Israel Hernandez has felt a strange stew of emotions simmering in his gut. He came to Miami to coach against his former comrades on the Cuban judo team. But he also came to reunite with them, to share beers and memories. He came to beat them, and to embrace them.
Hernandez has done both. On Friday, his athlete Valerie Gotay upset Cuban world champion Yurileidys Lupetey and went on to win the Pan American Championships gold medal.
On Friday night, Hernandez, Cuban coach Justo Nodas and Cuban judoka Jordanis Arencibia went out on the town. First to Bodeguita del Medio -- Miami's version of the Havana institution -- and then to the Ache disco in Miami Beach. There was no hostility. Hernandez even entrusted Nodas with money and clothing for Hernandez's relatives in Cuba.
''Whenever I see the Cuban team, I see so many old friends that it's like I have to divide myself: Here, you take my arm, and you take my leg,'' Hernandez said, laughing. ``Thirty minutes with you and 30 minutes with you.''
Danieska Carrion felt similar emotions flipping like Ippons. She was a star judoka who defected in 2003 and is now a coach for USA Judo in Colorado Springs. On the first day of the tournament, the Cuban coach presented Carrion with a surprise gift -- three medals from her heyday that had been left behind in Cuba.
`PEACEFUL SO FAR'
The bile we hear from segments of Miami's exile community wasn't heard inside the Knight Center. The hypocritical denunciations and absolutist hate-mongering didn't motivate athletes on the mat or color interaction off it.
There was a small protest by Vigilia Mambisa outside on Thursday, and a few demonstrators waved Cuban flags outside on Saturday. With one day to go, it's been a peaceful event so far and Miami hasn't embarrassed itself as it did when Los Van Van performed at Miami Arena and fans were pelted with soda cans, batteries and invective. Perhaps it's a sign of the future -- dialogue rather than diatribes. Perhaps presidents can learn from athletes -- put 50 years of pain and posturing aside and talk.
Cuban teams have avoided competitions in Miami for decades. But the judo team, with coaxing from USA Judo Executive Director and Cuba native Jose Rodriguez, made the trip. Many spectators were Cuban-Americans cheering for the powerhouse Cuban team.
Hernandez and Carrion traded the red, white and blue of their homeland for the red, white and blue of the country they were taught to resent by teachers and their commandante en jefe, Fidel Castro. The message was relentless: The U.S. is the mecca of capitalist greed.
MISSING HOME
Hernandez, 38, grew up in Santiago and was an eight-time national champ, two-time Olympic bronze medalist, world silver medalist and three-time Pan Am Games medalist. He married Puerto Rican physical therapist Marla Agosto in 1999, and obtained visas to leave Cuba and move to Puerto Rico in 2000. They have a 2-year-old son, Natsael.
Hernandez was hired by USA Judo in 2005 to coach in Harlingen, Texas, 20 minutes from the Mexican border. He became a U.S. citizen in November and will help coach the U.S. team at the Beijing Olympics.
He misses his parents and his two sisters. He misses the evening breeze on the Malecon. He misses Havana's Hola, Hola disco, ''the only place we could go that never had blackouts,'' he said. But he wants to support his family, and coaching in the U.S. is more lucrative than in Cuba.
''Each person who leaves Cuba has a different history and personal reasons,'' he said. ``Traitor -- that word is part of the old mentality. I don't reject Cuba. I will always love Cuba.''
His ties don't affect his coaching. ''I separate the emotional from the professional,'' he said. ``I want my athlete to win.''
RUMORS OF DEFECTION
Will any Cubans from the judo team defect? A rumor swirled Saturday that they had left suddenly or were locked down in their hotel rooms because they withdrew from the team competition. But their coaches said they decided not to risk injury in the ceremonial part of the event and will be in Sunday's zone finals.
Two months ago, seven members of Cuba's Under-23 national soccer team defected in Tampa. Dozens of other athletes have defected in recent years, and most began their new lives in South Florida. Hernandez doubts any judokas will defect.
''Unlike baseball or boxing, you can't make money in judo,'' Hernandez said.
The Cuban athletes could simply stay in Miami. They've been shopping downtown and sightseeing in Miami Beach and could seamlessly slip into the eager arms of exiles here. But they would be leaving behind their judo careers and families, and the chance for lucrative Olympic medal bonuses in August.
The topic of defection hasn't come up in Hernandez's conversations with the Cubans, although they might allude to it.
'I say, `Sure, America is nice, but I can't lie: You have to work hard, you have to pay your bills, you will struggle,' '' Hernandez said.
He will see them again in Beijing, the former Cuban Olympic medalist coaching Cuba's archenemy. But there will be no hard feelings. Only hugs, and homesickness.
