To come here legally... I guess it all depends on the country that you want to leave. We left Cuba, my father was a political prisoner. In 1965, he began the legal process to be granted permission to leave Cuba and come to the US. First of all, there had to be certain criteria that you had to meet in order to begin the process. We met the criteria because he was a political prisoner. Secondly, we had to have friends or family in the US willing to pay for our airfare in US dollars, that money had to be in a Cuban bank account. Fortunately, we did have that part covered. I don't know all the specific details and I'll tell you our story to the best of my knowledge.
My dad was in prison a total of 7 years, 2 different times. The first time was from 1959 to 1964 and the second time from 1969 to 1971. He was extremely fortunate because many of his friends were sentenced to life in prison or were executed. My mom has some gruesome stories to tell about that. These executions were carried out in a small plaza near the prison, Cuban authorities wanted to terrify and intimidate the people that lived there. That's how communists operate and control the masses, through fear and intimidation. My mom said that the wives were given permission to visit their husbands in prison, the prison was located in Oriente. These women were forced to walk through this plaza where these political prisoners had been executed, their blood was all over the ground. Once they arrived at the prison, they were turned away and that's when some of them learned that their husbands had been executed.
My father was released from prison for good in 1971 and he continued working to get us out of that hell. Cuban Immigration was in control, the laws didn't apply, they made their own laws. It was one pathetic delay after another: C.I. would shut down their building indefinitely, they would move to another location, Fidel would decide that no one was to leave the country, etc. The whole process was designed to wear one down and to eventually just give up trying. I remember my dad telling us about one time that he really thought about jumping in front of a car after leaving Cuban Immigration. Through his visits to C.I., he befriended a man that worked for them. That man kept pushing our case/papers along. My parents did get an appointment at the American Embassy in late 1979, where they presented their case to an ambassador. My mom has told me that the ambassador was very taken with their story and told them that he was going to help them. Finally, in early 1980, we received a call that our visas had been granted. All of us had to go to the American Embassy to get fingerprinted, by then our family had been throughoughly checked out by the American government. I'll never forget waiting to be fingerprinted... There was a small office adjacent to the sitting area where this young guy was playing Donna Summer's music, it was so loud the place was shaking.
Being 14, I thought it was great!!!
Since I was a young child, I was groomed and prepared for "the day" and here it was about to happen. It was surreal! We couldn't take a direct flight to the US. We had to fly to Merida, Mexico and took another flight from there to the US. That decision was made for us, I can't remember if it was made by the Cuban government or US. We arrived in Miami on April 14th, my birthdate.
So, I'm crying now, thinking about about what my life was like in Cuba. I've left out that part of it, as it's not really pertinent to the questions asked.
So, how long did it take? It began in 1965 and finally became a reality in April 1980.
I'm neutral when it comes to illegal immigration. The one thing that I understand really well is what it feels like to be trapped and to know that your life isn't going to get any better. There is no hope, the hell hole that you live in is as good as it's going to get. Those are very frightening realities and I can see why people risk their lives to come here.
This country has become a farce. A sad parody of itself, conquering other nations in the name of forcing them to "freedom". This is just another symptom of the sickness.
