Family reunited in time for Thanksgiving

Perez, husband Livan Pimienta and their daughter, Jilian, went to Disney World.

It was like a dream, Perez said. She rode roller coasters and got a good scare on Space Mountain. Jilian, 6, returned to their Golden Gate home with a book about Cinderella and Snow White, the princess of her own fairy tale-in-progress, one where "happily ever after" is only the start of the story.

Perez, 34, and her daughter arrived from Cuba in October, rejoining Pimienta after a year and three months apart. This is their first Thanksgiving together.

"We are very happy in this moment," said Pimienta, 37, giving his wife a squeeze. "I couldn't say that last year. I'm with my sweetheart."

In 2002, through the Cuban lottery, Perez had a chance for her family to receive visas and move to the United States.

In Cuba, Pimienta was a physician; now he works in construction, laying tiles. Perez was an attorney. Their combined monthly salary was about $40 -- hardly enough to live, and not nearly enough for the whole family to make a move to the United States. Pimienta traveled to Naples alone to work and save the almost $1,500 needed to bring his wife and daughter over, too.

Away from them, he was lonely, he said. He longed for his country, his friends.

"When I was alone, I feel bad," he said.

In Cuba, Perez waited too. After the lottery, she was required by the government to quit her job. Forbidden from work, she stayed home, gathering with neighborhood women twice a day to visit.

"Imagine," she said in Spanish. "Alone, very sad."

Then, on Oct. 16, four days after Perez and Pimienta's ninth wedding anniversary, Perez and Jilian flew into Miami. Everything has been an adventure since then, Perez said, a blur of disbelief. The first time she entered a U.S. grocery store, she said, someone should have taken a photo of her awestruck expression.

In Cuba, her family's monthly food rations included five pounds of rice and three to five pounds of beans per person, she said. Children could have milk every other day until they turned 7 years old. After that, Perez said, no more milk. And meat was a luxury, one that had to be sought.

"Here, you go to the stores, you see food," Perez said. "You have the liberty of buying what you want. Here, you can choose."

Pimienta was a doctor for 15 years in Cuba, but his salary wasn't enough to buy extra food for his family on the black market or a car to drive to work each day. Instead, he rode a bicycle, arriving at the hospital tired and dirty.

Now, he drives a red Ford Expedition and his daughter has a bike of her own -- a pink and purple two-wheeler with training wheels, metallic streamers on the handlebars and a glittery seat with "CUBA" written in small letters on the back. Jilian is in the first grade at Golden Terrace Elementary School.

Everything is so different, Perez said.

She hasn't learned English yet, and is trying to understand the customs of her new country. She marvels that she can hold any opinion she wishes. And she has a fierce craving for a cup of Cuban coffee prepared the way she used to drink it, she said.

But everything is so much better; she is ready to start her new life.

"I'm very thankful because I'm by my husband, by my parents," she said.

Perez's parents live in Orlando; before last month, she hadn't seen her mother in 10 years.

Yolanda Herrera, Perez's case worker at Catholic Charities of Collier County, hopes to find Perez a job at one of the area's large retail stores, such as Target or T.J. Maxx. Someday, Perez would like to return to practicing law; Pimienta would like to resume medicine.

For now, though, it is enough to be together again.

The family is staying with an aunt and uncle in Golden Gate until they can move out on their own, and Pimienta's parents live in Golden Gate Estates. Today, if the aunt's health allows, they will all gather for turkey dinner and start their new Thanksgiving tradition.

"It's going to be a special day," Pimienta said.