Cuban Emigres Welcome 1 Son, Pine for the Other

Luis Abreu tried to express the bittersweet emotions building inside him as he waited Sunday for his youngest son to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport from Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

“This is both a happy and sad moment for us,” he said. Miriam, his wife, wiped tears from her eyes and nodded.

The couple left their island nation in March 1996, winners of visas issued in an annual lottery by the U.S. State Department for legal emigration from Cuba.

Left behind were their sons, Ricardo, now 24, and Luis, now 26.

Ricardo Abreu and his family also won the coveted U.S. visas, but it was not until Sunday that they arrived in Southern California.

On Sunday, Luis and Miriam Abreu, of Santa Ana, waited anxiously for a glimpse of their son, whom they had not seen in more than two years. They also wanted to hold their 7-month-old granddaughter, also named Miriam.

“After two years of not seeing our sons, we finally get to see Ricardo. But there is also tremendous sadness inside of us. Unbelievable sadness because we cannot have our other son with us. We are not complete as a family,” said Luis Abreu, a truck driver.

Their other son, who also has a family in Cuba and is desperately looking for a way to emigrate, pleaded with his father not to forget him.

“I telephone him about four times a month. As the day neared for Ricardo to leave Cuba, Luis told me, ‘Father, please don’t forget about me. Don’t leave me in Cuba,’ ” said the elder Abreu. “You can imagine the sadness I carried for days after my son asked me not to forget about him.” Ricardo’s flight arrived almost 10 minutes earlier than scheduled, but the few minutes the elder Abreus spent waiting turned into hours. The airline changed the arrival gate, further heightening the couple’s anxiety.

Luis Abreu cupped his hands over his face and the furrows on his wife’s forehead expressed a mother’s worry that something may have gone wrong. Dozens of passengers on the flight from Miami had already filed through the gate, and now the flight crew was beginning to walk by.

“Where’s my son?” she asked.

No sooner had she asked the question when she let out a shriek.

Ricardo, his wife, Mercedes, 7-month-old Miriam and Jose Luis, 8, entered the terminal and were quickly enveloped by the grandparents.

Ricardo fell into his father’s arms, crying. His mother grabbed her granddaughter and shed tears of joy.

“I never thought this day would ever come,” Ricardo Abreu said. “I am so grateful to be in this country, reunited with my mother and father. It is a miracle too big for me to comprehend, to be in the United States.”

Luis Abreu grabbed his son and whispered in his ear. The younger man, who arrived in Miami from Cuba with his family Aug. 30, nodded his head and burst into tears.

Later, before he was whisked away in a crowd of well-wishers who included students and former students from the Harbor Day School who helped Luis and Miriam Abreu emigrate from Cuba, Ricardo explained what he told his older brother before leaving.

“I told Luis he too should have hope. I told him not to give up hope. One day we should all be together again as a family. I know in my heart this will happen,” he said.

Earlier, Luis Abreu had also expressed hope that his older son will soon be able to leave Cuba one way or another:

“We are Catholic. We never lost our faith. I have tremendous faith that Castro will not be there forever, separating us. We are destined to live together again, as a family. If nothing more, we can wait until Castro dies.”