Mission Libertad

by Lizette M. Lantigua

  “¡Los primos!” they shouted. He never knew he had so many cousins! They all waved shyly. Luisito found their names so strange and hard to pronounce: Sean, Avery, Ashley, Bradley. He wasn’t sure if the names were for boys or girls when he heard them in conversation. It was incredible for him to think that he had family that spoke a different language, with a completely different lifestyle, and yet with some similar customs.

  9 NUEVE

  There was a tender lechón asado with rice and black beans, fried plantains, yucca with mojito, soft warm Cuban bread, and salad set on the table. On the side there was a smaller tray with slices of lean turkey, stuffing, and the creamy gravy he had tasted earlier. For dessert, they had a choice of flan with shredded coconut or chocolate cake with ice cream.

  He looked at his parents, who were staring at all the food on the table. Luisito knew what they were probably thinking. Their thoughts were back in Cuba at the empty tables of friends and of Abuela that very evening.

  The conversation went on through the night while photo albums were passed around and the smell of Cuban coffee filled the room. Rosie’s two-story house was too big for her family of four, Luisito thought. He wondered where he would sleep. For now, he enjoyed watching his parents smile as they spoke with the family.

  In the living area, there was a big stone fireplace, and Luisito wondered if they ever cooked on it when the electricity went out. He wanted to ask all the questions that popped into his mind as he glanced around the room, but everyone was talking at the same time. He could barely hear his own thoughts.

  Then out of a big escaparate, a wooden armoire like the ones Luisito’s parents used as closets in Cuba, a huge TV screen appeared.

  “Look at this, guys,” José said, proudly pointing a small box directly at the TV. “Did you see that?”

  “What?” said Ramon, an elderly uncle.

  “Don’t look at me,” José said. “Look what happens to the TV set.”

  “Wow!” said some of the younger kids.

  “It turns on and off without having to get up,” José said, smiling.

  “These Americans are incredible! Look what they have invented,” Ramon marveled.

  “It’s called a clicker,” José said.

  “Dad, that was ages ago. My teacher calls it a remote,” said Tommy.

  As if by magic, the remote not only turned the TV on and off and made it louder and quieter, but it also changed the channels. And the TV set was in color!

  “He has always liked technology. He always buys the newest thing on the market,” said Adita, José’s mother. “His father was like that, too—we were one of the first families to have a black-and-white TV in Cuba, before the revolution.”

  The adult family members gathered around as the younger crowd squatted on the floor to watch TV.

  “Your son is so happy,” an aunt who was sitting on the sofa said to Elena.

  “I am happy,” Luisito answered, patting his stomach. “¡Barriga llena corazón contento!”

  Everyone laughed except some of the younger cousins, and Tommy looked puzzled. They couldn’t understand Luisito’s rhyming proverbs and his fast-spoken Spanish.

  Tommy was Luisito’s age, thin like Luisito but with brown hair cut short and spiked. Subtly, Tommy asked his older sister, Sonia, what Luisito had just said.

  “He said, ‘full stomach, happy heart,’” Sonia answered. “It’s a Spanish proverb. Maybe he can teach you some Cuban culture.”

  “You think you are all that because you know more Spanish than me, but you know what?” Tommy paused dramatically, ready to supply some proverbs himself. “It’s better to catch two birds in a bush, with just one stone.”

  “Oh, boy,” Sonia said, rolling her eyes. “Try again!”

  10 DIEZ

  Later, after much talk, the relatives began to excuse themselves for the evening.

  “Stay a little longer,” Rosie pleaded.

  “We have work tomorrow,” some of the men said. Or, “It’s a long drive back home.”

  “El que madruga Dios lo ayuda, right, Luisito?” one uncle said.

  God helps those who rise early. It was as if he was dueling Luisito with another proverb.

  “Si, pero,” Luisito said, holding up his index finger as if he was about to recite a poem, “no hagas como el apóstol trece, que come y desaparece.”

  “Luisito!” Elena nudged him. “He is always joking.”

