The Compassionate

 

In one of the photos of our wedding day I was crying, and I started to cry since we were declared husband and wife. In that picture I am holding my wife’s flowers, she gave them to me to help me settle down. It worked, and a few minutes later I was calm and happy again.

On the way to the hotel, where we were going to have our wedding dinner Christina was driving and I said, “We are married!!!”, and started to cry again, this time inconsolably encouraged by the fact that we were alone in the car. I could not stop!  Again, Christina gave me a map of Seattle and told me “here, help us get there!”.

Why was I crying so hard? Yes, I was very happy but there was more, and it will all make sense if you keep reading.

1993 was a difficult year for me and my relationship with Christina. Sincerely, I thought that we could not survive that year. In 1992 I decided not to return to Cuba, for my own reasons and applied for refugee status under the Geneva Convention in Canada. Because I was very ignorant about the process a Canadian friend of mine represented me before the immigration board during my hearing. He did not know what he was doing either and we lost the case.

After the refugee application fiasco, Christina told me, - Marino, you need a lawyer, I will help you get a real one. She contacted an organization that helps refugees in the lower mainland, and they recommended Catherine Sas, a young Vancouver immigration lawyer, a very decent person.

Through Catherine’s office, we applied to remain in Canada under Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds. Those days were difficult for me and Christina. Immigration was pressing me to leave the country and they use every means available to them. I was even arrested by the RCMP on one occasion when I went to the Coquitlam detachment to have a criminal record check. When Christina learned about my arrest, she called Catherine.  Catherine wasted no time and contacted the Vancouver Sun.  The next day The Sun sent a journalist and a photographer to cover the story to the Coquitlam RCMP detachment. Under that pressure, the RCMP and Immigration buckled, and I was released. 

The following day the newspaper published my story and I became a small celebrity. There were also concerns that I could be picked up by the Cubans and after my release, I did not return to my apartment and instead spent a few nights roaming the streets of Vancouver and sleeping in the dorms of the downtown Salvation Army.

“Could my relationship with Christina survive all of that?” I had that question in my mind day and night. “Tomorrow, I will tell her to not see me again, it would be best for her to forget about me”, but then the next morning I would see her face, she would greet me with a hug and it would disarm my intentions.

After the Salvation Army experience, I spent a few weeks hidden in Abbotsford. Everyone was looking for me! “They” even asked Christina, but she would not give me away – “No idea where he is!”. After a while of playing these games of cat and mouse, Catherine secured an agreement with immigration that I would not be harassed by anyone until the humanitarian case was reviewed. I did not have to be in hiding anymore.

The result of the humanitarian case was devastating, it was also denied. A few days later I received a letter from immigration informing me that I had a few days to arrange my departure from Canada and once that time expired, I would be removed by them.

With the ultimatum letter from immigration in hand Christina and I went to see Catherine and, in her office, she told me that there was nothing she could do to help me. Then she asked us “Do you love each other?” – “yes,” said Christina, “Then get married!”. “-I could not do it” – I said. On the way to my apartment, I explained to Christina my reason. I told her that I loved her very much but could not marry her like that, that it would be wrong. She told me that she would marry me, that she loved me, that she wanted to help me, and that she will never look back. I said no.

She was so good to me.

1993 was a dark year for us, but in December of 1994, we got married. Our relationship survived everything and in the end, we united our lives because we were free to do it. However, it showed me that Christina was a very compassionate person and for that, I loved her more.

Now you know the reason I cried when we got married and when I realized that we were really married. The story of how I entered the US escaping from Canada could come out of an espionage novel. For years I was asked how I crossed the border into the US and my story never had Christina in it and believe me no one could get it out of me. But now, no one can hurt Christina and her bravery and intelligence need to also be honored and I will tell it in a different post.