Why was everyone crying?
Ignacio Montoya joined his extended family at the Camagüey airport in Cuba and wondered why tears were streaming down their faces.
All the 6-year-old boy knew was that he and his father were taking a trip.
Why would that make people cry?
He did not understand that he would never return to Cuba. It was 1997, and his father, after whom Ignacio was named, had won the legal visa lottery, allowing him and his only son to emigrate to the United States. They likely would never see their relatives again.
Ignacio had not seen so many tears since his mother died from leukemia, two years earlier.
She’s gone to heaven, his father had told him. Mami lives with God in a beautiful, peaceful place in the sky.
Once Ignacio was on board the plane, his family’s tears were forgotten as he took in every chime, every light, every click of a safety belt, every shutting of a bin. And when the jet took off, he watched in wonder as the sunlight glinted off the silver wings of the jet.
As they zoomed skyward, he wondered: Were they going to heaven, too?
Someplace like it, his father said.
It was dusk when the plane began to descend, and the cabin buzzed with excitement.
Libertad! Libertad! the passengers shouted. Freedom.
“I could see the twinkling lights of Miami and see how happy everyone was, and it was magic,” Ignacio, 26, recalled. “People were laughing and crying, and I was laughing just because everyone was so happy. I thought it had to do just with the plane.
“I decided then and there that I wanted to fly one of those things, because if it made people that happy, I wanted to bring them that kind of happiness.”
ABOUT THE STORY
Virginia Lynne Anderson was working on a different Personal Journey last year when Jenifer Shockley with Georgia State University’s Robinson School of Business told her about Ignacio Montoya. Anderson spent four months getting to know him and trying to discover how he stays so optimistic and determined. The answer appears to be simple: Ignacio Montoya is a remarkable man who is just wired that way.
Suzanne Van Atten
Personal Journeys editor
personaljourneys@ajc.com
ABOUT THE REPORTER AND PHOTOGRAPHER
Virginia Lynne Anderson is the senior health and medicine editor for The Conversation. She has been a medical and healthcare reporter and editor for more than a dozen years, focused primarily on health inequalities and the gaps in medical care between the rich and poor. She is an alumna of the University of Georgia and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Hyosub Shin was born and raised in South Korea. Inspired by the work of National Geographic photographers, he came to the United States to study photography and joined the AJC photo staff in 2007. Past assignments include the Georgia Legislative session, Atlanta Dream’s Eastern Conference title game, the Atlanta Air Show and the Atlanta Braves’ National League Division Series.
Read more of our Personal Journeys at myAJC.com/personaljourneys.
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