For those who don’t know or don’t follow sports, Miami Marlins starting pitcher José Fernández, 24, was killed in a boating accident on September 25. Instead of describing the devastation at the loss when that boat crashed into the jetty off of Miami Beach, José’s tragic death should remind us how lucky we are to live in this country.
Most are not aware of José’s backstory and all he came to represent, which reached far beyond the baseball field. Before he became a superstar pitcher in his early twenties, José faced the almost impossible task of immigrating to the United States from Cuba. It took him four tries to defect from Cuba, putting himself and his family at risk. On the failed third try, 15-year old José was arrested and spent several months in a Cuban prison where juveniles were not separated from adult criminals. Surviving in the prison was difficult enough, but José and his family decided to try to defect again. On this attempt, someone fell off the boat in the middle of the night. José did not know it at the time, but his mother was thrown overboard and drifting out to sea. Fifteen-year old Fernandez dove in not knowing who it was: “Somebody fell out of the boat. I didn’t know who it was,” the pitcher said in a 2014 interview. “So I jumped into the water, and I was trying to get to who it was. And when I got close, I saw it was my mom. I was pretty shocked.”

That is the story of someone who wanted more than anything to get to the United States for the opportunities it presented for both him and his family. He truly was the “perfect star for Miami,” as Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal wrote, because of the heavy Cuban and Latin community in South Florida. His story echoed his belief in the American Dream, the exuberant personality which shone through not only in his career, but in all aspects of his life. José so deeply appreciated his journey to this country as well as the opportunity to make millions playing the game his loved so much.

Over the past week, countless friends, family, and teammates shared their stories about José. Very few of those memories were about him as a player. Instead, they described him treating the security guards at the stadium with respect, knowing them by name, or tipping the chefs at the All-Star Game, or simply how much joy he brought into their lives. José’s love for fishing ended up costing him his life. People can choose to blame him for going out on that boat at 3am the day before he was supposed to pitch or the heartbreaking thought that his girlfriend is pregnant, but doing so ignores to greatness that was José Fernández. He stared death in the face multiple times before finally becoming a US citizen in April 2015.

In a year when politicians are trying to convince us that our country isn’t great anymore, listing all the problems we have to fix and the racial divide that plagues us still, we forget how amazing this country continues to be. A Cuban teenager and his family risked themselves just to be able to have a chance in life. There were no guarantees that Jose would be drafted or make the majors. All he knew was that the United States gave people a chance to succeed, and this is not the only story of its kind. There are countless others of which the public is completely unaware.

I, like many others, shed some tears when I heard the news about the twenty-four year old star pitcher for the Miami Marlins. The irony of his death on the water that allowed him to arrive here is difficult to grapple with. There is much grief to unpack surrounding his untimely death, but I choose to find solace in this tragedy to give us all some perspective, put our own issues aside, and take a moment to realize how fortunate we all are to live in the United States.