Yosely Pereira - A Sea between Us

I have always been drawn to true stories. There is simply nothing more compelling than real life. A Sea between Us is not only true, but it is an exciting, heart-wrenching, hopeful, and wonderfully told story that is as important as it is beautiful.

DR. MARTY MAKARY, New York Times bestselling author, surgeon, and professor at Johns Hopkins University

Im excited about this book, and I cant wait to see how Yoselys story impacts people throughout the world. Ivey captured something really special in A Sea between Us.

TONY HALE, Emmy award-winning actor, writer

Ive been waiting for more than twenty years for this book. Thats not an endorsement exaggeration. In 1998, I got my first real job at an advertising agency in Birmingham, Alabama, and learned how to write from a guy named Billy Ivey. Im thrilled this book is finally here, and when you read this wonderful story of human triumph, youll be thrilled too.

JON ACUFF, New York Times bestselling author of Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

Gripping. Billy Ivey captures the trauma of human tragedy and the inherent loyalty in true love. This is the American story. It sheds light on dreams that persevere in imposed darkness and helps keep hope in our sight.

TRACY FRIST, teacher, writer, farmer, preservationist, and conservationist

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A Sea between Us: The True Story of a Man Who Risked Everything for Family and Freedom

Copyright 2022 by Monarch Ministries, LLC. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior photographs copyright 2021 by Eric Chapman. All rights reserved.

Designed by Lindsey Bergsma

Edited by Bonne Steffen

The author is represented by the literary agency of Alive Literary Agency, www.aliveliterary.com.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4964-4850-7 (HC)

ISBN 978-1-4964-4851-4 (SC)

Build: 2022-03-14 16:19:01 EPUB 3.0

This book is dedicated to our families and our many thousands of Cuban brothers and sistersespecially those who have lost their lives seeking freedom. To those who are still looking forward to a better life: No pierdas la esperanza.

YOSELY AND TAIRE PEREIRA

This book is dedicated to my family and my hermano. Thank you all for believing that I could tell this story.

BILLY IVEY

YEARS AGO, my lifelong friends, Chet and Mary Virginia Frist, called me from Nashville. I could hear the excitement in their voices as they told me about a man they had recently met: a carpenter named Yosely.

I was intrigued. I didnt know any carpenters.

Yosely had spent a few weeks building and installing kitchen cabinets for the Frists, but it only took a few days for a friendship to be formed. You need to know this man, they said. You need to hear his story. Everyone needs to hear his story.

Over the next two months, I met with Yosely several times, and he shared fascinating details about his life, his family, his friends, and his eventual escape from communist Cuba.

I started taking notes when we talked and found myself falling in love with the tone of his voice as he shared his heart and expressed so many of his passions, heartaches, and joys.

After a weeklong trip to Cuba with Yosely to see the places and meet some of the people I had come to know through our conversations, I agreed with my friends in Nashville: Everyone needs to hear his story.

I asked Yosely if he would allow me to tell it, and he agreed wholeheartedly that the world needed to know.

I am not a historian or an expert on communism or US-Cuba relations. I am just a storyteller who has been given the gift of a great one to tell.

Yoselys journey is remarkable. It is exciting, adventurous, gut-wrenching, profoundly sad, and exceedingly joyful at times.

It is not, however, unique.

His is the story of an entire generation, an entire country of individuals, families, and friends sharing the same reality.

Yosely Pereira and I have spent countless hours discussing the details of his life. Like any one of us, hes had trouble remembering various specifics as well as the people he has met along the way. With the best intentions, I have recast certain moments in order to tell his story in an inspiring, educational, and compelling way. Although the events actually happened, many characters are composites of different real people in his life. Some of the names in this book have been changed to protect certain individuals who may or may not still be living in Cuba. Yosely has read several drafts of the manuscript and has confirmed that the story we tell together reflects as closely as possible the major milestones of his life.

This book is my attempt at communicating the harsh realities that this man, this family, and their home country have endured and sometimes, by the grace of God, overcome throughout several decades.

This is an important story.

Im forever grateful that Yosely allowed me to tell it.

Billy Ivey

March 2022

Our hearts were always unitedeven when we were apart. We had faith and love and dreams we knew could come true. The only thing that separated us was a sea between home and hope. And how wonderful that this great nightmare of ocean was the same beautiful water that connected us and allowed us to believe in a better life, a better story. Once upon a time...

MY NAME IS YOSELY PEREIRA.

On February 7, 2002, I escaped Cuba.

Under the cover of darkness and with the determination of a runaway prisoner, I left my home. I left my family. Andquite simplydisappeared.

Why?

Because I had to.

For her.

For them.

This is our story.

* * *

There is an indefinable magic to my home country.

Valleys rich with farmland, ideal for growing sugarcane, corn, fruit trees, and bananas; fields low and wet enough to grow rice; and towering palms sprinkled throughout the landscapea deep palette of greens dotted with flowering trees of oranges, yellows, reds, purples, and whites.