"I felt like I was in prison in Cuba," said refugee Marialis Darias-Mesa, 32, as she sat by her husband's side in Cape Coral on Wednesday evening. "We were not allowed anything."
Getting to his side was not easy. It meant a ride across a thrashing sea and 11 months in a Bahamian prison.
After her ordeal, the simple things matter.
Darias-Mesa can have coffee for breakfast, toast with jam if she pleases. She can smile and roll her eyes when she explains that nothing has become everything because she is free.
A dentist, Darias-Mesa finally reunited with her husband ﾗ Cape Coral electrician Ihovany Hernandez, 34 ﾗ in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday evening.
It took pressure from American government officials to turn the key to her cell door and that of fellow dentist David Gonzalez-Mejias, whose wife and children live in Tampa.
Life In Cuba
With Darias-Mesa being a graduate of the University of Havana with a dentistry degree, her economic prospects would seem to be high.
Not so.
"The women who scrub the floors at the tourist hotels get the hard currency," Darias-Mesa said. "Dentists earn little."
Although the lack of economic opportunity is debilitating to the spirit, other things gave her hope.
She had it, a promise. Her visa to the United States had been applied for and won. That visa promised a new life of liberty.
Her husband and their 5-year-old daughter, Maria-Laura Hernandez, also had visas. They would leave as a family.
But Castro's government reneged. It held her and would not let her go. Professionals must stay, she was told.
A meat-market manager, Hernandez went on without his wife and child two years ago. He would make friends in the United States and work to get her out.
A Dangerous Ride
A 32-foot speedboat ride from Cuba to the United States is loaded with danger. Many have been killed making such a journey.
Darias-Mesa decided to leave her daughter with her grandmothers. She would take the boat and, once with her husband, turn all efforts to having her daughter join them.
With three engines revved up and 18 passengers, the boat moved away from Cuban shores last April. In 12 hours it would be stopped as it hit churning seas and drifted into Bahamian waters.
The U.S. Coast Guard took Darias-Mesa and the others into custody. It then turned them over to the Bahamian officials.
"A boat full of men armed to the teeth," Darias-Mesa said. "It was frightening."
The Bahamas has an agreement with the Castro regime to return all Cuban nationals. The Bahamians returned 16 of the Cubans, keeping Darias-Mesa and Gonzalez-Mejias behind bars.
"That is when we stepped in," said Cape Coral businessman and family friend Kiko Villalon, who helped translate. "We called everyone and diplomatically told the Bahamian government, these are legal people."
Behind Bars
"She left Cuba to find freedom," Hernandez said. "They have incarcerated her like a common criminal."
In the course of 11 months, Hernandez visited his wife 19 times. He brought her toothpaste, soap and clean clothes.
Sometimes 400 women crowded together in the jail. Dank and smelly air permeated the cramped cells.
Villalon called on his friends in government such as U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, R-Fort Myers, to apply pressure on the Bahamians.
It took 11 months, but it worked. The dentists were freed.
The struggle for the couple to bring their daughter from Cuba could take some time. They have faith and friends.
"The daughter has a visa and is not a professional," Villalon said. "But with Castro, one cannot tell."
By Pete Skiba
pskiba@news-press.com
