Dying to Get Here

Paco Robaina sits on the crumbling steps to his four-room hovel in a small Havana barrio, smoking a cigar and watching his two young sons play. He scans the street full of other scruffy neighborhood children and reflects back to his childhood; a grand life in a plantation style home, enjoying the rich, social life of Havana in the early 50's. At first, his family stayed when Fidel took power, while hordes of other Cuban professionals fled to Miami aboard the aptly-named "Freedom...
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Paco Robaina sits on the crumbling steps to his four-room hovel in a small Havana barrio, smoking a cigar and watching his two young sons play. He scans the street full of other scruffy neighborhood children and reflects back to his childhood; a grand life in a plantation style home, enjoying the rich, social life of Havana in the early 50's. At first, his family stayed when Fidel took power, while hordes of other Cuban professionals fled to Miami aboard the aptly-named "Freedom Flights" of the mid-1960s. When his relatives finally left, Paco stayed behind . . . believing. Now that he has a family of his own, the "what ifs" haunt him He'd worked hard maintaining his family's lives under the failing Cuban economy, but in Cuba, hard work is often not enough. Now unemployed, he spends his days watching his children; while his wife wanders the streets in vain attempts to meet the family's daily needs.Desperate and despondent over his past decisions, Paco dreams of a better life for himself and for his family, in the land freedom.His only fear is that freedom will be as elusive as the smoke from his cigar.