Posted on 06/23/2004 6:21:32 PM PDT by wagglebee
With hugs, kisses and misty eyes, Yankee pitcher was reunited with his wife and daughters in Miami last night after his family's daring nighttime escape from Cuba.
The big righthander last saw his loved ones 18 months ago, just before he defected to the U.S.
In a bizarre twist, they came together again on a Miami street when their limos crossed paths on the way to a hotel. The cars stopped and the long-separated couple said they ran to each other with tears in their eyes.
"Miriam, at last you are free," Contreras told her.
"I thought I'd never see you again," she answered, throwing her arms around his neck.
Contreras said he hugged and kissed his daughters, Naylenis, 3, and Naylan, 11, after his youngest peeked from the limo and asked shyly, "Papito, why don't you come over here? I love you very much."
Miriam Murillo-Flores, the girls, her sister Yamile Murillo, and Murillo's husband, Omar Rodriguez, survived a harrowing trip across the shark-infested Florida Strait in a crowded smugglers' boat that was chased through the dark by the Coast Guard.
"What I kept thinking all the time was God, please allow us to get to the U.S. with no problems. May God protect us," she said last night in Spanish.
"I was afraid I was not going to make it," she said earlier in the day after being released by immigration officials.
"Life is very precious."
Instead of stopping, the smugglers cut their lights and ran their boat aground on Big Pine Key an hour before sunrise Monday, knowing that the Cubans would be granted asylum if they made it safely to shore.
Contreras flew to Miami from Baltimore, where the Yankees played the Orioles last night. They were to reunite at the airport, but missed each other and headed instead to the Loews Hotel in separate limos.
After the reunion, Murillo-Flores said, "Now I'm going to make up for lost time and enjoy the good things of life with my family. I am going to enjoy life.
The reunion closes an agonizing chapter in the life of the 32-year-old pitcher, a Cuban national team star who infuriated dictator Fidel Castro when he fled Oct. 25, 2002, seeking freedom and financial security for his family.
Contreras has been struggling on the mound, and his wife - in a wrenching interview with the Daily News published earlier this month - said her husband was homesick and missed his family.
"Some days, when we speak, Jose sounds so sad that I get really worried and try to cheer him up," Murillo-Flores, 31, said. "I tell him, 'We have to be patient; things are going to work out.'"
Murillo-Flores and her daughters lived in the crumbling colonial city of Pinar Del Rio. It was not clear when Contreras prepared his family's escape, but in February he dismissed defection as too dangerous because his daughters were so young.
"If they were adults, I would have done it," he said. "There could be worse consequences and I'd never be able to forgive myself for the rest of my life."
But sometime between then and Monday, an escape plan was hatched.
John Coffin, who runs Sea Tow Florida Keys on Big Pine Key, said the smugglers chose perfect weather to flee Cuba. The seas were calm. The trade winds were light.
Under the cover of darkness, the smugglers in a red powerboat - dubbed a "go-fast" by locals - picked up their passengers Monday in Cuba for a trip that would take less than 12 hours, sources said.
They were doing about 25 knots when their boat, overflowing with Cubans, was spotted about 3 a.m. by the Coast Guard and ordered to stop. Instead, the driver gunned the engine and ran aground about 20 yards from the shore line.
"This is one of the favorite places for smugglers to ditch their boats," Coffin said. "They hit the beach and everybody gets out and runs. Highway 1 is close by, so they usually have a car waiting there to pick up the smugglers and refugees."
It's also a treacherous landing spot.
"It's not a nice place to come ashore - sharp rocks, tidal pools, a hard place to run up on your bare feet," Coffin said.
James and Paulette Holzinger were asleep in their beachfront house when their dogs began barking incessantly.
"We looked out the window at the ocean and it looked like the invasion of Mars," James Holzinger said. "White lights and boats were coming straight at us, like they were going to drive right up out of the ocean into our bedroom."
Holzinger said the lights belonged to the Coast Guard boats. The smugglers' boat, which ran without lights, ran aground with the engine still running.
