Her name is Liliana and she was swimming for her life in a river they called the Bravo..My Cuban lady friend..She was a singer in a Cuban band. Music was her love..Along with her two children..She particularly loved Canada's Celine Dion and often performed her songs for guests at the resort where I visited..She was lucky. The boss of the resort was a good man and treated them well, paid them fairly and on time. In Cuba, that's a rarity..But, as you may have heard, things have really turned bad for the Cuban people..An economy in deep decline and then COVID-19 struck. .The Trump administration also enacted some of the toughest economic measures against Cuba in decades..The cost of living skyrocketed. Things that were cheap before, were no longer cheap and shortages of food and medicine worsened..And the Cuban government did nothing to make things better..In fact, island-wide protests in July were followed by a heavy crackdown and mass trials with stiff prison sentences for some protesters..Cuban protests. Courtesy Twitter .This was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back — the perfect storm. There was no hope of change on the horizon..Some even compared it to the "special period," or "período especial en tiempos de paz," a period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991, primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union..Liliana was faced with a dilemma. A real big dilemma..Take the escape route to Nicaragua ... but leave her children behind..I was skeptical. I tried to dissuade her. I didn't like this whole set-up. It seemed dodgy to me. But her mind was made up..The temptation of life in America won out..She would establish herself in America, as other Cubans had done, and then find a way to bring the kids over. The Cubano-American dream..That was the plan, anyway..Back to the river Bravo..The "coyotes" said it was not a dangerous river, but Liliana discovered otherwise..The people who she met who travelled with her all the way from Nicaragua to Mexico and beyond, through dark and treacherous jungles, were suddenly dying all around her..There was even talk of crocodiles..She was exhausted, but something kept her going, kept her alive in the river to get her across the border into the US..I asked: How did you do it? How did you survive?.She said her only thought was her children. That's what kept her going. That's what kept her alive in the icy waters of the Bravo..By the grace of God, she somehow made it over the border into the US..She is now a house cleaner in a city in Florida..It's back-breaking work. Work she is not used to. She hates it..But she is determined to make her success there and bring her children back to her from Cuba..It is her hope. It is her dream. .Her body is still full of bruises from her smuggling ordeal. She says she has lost about 15 pounds through it all..Her mind is "damaged," she adds, but then she says she's OK, don't worry..But I know she isn't. I know she needs help..No one could go through that kind of ordeal and not be damaged..Imagine, if you will, having to leave your home country — which is disintegrating into hell — leaving your children behind, travelling to strange lands, fighting through jungles and swimming rivers as others die around you..All to find a new life..By luck, a Cuban family in Mexico befriended her. And she was able to stay several weeks, recovering and hiding from the police while deciding what to do next..Others were not so lucky, she said. Many died. Many just gave up or lost their minds. The coyotes lied. But she never lost hope, never gave up..Liliana was the one of many Cubans who made it to America through this pipeline..According to The Washington Post, last month more than 32,000 Cubans were taken into U.S. custody along the Mexico border, double the number who arrived in February, according to unpublished US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures..Records show CBP is on pace to apprehend more than 155,000 Cubans during the current fiscal year, nearly four times the 2021 total and a twelve-fold increase over 2020..Like Liliana, many of the new arrivals are flying to Nicaragua which dropped its visa requirement for Cubans last fall, then traveling overland to either Del Rio, Tex., or Yuma, Ariz., where they surrender to US border agents to begin the asylum-application process, The Washington Post reported..The new route allowed people to avoid crossing the infamous Darrien Gap, a dangerous jungle that connects Colombia and Panama.. Some Cuban passengers describe selling all of their belongings — including houses and cars — to finance the journeys on commercial and charter airlines. Many have paid huge sums to purchase their tickets, with one couple paying US$4,500 each — a fortune for a Cubano, The Washington Post reported..A family in Florida, who I can't identify, paid for Liliana's flight to freedom to Nicaragua and are helping her adjust to life in the land of freedom. She is renting a small apartment, and the owners, who live next door, are very friendly, she says..Meanwhile, the arrival of so many Cubans is straining communities in South Florida, which is acting once more as a release valve for communist authorities facing potential unrest amid the worst economic crisis to grip the island in decades, The Washington Post reported..And there is little hope that US policy on crippling Cuban sanctions will change any time soon..Florida's 1.5 million Cuban Americans voted heavily for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Reuters reported. .Winning back their support is crucial for President Joe Biden's Democratic Party to clinch the swing state in the 2024 presidential election..So the Liliana's of Cuba will likely keep coming, hoping to realize the American dream. .Dave Makichuk is a Western Standard contributor. .dmakichuk@westernstandard.news
