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mes to Reina was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1970. He made four attempts to leave the island but was captured each time. Three times he served jailed sentences. In August 1994, responding to the growing exodus of Cubans who were leaving the is fond illegally, Premier Fidel Castro (1926- ) said that all those who wanted to go could do so. Tens of thousands boarded homemade rafts and ventured across the Caribbean Sea to Florida. One of them was Reina, who was twenty-five years old at the time, with a wife and a six-month-old child.

Reina kept a journal of his experiences, which was published in Spain in the magazine El Mundo. This translation was prepared by Beth Wellington. More than just a harrowing true-life adventure, Reina's diary offers a compelling, first-person glimpse into the psychology of refuge. From the outset, Reina asks himself pointed philosophical questions about his actions: Why did I have to come to...