Cuban rafters 20 years on

Cuban rafters 20 years on

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Two decades since Cuba lifted restrictions on rafters and opened the flood gates for anyone who wanted to leave the communist-led island, Reuters photographer Enrique de la Osa photographs some of those who made the journey.

Some 31,000 Cubans were detained at sea by U.S. ships in the summer of 1994 in one of the biggest mass departures of Cuban rafters that changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and reshaped U.S.-Cuba relations.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Former cuban rafter Hanoi Lopez, 39, now a mechanic at a public school bus company, had changed his name to Alex when he arrived to the United States 20 years ago, thinking that Hanoi sounded “too communist” to Americans.

He recalled how his family filled him up with a full meal of rice and beans before he boarded the raft, thinking that would strengthen him for the journey in the high seas - but after navigating for a few hours, he threw up the entire meal.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Gricel Gonzalez was just 16 when she boarded in Cuba a leaky boat with her sister, mother and stepfather. At night they heard from across the dark sea a man crying for help for a pregnant woman, but they never saw them, she said.

Gonzales had been carrying a change of clothing, basic items and many photographs in her backpack because she wanted to take a “piece of Cuba” with her, but she had to throw it all into the sea. The only photo she kept was one of her grandmother which she wrapped in a plastic bag.

“The pain of leaving my country and family - I’ll never forget that,” said Gonzales, who works as a communications director for governor of Florida candidate. “You remake your life, fight for your dreams… every time I return to Cuba I feel the same pain."

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Artist Sergio Lastres, 49, and his wife were among 15 migrants rescued when their raft filled with water up to their waists. The couple were taken to Guantanamo Base where Lastres painted his first work about rafters.

"When the motor started... I could already see myself in the United States. It was a joyful moment, we had no fear. It never occurred to us that anything could go wrong," he said.

Lastres recalled how even the strongest men began to break down during the toughest moments, panicked and sobbing, some wanting to return to Cuba. He said they were afraid of what would happen to their loved ones if they died.

“(We were worried about) our families, the children that would be orphaned, and our parents when they finally learned that we had drowned. So many have never been found," he said.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Moraima Alfonso, 51, spent 10 days at sea and was suffering hallucinations when she and other rafters were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Alfonso, who works as makeup artist in Miami for American TV, spent 17 months at the Guantanamo base and was in the last group to leave for the United States, arriving in 1996.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Luis Soler, 53, spent five desperate days adrift with other migrants before being picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.

In Cuba, Soler had more freedom than most and was permitted to travel overseas, but he said the lack of a future for his daughter was what motivated him to leave for good.

He and others began to build a raft inside the home of a Santeria priest, but when they finished it they realised that it was too big to take out through the door. They ended up breaking open the wall with hammers to get it out.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Pedro Brea, 50, spent three days clinging to a sinking raft in the middle of a major storm when a U.S. Navy frigate picked them up from the sea.

He said an officer told the rafters they had been lucky to survive the storm, and that they had seen many more empty rafts from which the people had just disappeared. Brea was in Guantanamo for 13 months before being flown to the U.S.

He has been working as a municipal garbage collector in Miami’s South Beach for the past 16 years.

. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Faustino Jose, an industrial engineer, studied all of Thor Heyerdahl's books about rafting before actually building his own and leaving Cuba.

Jose, who owns a jewellery story in Miami, said some of the rafters desperate to reach the United States came up with ingenious ways to fool the doctors and avoid spending a long time in Guantanamo, including inserting bees into their bodies to induce haemorrhoids, knowing that anyone with medical problems would be taken directly to relatives in the United States.

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Slideshow

People put the finishing touches on a makeshift boat on a rooftop.
. HAVANA, CUBA. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

People put the finishing touches on a makeshift boat on a rooftop.

A man lights a cigarette as he takes a break from building a raft.
. MIAMI, United States. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

A man lights a cigarette as he takes a break from building a raft.

A makeshift boat is lowered from the roof where it was constructed.
. HAVANA, CUBA. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

A makeshift boat is lowered from the roof where it was constructed.

Hundreds of Cubans watch as a makeshift boat is carried through the streets of Havana.
. HAVANA, CUBA. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

Hundreds of Cubans watch as a makeshift boat is carried through the streets of Havana.

People prepare to launch a makeshift boat.
. HAVANA, CUBA. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

People prepare to launch a makeshift boat.

A group of emigrants launch their boat into the straits of Florida.
. HAVANA, CUBA. REUTERS/Rolando Pujol Rodriguez

A group of emigrants launch their boat into the straits of Florida.