LEE COUNTY, Fla. – This year’s theme for Hispanic Heritage Month is: “Esperanza” meaning Hope.
Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, combined with a determined plan for reaching that goal. Cubans are full of hope.
“Yo tengo esperanza, I have hope,” Emma Perez said.
Hope, one day Cubans will have basic human rights like we do here in the United States.
“They are not asking for food, they are asking for liberty, for freedom,” Perez said. “I am crying because I feel for what is happening there and I feel bad for not being able to be there, the place where I was raised, where I fell in love at 9 years old.”
Perez left Cuba on February 21, 1966, she was only 17. Her father made the decision to go to Miami, hoping for a better life to live in a place where there was no communism like many Cubans did and still do have.
“He couldn’t take it anymore, he had to leave there, it was horrible, horrible, horrible,” Perez said.
Perez’s grandparents stayed in Cuba while her and her parents hopped on a plane landing in the Opa Locka Airport.
“I have been in this country for 50 years and every day I dream about going to Cuba,” Perez said. But she won’t return until Cuba is free.
“I tell you that every night when I go to bed. I ask God please give us a miracle, end all of this,” Perez said. To put an end to a 56-year dictatorship.
Perez thought the Lord had answered her prayers when she saw protestors march across the U.S and in the island nation.
“What has never happened before is happening now and I said this is it, we are just a couple days away,” Perez said.
A couple of days away from freedom or so Perez thought.
“I think now with this protest we have faith that I expect that soon we will return to Cuba,” Perez said.
Perez has hope one day she will return to her homeland, something her mother couldn’t do.
“My mom suffered a lot leaving, my mom dreamed of going back to Cuba,” Perez said.
Despite missing Cuba daily, Perez is grateful for the United States and the opportunities America gave her family. Perez’s daughter Mari Davila is a proud American who uses her freedoms here to fight for Cuba, organizing protests across Lee county.
“This is my country, the US, but my heart belongs to Cuba,” Mari Davila said.
They hope to one day return to Cuba together.
“I want to take my mom, I don’t want the same thing that happened with my grandma to happen to my mom,” Davila said.
However, Perez’s time on this Earth is ticking, so they can only hope…she will see a Cuba Libre once again.