"Everyone on board got off," he said. "I didn't hear any screaming or crying. It didn't sound like any big panic, just a lot of chatter, and then it got quiet."
Contreras' family and two dozen other Cubans were taken into custody about 5:15 a.m. Monday and released at 6:45p.m. last night, said Barbara Gonzalez of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last night, the normally stoic and tight-lipped Contreras grinned from ear to ear and poured out his plans for his family.
"Aside from seeing Yankee Stadium and the beautiful city, we will go to the Empire State Building and all the other beautiful things New York has to offer," he said.
Murillo-Flores' first day in the United States was spent at the Krome Detention Center in Miami, where she was fingerprinted and questioned.
For some refugees, the stay at Krome can last as long as a month in conditions akin to a minimum-security jail.
But because Contreras' wife is Cuban, her time at Krone was short.
"They've been processed and paroled into the community," Gonzalez said.
Contreras' teammates and coaches said they knew how much he missed his family.
"Even though he didn't talk about it, we knew it was on his mind," Yankee third-base coach Luis Sojo said. "He never talked about it, but when you leave your family, it makes a big difference."
Manager Joe Torre said he, too, was delighted his struggling pitcher would be reunited with his family.
"Everybody goes home to someone who offers support," Torre said. "He hasn't had that. The fact that he's going to be able to see his wife and children, I'm sure, is going to be a big relief."
When Murillo-Flores emerged from the refugee center, she was greeted by hundreds of émigré Cubans chanting "bienvenido, bienvenido," which means welcome - and a crush of television cameras.
Wearing a black T-shirt and gray sweatpants supplied by immigration officials, Murillo-Flores and her daughters were rushed to a waiting 20-foot limousine and taken to the offices of a Catholic Church group that handles family reunions.
While there, they munched on Cuban sandwiches while they waited for Contreras to fly in from Baltimore.
"I feel so happy, you can only imagine," Murillo-Flores said. "I want to do so many things I don't know where to start, but above all, I'm going to support my husband in his career."
After their reunion, Contreras said, "Now that I have my family here, it completes the dream."
I'm going there on Friday, for 3 days.
I will report how bad Castro has destroyed this country.
My mother's family went there every year until 1959, they say it is the most beautiful country in the Caribbean. Until Castro took over it was also the wealthiest. Granted, Battista was a corrupt dictator, but Castro has destroyed the country. I don't know why Reagan didn't take Castro out after Grenada in 1983, it was a perfect opportunity.
God bless this family ... Free Cuba!
Free Elian!
Free Luis Gonzales! When is Castro going to kick off, already?! Why do scum always seem to live so long?
I didn't know you could avoid the Coast Guard by simply turning your lights off, have they no RADAR?
I have a feeling the Coast Guard was tipped-off and didn't try to hard to stop them.
It's a good thing Janet Reno wasn't in office.
As a Yankee fan, can I ask you a favor? Would you mind asking around and seeing if the Cuban people are aware of the Contreras family's defection? I read that the Cuban government is censoring all info about it. Thanks!
No can do, sorry.
Talking about anything remotely political is absolutely off-limits in this Leftist Utopia.
I can see it now, a SWAT team going in to Yankee Stadium during a live broadcast game and taking a player's family to return them to Cuba. You know if the left would do half as much for America as they do to pander to third-world dictators, we would have very few problems.
It's somewhat ironic, Castro had tried-out to be a Yankee's pitcher in the late 40's or early 50's. If he had made the team, Cuba would probably be a very different place.
The Cuban people were all aware of Contreras' defection.
I really didn't ask them about if they knew his wife had left. It seemed a bit trivial.
They were relatively open about their thoughts. The regime is not well liked at all.
Thanks for the report. I was at the Yankee-Mets game where Contreras pitched for the first time since getting his family back. He was awesome -- I have watched almost every single game all year, including most games that he has pitched, and this was the first time he gave off an aura of confidence. It's like he's a different pitcher now.
They managed to touch American soil and it saved them from being repatriated to Castro's Gulag. It reminds us of the risks and hardships people living in dictatorships are willing to put up with to reach a life of freedom in America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.