Read Cuba for Free Online Page A

friend’s
    boat to America. I will play baseball and earn
    much money and we will live the good life in America.
    That is his dream.”
    “I seeea”…sd Hector Sedano, and leaned back
    against the fence. “Is it yours?”
    “I haven’t told anyone elseea”…Ocho said,
    meaning the family.
    “Are you going to tell
    Mimal”
    “Not on her birthday. I thought maybe you could tell
    her, after we get to America.”
    “Estd loco,
    Ocho. This boat… you could all drown.
    Hundredsthousands of people have drowned out there. The sea
    swallows them. They leave here and are never heard from
    again.”
    Ocho studied his toes.
    “If they catch you, the Americans will send you
    back. They don’t want boat people.”
    “Diego Coca says that”
    “Damn Diego Coca! The Cuban
    Navy will probably catch you before you get out of
    sight of
    Mima’s
    house. Pray that they do, that you don’t die out there in
    the Gulf Stream. And if you are lucky enough
    to survive the trip to Florida, the Americans will
    arrest you, put you in a camp at Guantanamo
    Bay. Even if you get back to Cuba, the
    government won’t let you play baseball again.
    You’ll spend your life in the fields chopping
    cane. Think about
    thatl”
    Ocho sat silently, listening to the insects.
    “Did you give Diego Coca money”…”…Hector
    asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Want to tell me how much?”
    “No.”
    “You’re financing his dream, Ocho.”
    “At least he’s got one.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    “It means what I said. At least Diego Coca
    has a dream. He doesn’t want to sit rotting
    on this goddamned island while life passes him
    by. He doesn’t want that for his daughter
    or her kid.”
    “He doesn’t want that for himself.”
    Ocho threw up his hands.
    Hector pressed on, relentlessly. “Diego
    Coca should get on that boat and follow his dream,
    if that is his dream. You and Dora should get married.
    Announce the wedding tomorrow at
    Mima’s
    party^the people are your flesh and blood. Cuba is your
    country, your heritage. You owe these people and this country
    all that you are, all that you will ever be.”
    “Cuba is
    your
    dream, Hector.”
    “And what is yours? I ask you a second time.”
    Ocho shook his head like a mighty bull. “I do not
    wish to spend my life plotting against the government,
    making speeches, waiting to be arrested, dreaming of a
    Utopia that will never be. That is life wasted.”
    Hector thought before he answered. “What you say is
    true. Yet until things change in Cuba it is
    impossible to dream other dreams.”
    Ocho Sedano got to his feet. He was a tall,
    lanky young man with long, ropy muscles.
    “Just wanted you to knowea”…he said.
    “A man must have a dream that is larger than he is
    or life has little meaning.”
    “Didn’t figure you would think it was a good idea.”
    “I don’t.”
    “Or else you would have gone yourself.”
    “Ocho, I ask you a personal favor. Wait
    two weeks. Don’t go for two weeks. See how
    the world looks in two weeks before you get on that
    boat.”
    Hector could see the pain etched on Ocho’s
    face. The younger man looked him straight in the
    eye.
    “The boat won’t wait.”
    “I ask this as your brother, who has never asked you
    for anything. I ask you for
    Mima,
    who cherishes you, and for Papa, who watches you from
    heaven. Have the grace to say yes to my request.
    Two weeks.”
    “The boat won’t wait, Hector. Diego
    wants this. Dora wants this. I have no choice.”
    With that Ocho turned and leaped lightly from bench to bench
    until he got to the field. He walked across the
    dark, deserted diamond and disappeared into the home
    team’s dugout.
    Although he was born in Cuba, El Gate’s
    parents took him to Miami when he was a toddler,
    before the Cuban revo* lution. He had
    absolutely no memory of Cuba. In fact,
    he thought of himself as an American. English was the
    language he knew best, the language he thought
    in. He had learned Spanish at home as