Out of Bondage

The purpose of Out of Bondage: The Cuban Exodus is simply to share with the readers the events-some very intense-that strongly impacted my life. It is written directly from my memory; therefore, some dates might not be exact, but the events are as clear in my mind as at the time of their occurrence. It is a journey from oppression to freedom and a profound expression of gratitude to Spain, which made the journey faster and easier by granting our visas in less than four hours and allowed us to stay in that beautiful and hospitable country for almost five months, and to our adoptive homeland, the United States of America, for welcoming us. The exceedingly difficult situations described in this book had a positive aspect, because each one of them made our character stronger and our faith firmer as a gift from God, whose power and mercy we felt every time there was a serious problem that we could not solve in our own. It is not necessary to add anything else at this time. The book presents a clear narrative of the journey where the reader may also find diversity-a recently used-and-abused concept-at work. I let the reader discover the character-building struggles and the spiritual growth that was directly proportional to the intensity of the hardships and overt or covert persecution. As Father Merito Gonzalez said in Spain during a homily: "How do we know our strengths without tests and trials?"