Going for broke in quest for freedom

Another great article from Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune was published today. Here's some excerpts:

MATANZAS, Cuba -- Emiliano Batista has spent more than a decade planning, scheming and risking his life in 18 failed attempts to reach Florida by raft.

Over the years, the 31-year-old laborer sold his television, refrigerator and, in the end, all his worldly possessions for materials to build boats. When that wasn't enough, he dismantled his home. Even the light fixtures and sink were sold.

"It's been a nightmare not reaching my objective," said Batista, a resident of this port city 60 miles east of Havana. "All I've thought about is leaving."
...

But hidden from view is a psychological phenomenon--a state of obsession--that can overwhelm people's lives here regardless of whether they ever reach foreign shores.

"When people say, `That guy, all he has in his head is leaving,' you know that means the person is lost," said a 27-year-old Havana resident, referring to the psychological state that can lead to sadness, desperation, anxiety and depression.
...

The average Cuban salary is about $15 a month, making a trip something that most people can only dream about.

Yet the constant stream of Cuban emigres visiting their homeland with tales of life in the outside world creates a yearning for something other than Cuba's tightly controlled socialist system. The fact that Cuba is so tantalizingly close to the United States -- 90 miles across the Straits of Florida--doesn't help either.
...

"When you get to the point when you want to leave, nothing else matters," said the 27-year-old Havana resident, who asked that she not be identified.

The woman said she became obsessed with the idea of emigrating after realizing that fidelity to the government rather than excellence was the key to advancement at work in Cuba.
...

"It's like living with a roof pressing down on you," explained a 25-year-old psychologist, who says she hit the tipping point when, after two years at an $18-a-month job, she realized she had no prospects in Cuba's tightly controlled economy.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at April 2, 2006 11:30 AM