4/23/2024 0 Comments La cubana bus ticket pricesHis options, he said, are stark: He will have to find an employer to sponsor his application for a green card, or he and his wife will look for Americans to pose as their spouses, a black market service that could cost about $10,000 for each of them. If they decide to stay, they would face the challenge of becoming legal residents. His wife and two children were planning to join him in Miami later this year. Lacking proper travel documents to fly, he opted for the bus. Now he was heading back to Miami with leads to several restaurant jobs. If you don’t get used to New York, New York will leave you behind.” His photograph appeared in the center of a glowing spread about the restaurant.īut then New York had beckoned, he said, and he spent the summer helping to open a Peruvian restaurant there. He handled it gingerly, as if it were made of gold leaf. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out an issue of Ocean Drive, a glossy monthly magazine published in Miami. Alfaro had become the chef for cold foods and had more than paid off his debts, a twist that still seemed to astonish him. The owner liked him, he said, and sent him to culinary classes. He found work at an upscale Peruvian restaurant in Miami washing floors and doing odd jobs. So he came to the United States last year with the intention of making money fast and returning home. Alfaro said he had been a salesman for a textile firm in Santiago, Chile, but he went into debt paying for a new house, a car and a young family. Like most passengers on the half-filled bus, he was traveling alone and had two seats to himself. “I’ve always been lucky in finding work,” he said cheerfully. He was going to Miami to look for a job, and the uncertainty was, for him, nothing less than an opportunity. He was in the United States illegally, having overstayed his tourist visa, but he did not seem the least bit worried. Sitting toward the back was Rolando Alfaro, 31, in a Quiksilver sweatshirt and a pair of sporty sunglasses. More than half of the passengers on the bus this recent Wednesday were not Cuban but were from elsewhere, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile.Īfter the bus departed Washington Heights, it picked up passengers in Union City and Elizabeth, N.J., Philadelphia, Arlington, Va., Jacksonville, Fla., and Orlando, Fla. But as the Latino population on the East Coast became more diverse, so did La Cubana’s clientele. When the bus line was founded in 1978, its ridership was entirely Cuban. But if La Cubana’s riders are any measure, the bus is a good deal for those who fear flying, cannot find affordable train fares or do not have the government identification to pass airport security a problem for illegal immigrants and some legal ones. An airplane ticket can often be had for less. With buses making 10 trips in each direction every week, La Cubana’s passengers pay a minimum of $159 for a one-way fare for a 25-hour ride (if all goes well) in cushy blue seats. People have flowed easily between the two hubs, and for 30 years, this bus line, the Omnibus La Cubana, has been the transportation of choice for many. For decades, New York and Miami have been the capitals of Latino life on the East Coast, linked by culture, business, extended families and a superhighway, I-95.
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