Cuba made it to the front page of different Canadian newspapers again. I am glad when my small and noisy island gets to the international news and people are able to see and hopefully learn something about such an isolated country.

Now the reason is sports, in particular the defection of athletes in a recent event in Canada. Nothing new under the sun, a Cuban would say,  but this time FIFA is making a big deal out of it. They have the right to ask questions and do what is there to do as a part of their job but I have to laugh at how serious this is becoming, when this is just a superficial layer of the real big problem.

What happened here is a consequence of what has been going on in Cuba for many years. Not everyone wants to leave Cuba but the majority of the young people are looking for a way out. Every time a country gives a visa to a Cuban they are taking a risk and they know it. That is exactly why is not easy for a Cuban to get a visa to go anywhere. These athletes made it to the news because it was a more important event but what about the guy playing the marakas in a small Cuban band that no ones knows about, the dancer from Cienfuegos who is now working at a bar in Paris, the teacher who disappeared after a conference in Argentina, the doctor who left after a mission to stay in Honduras? They also deserve to be in the news and who is there to talk about it? Who is getting punished for this?

Just take a look at the size of the Cuban community in Chile or Spain. No one can stop this, not FIFA, not the Cuban government.

Maybe all this fuss will help us to show the world our situation and people will start to wonder why thousands of Cubans are so desperate to leave the island, not only chasing the American dream as Cuban coach Gonzalez likes to put it, but ANY dream. There are Cubans in Japan, South Africa, Russia and every corner of this world. The lucky ones make it to the States, where sometimes they have family or friends, they are 90 miles away from Cuba and the US government accepts them as soon as they are on their territory.

But not everything is a Hollywood flick, most of Cubans cope with loneliness and everything that comes with becoming an immigrant. The Cubans are the ones who have been punished for the system they have and the only future they see is out of their home.

The only words I have for those guys who crossed the border are: All the best! At least they were sane enough to not to leave on a raft.