Cuban-Americans welcome travel, money opportunities

By PATRICIO G. BALONA , News Journal Staff Writer

DELAND -- Susana Veliz's eyes get red fighting back tears as she talks about the aunt in Cuba she hasn't seen in 42 years.

But sadness quickly turns to joy with the knowledge she'll soon be allowed to visit her native land after the Obama Administration on Monday allowed unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban-Americans to family in Cuba.

"If they open, baby, I'll be the first one to go," Veliz said Monday, jumping up at Havana Cuba Restaurant, the eatery she and her husband own in downtown DeLand.

Veliz, 55, and her husband, Juan Veliz, 62, have waited for an opportunity to travel freely to Cuba. She left when she was 12 and has not been back in 42 years. Her husband has not returned to the island nation since his arrival in the United States in 1961.

"Because of (former President Fidel) Castro I left, why should I go back and give him money?" Juan Veliz said shortly after the lunch rush, briefly stepping out of the kitchen to add to the conversation.

Marlene Vales, 42, who works at the restaurant, hopes that the unlimited travel means Cuban-Americans will be able to travel with their American documents to Cuba. That would remove having to pay $300 for a Cuban passport and $150 for a Cuban visa. Most ordinary Cubans cannot afford that demand from Castro's government, she said.

But above all, families will be able to reunite, Vales said.

Vales has been in the United States for 28 years and has been to Cuba once, in 1994, to visit an aunt and uncle in Havana. Most of the gifts and goods she was taking were confiscated at the airport in Cuba.

"For me and my people wanting to see our families, this is good news," Vales said.

Susana Veliz hopes lifting of some of the sanctions will cut down on the black market created by the embargoes.

"I hate to say this because I am Cuban, but there are Cubans in Miami who are getting rich by overcharging Cubans who want to send things to Cuba. And the families then have to pay Castro's people a percentage of the fees to get the goods in," Veliz said. "Free travel will take away that dependency from both groups."