Awesome article:
excerpt (worth reading it all)
http://cubadata.blogspot.com/2010/04/prisoner-no-more.htmlBy ANDREA SLIVKA
STAFF WRITER
When Cuban native Lisset Diez was 13, her father came to the United
States after years of imprisonment and torture as a political prisoner
of Fidel Castro.
"I didn't see him for 23 years, and I actually never thought we would
see each other again before he passed away. But it happened. I'm
extremely happy," Diez told Fostoria High School students Thursday.
The United States negotiated her father's freedom in 1987, and Manuel
Diez became a U.S. citizen in 2007. After working for years to save
enough money to bring his daughter to the U.S., he recently secured her
emigration to the U.S. through a family reunification program.
She arrived in the U.S. with her husband and two children less than
three weeks ago and now resides with him in Findlay, where he built a
house so her family could live with him.
"I felt joy — immense joy that the voice on the phone was now the person
I was holding and hugging," Lisset said afterward of being reunited with
her father.
Manuel said the physical pain from torture didn't compare to the feeling
of separation from his daughter.
"I live for her, and my whole life is surrounding her, and now I'm not
alone anymore," he said. His wife died three years ago, and he has no
other children.
Speaking through a translator, the family answered students' questions
ranging from what it's like for them to come to the U.S. to the
children's future goals.
After being accustomed to restrictions on food, work and speech under
the communist government, the family members said they are adjusting to
a life of abundance and opportunity in the U.S.
"It's like being born again," one family member commented
excerpt
