DORAL, Fla. (WSVN) — A group of 21 Cuban migrants who arrived to South Florida, Friday, recorded their passage to freedom in a video that has gone viral. One of them said their arrival marks the start of a new life.
Twenty-one people were on board a boat that landed in the Marquesas Keys, Friday evening. As the vessel hit the white sand of the key, migrant Silvio Hernandez used a cellphone camera to document their arrival.
"We made it to land," one of the migrants is heard saying in Spanish as the boat approached the Keys.
The footage also captured the migrants themselves, their sunburned faces filled with excitement as they cheered for the camera. "This calls for a collective kiss," one of the migrants is heard saying as he looked at the camera.
The video was uploaded to YouTube, where it has over 26,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon.
7News spoke with Hernandez at a hotel room provided to him and his loved ones by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. As he sat in bed next to his father and a family friend, he said it was an 18-hour boat ride from Cuba to the Marquesas Keys.
Hernandez said he and the 20 other migrants came to the U.S. on a handmade boat made out of various materials. They also added an engine to the vessel.
Hernandez said this was his 13th attempt to leave the island nation. He said he is looking forward to a future he probably wouldn’t have in Cuba. "It’s like being born again," he said in Spanish.
Some of the migrants said, with the help of the Migration and Refugee Services, they will be heading to San Diego, where they plan to work and live. Others said they will be going to other cities in the country.