I was a 14-year-old girl, dehydrated, undernourished, and very confused. I was sure my dad was dead when we were on a small boat escaping Communist Cuba. Unable to cry anymore, I asked God to take me too. I was not going to leave my dead father’s side.
I jumped on top of the gurney as the Coast Guard servicemen lifted him from our small boat to theirs. This is the first image I got of the United States. Servicemen, several branches of it, trying to save my dad.
I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. For 14 years, I had heard Castro’s incoherent speeches and nonsense for hours and hours. These kind strangers we met at high sea did not have to say anything. They were fighting nonstop to bring my dad back as if he was their father.
That’s what I know about America. It is the greatest country in history. They didn’t stop until they brought my dad back to life. I wonder if they guessed that my mother had died when I was eight, and he was all I had in the world. They smiled at me and offered me an apple. I had never seen that fruit. I was waiting for them to tell me how to eat it.
One of them smiled from ear to ear and took one bite. Then I remembered watching Clint Eastwood’s movie. I figured that’s how I was supposed to eat that fruit- it was my first apple.
God bless the U.S.A. God bless the servicemen and women willing to give up their tomorrows so we can have a better today. I had to write “Barefoot to Freedom” for those that never made it out of Cuba. For those, the U.S. was not able to save.
Leave a Reply