The Cuban father who crossed the Rio Grande on the leg is grateful to be alive

Julio Martinezthe disabled Cuban who crossed the Rio Grande with only one leg, He is grateful to be alive and to be reunited with his family in the United States.

“I’m here and I have to risk crossing,” Julio says, thinking for a moment before jumping into the river current that divides the border between Mexico and the United States.

The father of two daughters had left Cuba by plane on April 3 and covered the Central American route from Nicaragua.

At dawn on April 25, Martinez crossed the Rio Grande in the Piedras Negras region, with the help of two other Cuban immigrants.

“I brought my legs from Cuba. They [quienes me auxiliaban] They brought me my legs, as well as the backpack, which I could not carry,” he tells of crossing across the river By Maileen Leganewa of Telemundo News.

After ascending to the Rio Grande, the disabled immigrant turned himself in to the American authorities, and a day later he had already met his daughters and his wife, with whom he had been married for more than forty years.

“There was a lot of emotion. We haven’t seen him in a long time,” Jennifer Martinez, one of his daughters, said of the emotional reunion.

Julio, now living in his new country of residence, hopes to be able to get a new, high-quality prosthesis in the future, giving him “more ease”.

In early April, her daughter Jennifer was released Video on social media Where he summarized his father’s difficult journey to reach the American soil.

The photos show what it was like to cross over, as Cuban makes his two companions tied with rope, a resource increasingly frequent among migrants trying to battle the treacherous river current.

“My warrior, my role model, my hero. I love you, and only God knows how much I asked for this moment. Days of pain, agony and anxiety but today I am very sick,” his daughter wrote in the post.

Although the Rio Grande is shallow, there are parts that suddenly reach 2.5 meters in height, and its current rises constantly, so crossing it is always risky.

Record a recent report by the Mexican National Institute of Migration 19 bodies of migrants drownedFound in the river so far this year by authorities in the state of Coahuila.

what a total 78903 Cuban It arrived in the United States through its southern border in the first six months of the 2022 fiscal year, which began in October. This is an unprecedented wave of immigration since the Mariel Crisis of 1980.