Only 90 miles separate Cuba from Florida, but for more Cubans living in our area, home is a distant land.
Liz Evora, a journalist for our sister station InfoMas, left the island nine years ago without hope of ever going back or seeing her father again.
Evora recently returned to Cuba and reported on her journey as part of the exclusive series "Cuba: A Journey Home." Evora couldn't go back as an American journalist, and instead she used her Cuban passport.
"I was so afraid to go back home," she said. "It was very hard for me to live [there] so going back was like, insecurities, what could happen to me? If they hold me there, if I cannot come back."
She said that when she finally landed in Cuba, it was as if she had never left.
"It’s like a time machine, going to Cuba," Evora said. "It was like the day before. If I close my eyes and I open them, it was not nine years. It was the day before, and everything was the same, the same places and even some of the people in the same places.
There were some differences, though. Evora goes in-depth on transportation, security and other topics in a special series she produced for InfoMas.
Evora said it was important for her to share this side of Cuba - one people don't normally talk about.
"I want people to know the reality from what the Cuban says and what the Cuban reality looks like and to see how we can build bridges," she said.
The special program airs tonight at 7 p.m. on InfoMas, located on channel 900 or 1900 HD, exclusively on Bright House Networks.
Read more from Liz in spanish here.