Some Cuban emigrants return to island to live (from Miami)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Herald

Some Cuban emigrants return to island to live
Whether for financial or family reasons or just plain homesickness, a growing number of Cuban emigrants are returning to the island.
Posted on Wed, Jun. 11, 2008

BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF
[e-mail]

HAVANA -- Jorge's friends at work call him the ``Sixth Hero.''

Folks here figure Jorge must be the secret spy who got away. Why else would he have returned to Cuba after living in the United States for six years? The ''sixth hero'' reference relates to the five Cuban intelligence agents the Cuban government nicknamed ''the Five Heroes'' who are serving long U.S. prison sentences.

Despite the freedom Jorge enjoyed and the ability to earn a better living as a school custodian in Miami Beach, Jorge returned to Cuba in 2002 to face a government that mistrusted him, a year of probation and friends who assume he is a member of the intelligence service. He said he is one of a growing number of émigrés who after years of living abroad yearn for the sounds and familiarity of home.

So they pack a few things and return to a country where they might make in a month what they used to earn in an hour.
Jorge says he feels now like a TV mute button -- every time he walks into a room, everyone stops talking.

''The government here thinks you are CIA, and the people think you are state security who went to the United States and came back after completing your mission,'' said Jorge, 47, who works as a guitarist. 'The others just think you are crazy for coming back. But, you know, every now and then someone visiting from Miami passes by my house and asks me, `I want to come back, too. How did you do it?' ''



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/565667.html

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STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Jorge, a Cuban who once lived in Miami but later decided
to move back to Cuba, rides his motorcycle from his
apartment to his job as a musician at a restaurant in Havana.


STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Jorge, a Cuban who once lived in Miami but later decided
to move back to Cuba, stands in the doorway of his
apartment in Havana .


STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Jorge, a Cuban who once lived in Miami but later decided
to move back to Cuba, plays with his dog and cat in his
Havana apartment.

[Vinca]

1. They probably want health care. Can't blame them. nt

[Mika]

2. Read the story. They live better in Cuba than in Miami.

Unlike Miami, there's no need to work three jobs for housing, education, and health care in Cuba.

-

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Not everyone adjusts to America

Of the people who come here every year, a certain number have always gone back. Among my own relatives, there's a branch that returned to Norway about two years after coming here around 1900.

At this point, I personally know Europeans who feel "stuck" here because they have no job prospects back home but who visit the old country every year and plan to move back there after retirement. (This was a real common pattern in the 1950s and 1960s when most European countries had a lower cost of living than the U.S. and a person could live well on a Social Security pension.)

About twenty years ago, there was the case of the Polavchuk family from Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. The parents decided to move back to Ukraine after a few years, but two of their children wanted to stay here. One of the children was 18 and could legally make the decision on her own, but the 11-year-old son wanted to stay and was egged on by the Ukrainian emigre community, who gave him presents and provided him with an attorney. He won the right to stay, but even my hardcore conservative cousin (career military with anti-choice and pro-war stickers all over his car) thought that 11-year-olds belong with their parents and that the Ukrainian emigre community should butt out.

[Mika]

4. Lydia, that case was used by the pro Elian kidnapping camp.

That case was the basis of many an argument for keeping Elian in Miami and preventing his dad from picking up his son to return back home. Of course, the circumstances were entirely different but that didn't stop the Miami exile mob and media from fabricating false parallels.


:hi:

-

[Judi Lynn]

5. It's a much more common practise than many would like people to know,

and it was covered in a book by former N. Y. Times journalist, Ann Louise Bardach, who made many trips back and forth to Cuba researaching her book, Cuba Confidential:Love and Vengeance In Miami and Havana, originally published in 2002, before _Bush had almost completely slammed the door shut on travel for Cuban Americans to Cuba:

In Cuba, one used to be either a revolucionario or a contrarevolucionario, while those who decided to leave were gusanos (worms) or escoria (scum). In Miami, the rhetoric has also been harsh. Exiles who do not endorse a confrontational policy with Cuba, seeking instead a negotiated settlement, have often been excoriated as traidores (traitors) and sometimes espías (spies). Cubans, notably cultural stars, who visit Miami but choose to return to their homeland have been routinely denounced. One either defects or is repudiated.

But there has been a slow but steady shift in the last decade-a nod to the clear majority of Cubans en exilio and on the island who crave family reunification. Since 1978, more than one million airline tickets have been sold for flights from Miami to Havana. Faced with the brisk and continuous traffic between Miami and Havana, hard-liners on both sides have opted to deny the new reality. Anomalies such as the phenomenon of reverse balseros, Cubans who, unable to adapt to the pressures and bustle of entrepreneurial Miami, return to the island, or gusañeros, expatriots who send a portion of their earnings home in exchange for unfettered travel back and forth to Cuba (the term is a curious Cuban hybrid of gusano and compañero, or comrade), are unacknowledged by both sides, as are those who live in semi-exilio, returning home to Cuba for long holidays.

Page XVIII
Preface
Cuba Confidential
Love and Vengeance
In Miami and Havana
Copyright© 2002 by
Ann Louise Bardach

[formercia]

6. The kitten doesn't care

Love is the same in every language.

[Judi Lynn]

7. True enough, formercia!

:hi:

[formercia]

9. Secrets

To my friends I will tell most anything. My deepest secrets, I save for my cat. :hi:

[roody]

12. Well cared for dogs and cats are a symptom of

a healthy society.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. unless you are a political activist or journalist, in many ways life in cuba is better

[Mika]

10. Huh?

Almost the entire population of Cuba are political activists.

What journalists are you referring to? Please explain. Thanks.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. freedom of speech or lack thereof is more important to some people than others. nt

[Mika]

13. What journalists are you referring to?

Please explain.
Thanks.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. ok here is what i mean....

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21793

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/03/58128