  “What did he say?” a young cousin asked her mother.

  “He said not to be like the thirteenth apostle, who ate and left,” her mother said laughing.

  “Oye, I am going to call you Luisito, el rey de los dichos,” Tommy said, laughing. “Luisito, the king of the proverbs. It even rhymes in Spanish!”

  The crowd laughed as they walked outside. There was another round of kisses and hugs, and finally cars started driving away.

  Luisito was amazed to see that everyone had a new-looking car. In Cuba, there were no new cars. People could not afford them. Most people didn’t have a car and those that did drove the old cars they had before the existing government took power. The Ramirez family had owned only one car that had belonged to Luisito’s maternal grandfather, Luis. His dad used that car to get to the hospital. To make ends meet, his father also used the car as a taxi for tourists on his days off. The government didn’t approve of this type of private business, but officials looked the other way since the car was also used as an ambulance on many occasions.

  Since they didn’t have an extra car, Elena, who had worked in a day care center, left at five in the morning to stand at the corner of La Avenida Del Presidente with several neighbors until a government sixteen-wheeler truck passed by and gave them a ride to work. These trucks were used for public transportation because most of the buses were broken, overcrowded, or not running because of the gas shortage.

  Sleepily Luisito walked into the now quiet house with his parents and Rosie’s family. The two-story home that had been bustling with noise and energy now seemed eerily quiet.

  “I have set you up to sleep tonight in the basement,” Rosie said to Miguel and Elena. “Luisito, you can sleep in your own room in the basement or you can share Tommy’s room.”

  Luisito didn’t know what to say. He had never had a room of his own. It would be great to have so much space to himself. On the other hand, he had never had a brother, and sharing a room could be fun.

  “Mom, I thought he was sharing my room?” Tommy said quickly.

  “Luisito, would you like that?” Rosie asked.

  “Sure, great!” Luisito said, smiling.

  “Come on, let’s go!” Tommy gestured toward Luisito.

  The house seemed so big that Luisito wished he had a map. He looked around and imagined how many families would live in a house this size in Cuba. There were stairs to go up and stairs to go down. He soon learned that the downstairs was the basement. It was a whole apartment and colder than the rest of the house! It had a living room, a small kitchen, and two bedrooms. The first floor contained the large living area, the kitchen, the dining room, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms.

  Luisito thought this was all there was to the house, but there was more: a laundry area and a staircase that led to the attic, which was furnished with a desk and two bookcases. A model train that Tommy had built with his dad several Christmases ago was set up on the floor. There was also a telescope that the boys looked through to see a beautiful sky filled with stars, just as in Cuba.

  Luisito couldn’t wait to write to Abuela and tell her all the things he was discovering.

  “Papi and I come here the most. This is our space,” Tommy said.

  Although Luisito had only taken English as a school subject and never really practiced it, he started finding he could understand more than he thought.

  “¡Que bien!” Luisito said.

  “Tommy, you can show him the train set tomorrow. Now it is time to rest,” Rosie called, and the boys came downstairs and settled into their room
.

  Luisito looked around Tommy’s room at all the large posters of the American football stars and pictures of big dolphins everywhere.

  “You sure like fish!” Luisito said, smiling.

  Tommy proudly picked up a football helmet and showed it to Luisito.

  “That’s not just any fish—that’s the Miami Dolphins mascot, silly!” he said, laughing. The boys laughed and talked awhile longer, repeating phrases and often gesturing with their hands.

  Luisito lay down in his new bed—the most comfortable he had ever slept in. He pulled a fluffy blanket over himself. Luisito was not used to air conditioning. He closed his eyes and thought that from now on he would never wake up all sweaty from the heat of those Havana summer nights. This was the life!

