Happy To Be Here Cuban Immigrants Thankful For Liberty And Warm Welcome

Osvaldo Torres and his wife Yudit Hernandez are thankful today that they won’t be arrested for walking down the street.

For the first time in their lives, they have fresh meat and vegetables in the refrigerator, a change of socks in the closet, an apartment which doesn’t leak, a legal right to practice their religion, a government to trust.

Three months ago, in their native Cuba, they had nothing but their prayers for deliverance and a hope the next knock on the door wouldn’t be the police, coming to arrest Torres for his criticism of dictator Fidel Castro.

“The reason I believe we were able to get out was our belief in God,” said Torres, speaking through interpreter Gary Hannie.

Torres, 31, and Hernandez, 21, were deported by Cuba in August for their anti-Castro politics and beliefs that he was violating the human rights of their countrymen. Both had undergone persecution - he was imprisoned, tortured and fired from his job; her family members lost their jobs.

When they arrived in Spokane on Sept. 1, they had a small bag of pictures, their official papers and the clothes on their back. They left the rest of their belongings, fearing police would take baggage at the Havana airport.

They were greeted in Spokane by representatives of World Relief, an evangelical refugee organization, and members of the Harvest Christian Fellowship church, who have acted as sponsors, benefactors and friends.

“On the way to Spokane, they thought once they got here, they would be abandoned,” said Hannie, a missionary pastor in Mexico for five years and a member of the church. “That is what the government had told them … When we greeted them at the airport, they were shocked.”

The church has arranged for clothes, food and an apartment near Corbin Park and helped them get jobs at the downtown Mexican restaurant Rancho Chico.

Torres and Hernandez refused to go on welfare. They preferred to work immediately, despite Torres’s poor health caused by malnutrition.

“They’ve worked in a country where the government gives you everything and you have nothing,” said Scott Lehringer, a church member who took the couple in for a month as they got used to Spokane. “They wanted to work right away.”

There are some new things to get used to, like toothbrushes. Washing machines, supermarkets and reliable public transportation are still regarded with reverence.

On their first trip to the grocery store, Hannie asked them what they wanted to see. “She said, ‘I would like to see a whole chicken … And a can of condensed milk.’ I don’t understand the can of condensed milk either,” said Hannie.

Helping with the transition are a half-dozen Cuban families in the area, three of whom were sponsored by Harvest Christian Fellowship. One Cuban family lives in an apartment next door.

The couple now speaks enough English to get directions for a bus, but the learning is slow as they wait for an English as a Second Language class to open.

A box of new checks sat on their coffee table last week. Drivers licenses are impractical; neither has ever driven a car.

Torres says the Cuban government is “robbing the people” of food and basic rights of freedom. He handed out anti-Castro tracts there and publicly criticized the dictator - a crime punishable by extended prison sentences.

Torres said the average Cuban is starving. A household gets 5 pounds of rice, 5 pounds of sugar and a quarter pound of salt per month from the government. Two pounds of beans come occasionally.

The wages from a full day’s work for an untrained laborer could buy a pound of goat meat, but government stores are usually empty. Anything is available on the black market with American dollars, which are illegal to own.

Torres tried to escape Cuba on a junk boat in 1992, but was caught and imprisoned.

During his two years in jail, he said police tortured him when he refused to give the names of other Castro critics. He was once forced to stand in a closet with his legs partially bent for 12 hours. When the door opened, Torres, too weak to stand any more, tumbled out.

“As long as I live, I will never be in agreement with Castro,” said Torres.

When he got out, he met and married Hernandez in their home of Camaguey, an 8,000-person industrial town near Havana.

But he did not stop his protests. He was fired from his job at a wire-manufacturing factory after speaking out in favor of democracy. He was told he should leave the country quickly, or he would be jailed for four years.

Torres and Hernandez are not sure why the Cuban government let them leave. They documented their persecution for their political beliefs to the U.S. embassy in Havana, and American officials helped.

But neither had enough money to bribe Cuban officials and pay huge fees for medical examinations and passports.

“All that money goes into Castro’s pocket,” said Torres.

Both are worried the government will persecute relatives still in Cuba in retaliation. Her father, a mechanic for 28 years, her mother and brother all lost their jobs after Hernandez left. Torres is worried about his two daughters - ages 14 and 11.

None has anything close to the hundreds of American dollars usually required in bribes and fees to leave.

World Relief is trying to get them out of Cuba, said Linda Unseth, director of World Relief.

“They are crazy about coming,” said Torres.

They are now trying to have children of their own, “as quickly as possible,” said Torres, blushing. He said nothing would make him happier than having a child as an American citizen.

“We live in Spokane forever,” he said in broken English.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)