A whole bunch of years ago today my family boarded an airplane from Cuba bound for Miami.
We were supposedly on vacation - a typical two weeks to be enjoyed as a welcome break. My parents packed just enough clothing and toys to keep my little brother and me busy during the hiatus. I remember looking out the window and seeing the island where I lived disappearing from our viewpoint.
And I remember both of my parents staring at the view with wet eyes and in my mother's case, tears down her cheeks.
For they were not going on vacation -- they were fleeing the socialist regime of a dictator whose name I refuse to write but figure anyone can guess. They had not told anyone in the family for fear of having someone thwart their plans.
My parents disagreed with the man's policies, and his cruel methods. So they decided to escape while they could - hopefully to return when things "normalized."
But that never happened. My father (who had a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Havana and was bilingual) obtained a job in Rhode Island. The rest of us learned English, went to school and worst of all had to wear itchy woolen clothing that was unfamiliar.
Today, while I reminisce about that lost life on a tropical island, I can't help but wonder what would happen should a dictatorship establish itself in the United States. My father and uncles used to chat about how they would fight tooth and nail for the USA, simply because they knew there was no place else they could go. Certainly not back to Cuba.
I worry about the USA a lot these days, most notably the past few weeks. I won't go into the gory details because there are so many points of view a lot of things get lost in the translation. All I know is that some type of change is happening here and I'm not entirely sure it's working.
What I am sure of is this -- there is nowhere else on earth like the USA. The country took us in and gave us a place to work and to live and to be free. It's a place worth fighting for, at least it is to me and the rest of my family - all of whom relocated to the USA and became citizens as soon as we were able.
Even though I have an emotional attachment to the land of my birth, it is my adopted home which I love best of all. Today I just want to say thank you to the USA, to the people who lived here before we got here, to Americans who helped us in those early years.
And yes, America, you are the beautiful and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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