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 The two embraced tightly at the Greyhound bus terminal in Austin,
Texas, hours after Mailin Perez crossed the border from Mexico,
taking advantage of a U.S. policy that allows entry to Cubans
arriving by land.
"Right now we're so happy, but exhausted from all the tension. There
were so many desperate moments," said Caballero.
Perez, 30, was one of a group of Cuban migrants rescued at sea by
Mexican fishermen this month off the Yucatan peninsula badly
sunburned and dehydrated after three weeks adrift.
Only 15 of the 32 passengers of her boat survived the journey from
Manzanillo in eastern Cuba, with 15 dying at sea, and two more dying
after they were rescued.
"It was such a battle to get here," Perez said later, as she sat
down to a traditional Cuban dinner of chicken, and "congri" (rice
and beans) prepared by her husband. "I'm happy, but sad for the ones
who didn't make it."
The group set off on August 7, and were forced to fashion a
makeshift sail for their vessel after the motor failed early in the
journey. One by one the passengers died as supplies of food, and
then water, ran out. Their bodies were thrown overboard.
Caballero, 40, said his wife lost eight cousins on the boat, adding
that she had been an assistant at a blood bank in Cuba and brought
medical supplies with her.
"For her it's going to be hard. Right now she is happy she made it,
but imagine the trauma she feels," he said.
Caballero left Cuba by the same route in December on a boat carrying
47 people, and is now a maintenance worker at a trucking company in
Austin. "We were at sea for only nine days and I still have
nightmares about drowning," he said.
Mexican officials detained the Cubans for two weeks before releasing
them, saying Cuba had not recognized them as its citizens.
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Under the "wet foot, dry foot policy" of the United States, Cuban
migrants who make it onto U.S. soil are allowed to remain while
those intercepted at sea are turned back.
Cubans seeking to flee the communist-run island are heading in
increasing numbers to Central America or southern Mexico and then
making a long journey overland to reach the United States.
U.S. authorities say 16,200 Cubans arrived without visas at the
border with Mexico in the past 11 months, the highest number in a
decade.
Caballero said his wife had previously tried unsuccessfully to leave
Cuba four times by boat and he tried to persuade her not to try
again. "But there was no stopping her," he said.
The couple left two children behind with relatives in Cuba, a boy
aged 11 and a girl aged four.
"That's our hope now, to bring them to the United States," said
Caballero. "But not the way we came. Not by sea."
(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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