  Then a sudden feeling of guilt overwhelmed him as he realized that his Abuela would have to sweat tonight in her bed. She would probably be scared to open the window since she would be all alone in the apartment. He tossed and turned a few times. Abuela had entrusted him with a special mission. He had to get to Miami soon and relay his message to a particular priest there. He repeated Abuela’s message over and over in his head. He was afraid he might forget it, but he was more afraid to write it down for fear someone would read it. He couldn’t make anything out of her message, but the Cuban priest Abuela told him he should speak to at the shrine would know what to do. Abuela’s older brother, Tío César, had been a priest in Cuba for many years before his death. Abuela had many connections with the Cuban clergy. This priest must be someone she knows very well, Luisito thought. He hoped he could persuade his family to go to Miami for Christmas.

  11 ONCE

  The next morning Luisito woke up ready for breakfast. He looked at Tommy’s bed, but Tommy was already gone. Someone had left a t-shirt and a pair of shorts beside his bed. Luisito put them on and hurried down the stairs. He didn’t know which way to go, so he began opening doors.

  The first was a bathroom, then a laundry room with two big machines and several brooms and mops. Then he saw Tommy on the other side of the hallway.

  “Oye, I thought you would never wake up!” Tommy said.

  “Am I late for breakfast?” Luisito said.

  “Breakfast! It’s lunchtime,” Tommy said, smiling. “Come on, my mom is grilling hamburgers outside.”

  Luisito followed Tommy out to the patio. The grownups were sitting on the patio furniture and Sonia was now turning the hamburgers on the grill. Tommy had told Luisito that she was seventeen years old. She was wearing a t-shirt that didn’t quite reach her waist, jogging pants, and flip-flops. Luisito remembered that in Cuba, many girls had flip-flops because they couldn’t buy shoes and their t-shirts were too small. If they only knew that in the United States it was fashion.

  “¡Oye, dormilón!” Miguel called to his son.

  “Sleepyhead! That’s what my dad calls me, too,” said Tommy.

  “How does it feel to wake up in America?” José said, smiling.

  “Great!” Luisito beamed.

  “Before you know it he is going to be speaking English fluently and he will be a little Americanito,” Rosie joked.

  Sonia handed Luisito a glass of milk and a hamburger, and he watched as his cousins poured some tomato sauce called ketchup all over their hamburgers. Luisito copied them. It occurred to Luisito that if he had to ask for food in this country he wouldn’t even know what to call it. In Cuba, he had mostly eaten rice, beans, and eggs.

  “We are going to take you today to visit the Baltimore waterfront,” Rosie said. “Would you like that?”

  “I don’t really want to see any more water,” Luisito said.

  “I understand,” Rosie smiled. “How about if you go to the movies with Sonia and Tommy while I take your mom to the store to buy some clothes for you all?”

  “You can sit close to me and I will translate,” Sonia said. “We can go see an action movie—that way I don’t have to translate too much!”

  They all laughed. Luisito didn’t really care what movie they went to see because everything was a new adventure. He took another bite of his hamburger and realized that he wasn’t too fond of this ketchup invention. He leaned back on his chair underneath the blue-and-white patio umbrella. For the second time in his life, his stomach was full and he was content.

  “Eat, Elenita,” Rosie said gesturing toward the hamburgers. “You hardly ate.”

  “I can’t eat,” Elena said.

  “We were just talking about that last night,” Miguel explained. “It is hard to eat so much knowing Abuela and our friends in Cuba have so little.”

  “I understand,” José said.

  “Well, let’s talk about Luisito’s new school,” Rosie said, changing the subject. “I took a week off so I can help you get the paperwork for working permits and get Luisito settled in school. We could combine the things we need to do with some sightseeing. There are many historical places here we could show you.”

  “Let’s take him to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington!” Tommy said.

  “We’ll think about it,” Rosie said, smiling. “Now, off to the movies with you! Oh, and Sonia, stop at the grocery store on your way, please. We’ve run out of shredded coconut for our famous flan.”

  Sonia was all smiles as the three drove off in her small candy red car. She spoke Spanish with a heavy American accent and used many hand gestures to explain things to Luisito.

  When they arrived at the supermarket, Luisito was stunned. It was like a fairy tale! As by magic, the door opened by itself! He walked into a large warehouse full of food—more than he had ever seen—and people were taking loads of it in little carts to their cars.

