Recent Cuban arrivals reticent about crisis back home

Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006

SOUTH FLORIDA
Recent Cuban arrivals reticent about crisis back home

Conditioned to living under a controlling regime and fearing for their
families, recently arrived Cubans are more cautious with what they say
about the change in leadership.
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

Fear ingrained in recent arrivals

For young Cuban immigrants recently arrived in Miami from the island,
the last three days have been a haze of concern and of hope tempered by
a residue of fear they brought with them from the communist island.

Take Yamilet Brisuela-Gómez, 26, a waitress at Tropical Restaurant in
Hialeah who came from Cuba six months ago. She showed up Wednesday
afternoon at the restaurant to collect a paycheck with two friends who
arrived from Cuba three weeks ago.

When asked about Fidel's health and how she feels about the man who has
led the country for 47 years, she hesitated to say anything. In Cuba,
people who talk to journalists and criticize the government risk
harassment and imprisonment.

''He hasn't harmed me,'' said Brisuela-Gómez of Castro. ``My mother, my
father, my whole family is in Cuba, and I don't know what they're
thinking. I can't speak well or bad of Cuba, and if I speak bad, then
they won't let me in to see my family.''

Yasel García, 28, piped in immediately. He is one of Brisuela-Gómez's
friends who arrived three weeks ago.

''I don't wish anybody death,'' García said in Spanish, ``But I left
because things were not good there. I want Cuba to change a little
because my family is there, and I wish them a better life.''

García, who spoke with his family on the island after the announcement
that Fidel was ceding power to his brother, Raúl, said that Cuba is
totally ``tranquil.''

'Every five minutes they interrupt programming to say `Keep calm.
Nothing is happening,' '' he said.

Unlike Cuban exiles who arrived in the 1960s and '70s, the Cubans who
have come to Miami recently were born and raised under the Cuban
Revolution. They tend to be more apolitical and less zealous than older
exiles.

U.S. government statistics show that more Cubans have arrived in the
United States since 2000 -- at least 130,000 -- than during the entire
Mariel boatlift. Their influx, while low-key, has helped quietly reshape
South Florida.

Zuhali Reyes, 26, who arrived with García three weeks ago, explained the
culture of fear that permeates Cuban society.

''I think most people want change,'' she said. ``But they're scared.
Scared of abrupt change. Scared of Raúl, who is more prone to war than
Fidel because he heads the military. Over there, people have wanted
change for years. . . . Right now, I'm scared for my family.''

Gumersindo Fernández, 39, fled Cuba in a boat bound for Honduras five
months ago.

As he wiped his hands with a rag behind the counter at Tropical on
Wednesday, he stopped his job and vented for about five minutes.

''I couldn't stand the regime,'' he said. ``In Cuba, you have to leave.
There is so much repression, unmasked.''

The butcher at the supermarket next door to Tropical came from Cuba four
years ago. From what he remembers -- but tries every day to forget --
the government had total control over the people.

''People there can't rise up, they can't do anything because any
protests or anything will be repressed,'' he said.

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