New Land, New Lives : Immigrants Whose Lucky Streak Began With a Message in a Bottle Are Honored by Student Pen Pals

Luis and Miriam Abreu looked out upon the adoring schoolchildren who made their dream possible, the one about simple joys such as seeing skyscrapers and feasting on steaks and hamburgers.

The newcomers to Orange County spoke with emotion Thursday, telling the two dozen Harbor Day School fifth-graders about the satisfaction of hearty meals after a lifetime of struggling to feed their family back in their native Cuba.

“The first thing I wanted to eat was a big, thick steak with French potatoes,” said Luis Abreu, 52, who had a five-year pen-pal correspondence with the students passing through teacher Judy d’Albert’s class.

The story actually began in 1990 with d’Albert, who had put a message from her class in a bottle and dropped it into the Caribbean. It floated to the northern coastal town of Caibarien in Cuba, where Luis Abreu found it.

Then, after years of trying, the couple won one of the 5,000 visas issued by the U.S. State Department through an annual lottery for legal immigration from Cuba. The Harbor Day students swung into action, collecting $1,800 to cover most of the couple’s travel expenses. They arrived in Orange County on March 6.

And what a difference a month has made.

Both the Abreus’ spirits were noticeably high Thursday, and Luis wore an extra 17 pounds since his arrival. But he sported the same Angels baseball cap the children gave him when the couple got off the plane at John Wayne Airport.

As for Miriam Abreu, 46, who arrived in fragile health from malnutrition, she has gained rosy cheeks and a new hairstyle.

At an all-school assembly that ended with a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land,” the Abreus were honored by children, parents and teachers as well as new friends and strangers.

“You planted a seed in our hearts,” Miriam Abreu said through an interpreter at the morning gathering. “There was love that grew and multiplied, with you giving us hope for the future.”

The couple are living in Santa Ana with a family who agreed to house them until they can get on their feet.

So far, they’ve taken in the basic wonders of Southern California, being driven around to see the sights, such as the skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim Stadium, where Luis Abreu had a chance to touch the grass.

“I missed my opportunity to be a professional baseball player in Cuba,” he told the audience.

And they’ve lost their fear of living in hunger.

The couple cried when they first saw the abundance of fruit and vegetables and other groceries typically unavailable in Cuba. “Pobre pueblo de Cuba” (Poor people of Cuba), Luis Abreu would say when visiting a supermarket.

And Miriam Abreu weeps often because she misses her two sons, Luis Jr., 24, and Ricardo, 22, who stayed behind because, as adults, they were not included in the visa.

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Their new life is not without worries or obstacles.

Luis Abreu, whose tentative English has improved, spoke of the possibility of moving into a home bigger than his abode in Cuba, about the size of a two-car garage. And he spoke of work, regular work that would enable him to get on his feet.

“Right now, we live off the air and from the help of our friends,” Luis Abreu said. “I don’t want to live like this forever, though. I didn’t come here to be a public burden.”

“They told me yesterday that it may take up to 80 days to get a working permit,” he explained, tapping a Social Security card that reads “Not valid for work.”

A bus driver who made $10 a month in Cuba, Luis Abreu hopes to begin training next week so he can accept one of several truck-driving jobs he has been offered. After two failed attempts, he finally has a California driver’s license.

Mountains of paperwork must still be crossed before the Abreus will be independent and no longer need to rely on the kindness of a host of benefactors, including 44-year Cuban immigrants Jose and Nora Cueto, with whom the Abreus are staying.

But the Abreus are used to beating the odds.

They were on the last charter flight out of Cuba to Miami on Feb. 24, the same day two unarmed Cessnas being flown by anti-Castro Cuban Americans were shot down off Cuba’s coast. That act caused the Clinton administration to stop all further flights.

Apparently, their lucky streak has not ended. Two weeks ago, the Abreus’ name was drawn from a hat of 3,000 entries at a concert. The prize: round-trip air fare to Miami. “We’ll use [the prize] when our sons get their visas,” Luis Abreu said.

“The story itself is incredible,” said Maria Garcia, a Cuban immigrant who was a guest at the Harbor Day School assembly. “The bottle, winning the visa lottery, getting on the last flight out, then finding a home here. . . . There’s a purpose for this man, and we’ll find out what it is.”