Cuban baseball and the Miami Marlins are intrinsically linked. Both broadly in a geo-political sense (Nearby Island, political turmoil, civil unrest, it’s a lot to paint but you get it. A lot of people have left the country for overwhelming motivations) and in a specifically MLB baseball sense, Miami has been home to numerous cuban players including current minor leaguers Víctor Mesa Jr., Víctor Víctor Mesa and Yiddi Cappe; as well as José Fernández who’s name can elicit a well spring of emotion to those familiar.
As a fan of the team since 2003 when it felt relevant to my parents to turn on a game and as a publicly educated Floridian; It was easy to find inspiration in their 2011 1st round draft pick out of Tampa who was selected after numerous attempts to defect from Cuba and appeals to gain High School eligibility as a pitcher at Alonso High School basically facing struggle far greater than can be found on the Diamond.