Jose

He came to America, in the middle of the night, on a boat from Cuba over 20 years ago. He paid 5,000 pesos to an “agent” in Miami to make the four hour trip on a makeshift vessel. Even today, that is a fortune. Eighteen nervous strangers huddled together, in the dark, with one goal in mind — flee to the promised land.

The US government put him in a halfway house. Twenty strong in a room barely big enough for 10. He moved out 6 months later, and has been on his own ever since.

He was an aircraft mechanic in Cuba for almost a decade, but was thrown in prison for three years because he wanted to change careers. The conditions were deplorable. Today, he runs a small appliance installation company in this area.

Jose has never taken a vacation in twenty years. He works seven days a week — 10 hours a day. He has no friends. “I don’t need them”, he told me. “I don’t go to peoples’ homes. No one comes to mine”. His entire family is still Cuba. He has a twenty two year old daughter he has not seen since she was a baby.

The strain of our cruel world was clearly on his shoulders. He spoke with conviction, yet did not want to garner sympathy. A proud, hard working man, trying to raise a family.

Rohini taught me years ago that we all have a cross to bear. Jose, bears his with admirable fortitude. So much to learn from a simple man, with a compelling story.