Anecdotal Statistics?

Ive had eight guys working at my home from three different companies – tile guys, electrical guys, counter guys – and they’ve all been Cuban. One guy came on a boat during Mariel, another guy came in the nineties also on a boat, a couple of them came on rafts over five years ago, a couple guys were smuggled in about a year and a half ago and one guy – Id say the youngest of them all, about 25- arrived in the US – smuggled in – three weeks ago. He left his wife and two young kids behind.
Ive tried not to discuss Cuban politics all that much with these guys – focusing our conversations mostly on family and cultural issues. I learned the hard way that its best to sometimes not discuss politics a few years ago when I had a couple young Cuban guys working on my pool and overheard one of them saying how he was saving up to vacation in Cuba and live like a king, getting laid left and right and all that in Cuba. I asked him how the hell he could exploit his own people like that and he called me a gusano. Needless to say, I kicked his ass off my property post haste.
But this young guys that’s been here less than a month has really touched me. Not only does he bust his behind from start of day to finish – from my home he takes off to his second job, not getting back to his family’s house in Westchester till way after midnight. Now here’s a kid that wasnt allowed to work in Cuba – punishment for trying to leave the coutry during that Mexican embassy thing a few years ago – literally busting his hump 16 hours a day.
He breaks his back daily to earn enough money not to travel back to Cuba an act like a king or to lavish relatives with gifts and cash and show off his newfound riches. He says he has no interest in buying his family cellphones or toasters. He tells me he has no intention of ever living in Cuba again and all he wants, all he works for – day in and day out – is to bring his wife and kids to La Yuma.
“In Cuba,” he says. “My kids have no future.”