between Cuba an Florida. These are the Cuban equivalents of the Vietnamese boat people who also fled over an ocean to escape Communism and of all those who tried to climb over an evil wall in Berlin. Four brave, young American men lost their lives in 1996 trying to help rescue any balseros they might find floating in the Florida straits when Cuban Air Force jets shot down their unarmed Cessnas in international waters. These amazing stories culminated with the arrival of Elian Gonzalez in 1999, aided in his survival on the high seas by a porpoise it is said. Such a miracle and it ended so sadly. My friend is one of those balseros.
Needless to say, risking everything -- without the use of his legs! -- speaks volumes about the country he left behind.
He made his journey and, although not reaching the United States, was rescued at sea by the United States Coast Guard. He and his crew were taken to Guantanamo Naval Base where, during the period of detention that these courageous folks endured, he wrote a long letter to his mother and brother, who were still on the island.
UPDATE: Part 1 of Point the Bow towards Hope, the memoir of my friend's journey from Cuba to the United States is presented in the next post in English translation. We will be publishing the original Spanish version in its entirety at some point in the future. We hope you are inspired by this story of uncommon courage and hope in the face of overwhelming odds.
Posted by George Moneo at July 11, 2005 11:00 PM
Comments
What a tear inducing heart tugging beginning. I can't wait for more of this brave mans story. Thanks George.
Posted by: Kathleen at July 8, 2005 10:38 AM
I too look forward to reading more about his incredible story. Too often we hear how 46 years of castro has permanently changed Cubans on the island to hopelessly accept their condition. Cubans have put up with a lot due to their fear living in a totalitarian state. Many Cubans are slowly but surely losing their fear and many heroes will continue to surface and eventually get rid of the castro brothers.
Posted by: Jose Aguirre at July 8, 2005 11:08 AM
Thanks George. I think that we have to mention that they were imprisoned in Guantanamo by Clinton just because of the unspeakable crime of escaping a communist gulag. They were held under hardship, no A/C in their tents and no politically or culturally correct foods, no uproar by the UN or the Red Cross or any of the big libshitheads that usually defend the enemies of America... why? We are not enemies of America and when we come here we are willing to give it all for this country.
Posted by: CB at July 8, 2005 11:15 AM
I'm looking forward to reading this. Thanks for bringing this to us!
Posted by: j.scott barnard at July 8, 2005 12:01 PM
I wrote on my favorite tale of escape from Cuba at:
hhttp://rofasix.blogspot.com/2005/06/lets-take-car-from-cuba-to-miami.html
It tells of Luis Grass and his family who fabricated twice floating vehicles to make the trip from Cuba. Both times they were intercepted by the US Coast Guard. The second time he persuaded US authorities not to return him and he sat at Gitmo while arrangements were made to get he and his family moved to Costa Rica.
But Luis Grass and his family didn't want to live in Costa Rica. They wanted to live in Miami. So they crossed the porous US-Mexican border and immediately surrended to customs officials. And of course now the US had to accept them under our rules...Cuban refugees had made it to US territory - feet dry as it were. They now live in Miami.
Hopefully your story ends the same way. Men seeking freedom can never be held down, just diverted for a while.
Posted by: NOTR at July 9, 2005 03:27 PM
THE TRUTH ABOUT CUBA
This story, as well as the Luis Grass adventure, and certainly it was even if the peril was very real, should be part of a major book, because the courage it takes to set out to sea on rafts and home-made boats is something few of us have.
The American media mealy-mouthed Editors should be celebrating each triumpal crossing, each group that makes it to Florida's shores and freedom. Instead, as we all know, they ignore them, because they're so committed to socialist ideals that never make it to reality. Out here we have an editor, John C. Carroll, of the LA Times, who allows even his automotive speed jockeys, in the guise of reviewing a BMW or Miata, to sandwich in anti-Conservative or Administration comments.
It takes courage to risk your life at sea, because even on a fairly calm sea, 90 miles can be treacherous in such flimsy craft. George, tell him that many Americans will be looking forward to reading his story! I'd like permission to use excerpts for my TV program, however limited the audience I do have some who enjoy hearing the truth about Castro and Cuba.
Posted by: howarde at July 10, 2005 02:33 AM