Posted on 03/24/2005 5:29:56 PM PST by MadIvan
SOME Cubans are so desperate to cross the Florida Straits for a new life in America that they have attempted the journey on surfboards, in bathtubs and even in converted refrigerators.
But none has been as determined, or as ingenious, as Luis Grass.
Señor Grass, 30, whose two previous attempts to make the voyage in propeller-driven vintage cars ended in glorious, headline-grabbing failure, has finally arrived in the United States with his family after his third try.
This time he came overland — an epic, 24-day, 1,140-mile journey.
“Trying to cross the Florida Straits on my floating cars was easier, I can tell you that,” a beaming Señor Grass said in Miami at the end of a journey that took him, his wife and five-year-old son through snake- infested forests and out of sight of hostile border guards in six countries.
Señor Grass and his long- suffering wife, Isora, 27 — he thanked her for going along with his “crazy schemes” — carried their son Angel Luis from San José, Costa Rica, where their journey began on February 16, through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, making their way on foot, by hitchhiking, and in taxis and buses, to the US.
To avoid detection, he said, they struggled through jungles where they encountered snakes, monkeys and “every insect possible” and often slept in the open. “It was hellish, we suffered a lot,” his wife said. “This last trip was the scariest. But we are finally here.”
Señor Grass, not only a man who refuses to give up, but a master of understatement, added: “We kept a positive attitude.” It was an attitude that took him and his family across the Mexico-US border on March 12, a dry land arrival that allows him to apply for permanent residence in America.
Señor Grass was already Cuba’s most famous “rafter”, one of the hundreds who try to flee the rule of Fidel Castro every year by sailing across the Florida Straits in homemade boats.
The US Coast Guard are still marvelling at his two attempted crossings in 2003 and last year, when he twice got to within 40 miles of the Florida coast before being intercepted. His first voyage was in a converted 1951 Chevrolet, and the second on a floating 1959 Buick.
At his press conference in Miami this week, Señor Grass, a mechanic, said his Chevrolet wagon, which he had placed on 55 metal drums before loading it with nine friends and his family, was his greatest creation. In addition to attracting international headlines it triggered an hilarious exchange between Cuban security guards in Havana and their superiors.
When the Cuban guards saw the 1951 Chevy hit the water running, and then begin sailing out to sea, they radioed headquarters to report that “a truck was headed to Miami”.
According to Señor Grass, they were reprimanded and told to stop drinking while on patrol.
When the refugees were intercepted by the US Coast Guard 40 miles from Key West, everyone was taken off and sent home.
The Coast Guard sank the vessel in a hail of gunfire — a criminal act, according to Señor Grass. “That truck was everything to me. It’s a symbol of freedom, a way of helping the world understand why people flee Cuba.” He says that he wants to build a replica.
Even his wife, whose life Señor Grass admits endangering three times, conceded that it was “sad to see that truck that was in our family so long scuttled”.
Undeterred, in February last year Señor Grass again tried to reach Florida, this time in a floating Buick. Once again the family were intercepted, but this time they were sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they waited for asylum. In December, the US Government and Costa Rica struck a deal that allowed the Grass family to live in San José, the capital.
Under US law, Cubans who are intercepted at sea, even if just a few feet from shore, must be repatriated. But if they touch land they can remain on parole status for a year before applying for residency.
After their latest journey by land, the family finally crossed the Mexican border by bus at Matamoros, immediately surrendering to US immigration officials. This week they were allowed to travel by van to Miami to stay with Ruben Garcia, Señor Grass’s brother-in-law. “A peace has finally come over me now that my wife and son are here in the United States,” he said.
Wilfredo Allen, his lawyer in Miami, said that Señor Grass had already received two job offers: one as a mechanic in a haulage company, and another as a mechanic in one of city’s biggest Chevrolet dealers. It is unlikely, however, that his skill at converting them into boats will be required again.
Cubans that make it to shore get legal status.
An infallible formula for being well-received as an immigrant in the United States is to be shipwrecked in her territorial waters. Cárdenas is a good departure point: it is close to Florida, and its coves are protected by mangrove swamps. Moreover, the regional art of making small craft for fishing in the nearby Zapata Swamp and Del Tesoro Lagoon provides raw materials for illegal boats, in particular the aluminum pipes used for irrigating citrus groves. People say that Munero must have spent some $200 and an additional 800 Cuban pesos on the motor and the boat's construction. The result was a kind of lifeboat, with no roof and no seats. Three inner tubes were put on board as life preservers for 14 people. There was no room for more. Before they left, most of the passengers injected themselves with Gravinol to prevent seasickness.Illegal boats. Of course.
Sickening.
Shore ? I thought he walked in from central america ??
So yer saying he escaped from Alabama and swam to Ft Walton ?..........:o)
Anybody got a pick of that truck? It was GREAT!
Hey, I just escaped...er, got back from HSV, AL
This story is great!
ping
So go elsewhere.
What a great excuse for being late to work!
"Yeah, sorry Boss, but my Chevy was scuttled by the Coast Guard."
LOL - works for me...
Why do you keep blowing off the 7 Apr rally thread? Get your buns down there!
Whe were you here in Mobile? ;)
Until this thread the fastest I've seen an article hijacked to Terri was at post #3. You did it at post #1.
Congratulations.
From a Buick 6
I got this graveyard woman, you know she keeps my kid
But my soulful mama, you know she keeps me hid
She's a junkyard angel and she always gives me bread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.
Well, when the pipeline gets broken and I'm lost on the river bridge
I'm cracked up on the highway and on the water's edge
She comes down the thruway ready to sew me up with thread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.
Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.
Well, you know I need a steam shovel mama to keep away the dead
I need a dump truck mama to unload my head
She brings me everything and more, and just like I said
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.
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