For all the talk of history, of breaking down barriers and of forging new relationships, what Brayan Pena, a Cuban defector, will remember most of Major League Baseball’s goodwill tour to the island are the tears.
Pena, who left his homeland at 16, returned to Havana on Tuesday and was greeted by nearly two dozen relatives, many he hadn’t seen since 1999.
“Words cannot describe what it’s been like,” said Pena, who admitted he cried when he arrived at Havana’s venerable Hotel Nacional, where he and seven other major league players were greeted by more than a 100 journalists, fans and family members.