"This is a crazy idea!"

Jean-Guy Allard

"This is a completely crazy idea." Alfredo Rammrez has lived in 
New Jersey for more than 20 years and works in New York. He is 
waiting for his return flight to the United States at Josi Martm 
Airport's Terminal 2. For him, like the majority of Cuban- 
Americans, the anti-family measures of the George W Bush 
Government have no sense whatsoever.

"All my family is here", he told me. "Everybody. I have family in 
Havana, family on the island [of Youth], in different parts. I 
have been coming to Cuba once every two years ... And now ..."

"And now you have to wait for three years before your next 
visit?"

"Let's see what happens. It's unbelievable ... My mother is sick, 
very sick. She has cancer."

"So three years on ...?"

"I'm never going to be able to see my mother again? That's 
completely ridiculous!"

"Did you see what happened at Miami Airport?"

"Yes, I was here. It was heavy, very heavy. Of course there has 
to be a lot of controversy! Nobody is going to be able to 
separate the Cuban family. Let Bush do what he likes. All that 
really surprised me because what he did is not logical on the 
part of a politician."

"Things arereally hot in Miami"

For his part, Ramsn Garcma, also awaiting his return flight, has 
lived in Miami for 24 years.

He doesn't have a very good opinion of the author of the 
restrictions either. He's not afraid to say what he thinks.

"It's really shit that this president is going to split up 
families. I don't think he's going to make it [in the November 
elections]. Things are really hot in Miami. I talked with my son 
and he told me that the people over there are mad at this."

All his family are on the island too.

"My whole family is here. It's a large family. And my family is 
angry: This separation of families isn't coming from the 
government here but from the government over there."

Visibly distressed, he admits a certain incredulity.

"This really hurts me. And now I can't come back for three years? 
I think that's impossible and that this Kerry — the Democratic 
candidate — will get rid of this in January when he assumes the 
presidency."

And he concludes: "That order was a big mistake ... and, for that 
reason, this president's no good."

Surrounded by her family, a grandmother, Ena Torres from Miami, 
heads toward the immigration booth.

"And how was your stay?"

"Wonderful! Twenty-one days! I have a big family here."

"And the new measures?"

"Well, imagine! Nobody likes that. It hurts me because I would 
like to come and see my children and grandchildren more often. 
I'm 76 years old."

"And what does your family in Miami think about it all?"

"They're very upset because everyone has family here. It's very 
hard. It isn't going to last, it can't."

Brothers Eddie and Hictor Gonzalez have been resident in 
California since they were children. Young, and very much part of 
the US world, they prefer to talk in English. They have come from 
Sancti Spmritus where all their Cuban relatives live.

Although they consider themselves American and patriotic, having 
grown up in the United States, they affirm that they are very 
upset about the new measures. These will prevent them for the 
foreseeable future from coming back again for a visit as 
enjoyable as the one that they have just experienced.

"It's a shame that there aren't normal relations between our two 
countries", Eddie laments.

The situation of Dairen Betancourt from Pinar del Rmo reveals 
another angle on the new situation decreed by the White House.

She is travelling to California with an immigration visa obtained 
via the US Government's migratory lottery through which a few 
thousand Cubans annually receive authorisation to emigrate 
legally. The majority of them do so for economic reasons with the 
aim of supporting their family.

Her husband is waiting for her in Los Angeles.

But now the bomba — as the lottery process is known here — 
comes with a trick: a ban on returning for three years in 
addition to a large number of restrictions that severely curtail 
remittances and parcels from the United States.

"Will you not be coming back for three years?"

Kissing her eight-month-old nephew Roberto with much love, Dairen 
reveals all her concern with one look.

"We shall see ..." she says, her smile mingled with apprehension.

* * *

Granma