  Were they looting? Were they allowed to take all this food home? There were no lines outside the store, and inside there were aisles and aisles of all sorts of foods to buy. He picked up a banana and was about to peel it when Sonia warned him.

  “Oh, no, we must pay first,” she explained.

  “Oh,” Luisito said feeling a little embarrassed as he carried the banana with him to the register. Bananas and oranges were the only fruits he recognized from the piles of many-colored fruits displayed in the produce section.

  Sonia picked a large can of shredded coconut. Luisito could not believe anyone could just pick one item from this huge supermarket. He would spend hours buying all sorts of things here.

  He only wished he had more time to look at all the items in the store, especially all the candy by the register, but the line moved so quickly he didn’t have a chance. He was so happy he couldn’t stop smiling. He noticed no one else seemed to smile as they waited in line. He would ask his relatives to bring him back to this grocery some other day.

  While they waited in line, Sonia picked up a chocolate candy bar and a glossy magazine. Luisito flipped through the pages filled with pictures of boys and some pretty girls who were all unknown to him. Sonia smiled and said something to the boy who was putting the items in the bag. Then she waved back at him with her free hand. He had his hair parted in the middle and layered to the side. Luisito looked at the magazine and back at the boy at the cash register. He looked just like some of the guys in the magazine! As Sonia walked out, the boy at the register glanced at her shoes and made some comment. She laughed and moved her shoe back and forth so he could see them better. The bottoms of her shoes were see-through plastic. The boy flashed a peace sign with two fingers in a V, and she did the same back to him. What a strange greeting, Luisito thought.

  Sonia took the candy bar she had just purchased from the grocery bag and handed it to Luisito.

  “You don’t need to show the booklet?” Luisito asked Sonia. He was referring to the ration booklet all Cubans have to show back on the island. The booklet gives families permission to buy certain items monthly or yearly.

  “What booklet?” laughed Sonia.

  “Nothing,” he said, smiling.

  Luisito wished he could call Abuela right now and tell her what he had seen and how right she had been. What
seemed to be fairy tales were now becoming believable to Luisito. He had a feeling he was going to like this country very much!

  When Sonia, Tommy, and Luisito arrived at the movie theater, Sonia groaned.

  “What’s wrong?” Luisito said.

  “Look at the line!” she said.

  Luisito saw a few people in line to buy tickets, and he could not understand what the fuss was all about. In Cuba, the lines to get bread went down the block.

  “Oh, come on, that is nothing,” Luisito laughed. “Let’s get in line. Perro que no anda no encuentra hueso.”

  “A dog that does not go out does not find the bone. What in the world does that mean?” Tommy asked.

  “It means you can’t succeed if you don’t try,” Luisito said, laughing. “I am going to have to write these down for you.”

  “You bet,” Tommy teased. “I am going to have to carry them in my pocket like a tourist with a dictionary.”

  As his cousins bought tickets, Luisito looked at the marquee and the upcoming movie posters. How could anyone choose? he thought.

  “Nothing really good,” Sonia said, as she eyed the signs. Luisito laughed.

  “What?” Sonia said, grinning.

  They bought popcorn, chocolate candy, and some water. They walked into a cool, dark movie theater and sat eating until the movie began.

  There was not much need for translating. The hero in the movie didn’t talk very much. He did a lot of shooting and rescued some prisoners at the end, which caused the audience to cheer.

  As they walked out Luisito kept inhaling the wonderful popcorn smell.

  “Popcorn actually smells better than it tastes,” Luisito declared with a deep breath.

  “I’ve never thought about it,” Tommy said, taking a long sniff. “But I think you’re right.”

  “Come on, you two,” Sonia said. “People are watching. They are going to think you are locos en la cabeza.”

  They laughed as they looked for the car in the vast parking lot.

  “Let’s go back home and team up with Mom,” Sonia said. “Maybe they already returned from their shopping and are planning something else.”