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In the Cuba where dreaming out loud could cost you your freedom, Alfred Álvarez learned to tell stories in silence. In his home in Matanzas, with the windows closed and the television muted, he practiced his sports commentary with an old tape recorder. If he had to shout a goal or a touchdown, he would cover his face with a pillow to avoid being heard by the neighbors.
Today, more than a decade later, Álvarez is the official Spanish voice of the Miami Hurricanes, the college football team that has restored sports pride to thousands of Cubans in exile.
Its story, from secrecy to open microphone, has gone viral on social media and has become a symbol of empowerment for an entire community.
"For me, narrating the national final on Monday was a dream come true," said Álvarez, 41, who fled the island in 2012 with his wife, Jessica, and became a U.S. citizen in 2017.
“When I was a child, my dad gave me the best possible gift in Cuba: a DirecTV satellite dish. It was completely illegal. But for a few minutes, watching American sports, you felt freedom,” he pointed out in an interview with The New York Times.
Alfred began following the Hurricanes in 1999, when the legendary coach Butch Davis was building the last national championship team.
In secret, he would mimic the voices of American commentators and dreamed of one day calling a real game. In his teenage years, he was detained for a day because a police officer saw him wearing a Yankees T-shirt, a simple gift sent from Miami.
After years of frustration, Alfred and his wife managed to leave Cuba in 2010 with a student visa bound for France, where he trained to become a chef.
Two years later, they crossed into Mexico and requested political asylum at the border with the United States. “If they sent me back, I would be imprisoned for life,” he recalls.
Having settled in Miami, he began by narrating local games on small radio stations, until in 2018 he became the Spanish voice of the Hurricanes. Today, his broadcasts are filled with excitement and unique phrases, like his now-famous victory cry: "With the soul of a child and the heart of an elephant!", a saying he inherited from his father.
His stories of touchdowns have gone viral on social media. In this year's Fiesta Bowl, his tearful narration of the touchdown winning play by the Hurricanes was shared by thousands of fans.
"Yes, I was holding back tears," she admitted in a post. "It was a magical moment for me and for all the fans of the Canes around the world."
Cuban pride is also present on the playing field. The quarterback for Indiana, Fernando Mendoza, is Cuban-American, and the Hurricanes' coach, Mario Cristóbal, is also the son of exiles. Both graduated from the same Miami school, Christopher Columbus High School, a symbol of the Cuban community in South Florida.
“An team led by a Cuban-American, with another Cuban-American competing on the other side. It's pride made into a match,” said veteran broadcaster Pepe Campo, a colleague of Álvarez at the local radio station. “People tell me: it doesn't matter who wins, because whoever wins, a Cuban wins.”
Alfred Álvarez is now living his American dream with his wife and two children. He brought his parents from Cuba during the pandemic in 2020 and never forgets where he comes from. “I will never forget the day the police knocked on my door because someone reported that I had a satellite dish. I went up to the roof, jumped from rooftop to rooftop, and hid it at my grandmother's house,” he recounts with laughter. “Today, I don’t need a dish to watch the games. I don’t need to keep quiet either.”
For Álvarez, his work in radio is more than just a career: it’s an act of freedom. “Every time I shout a touchdown, I feel like I'm giving a voice back to those who couldn’t speak in Cuba. To narrate with the soul of a child and the heart of an elephant —as my father used to say— is what keeps me alive.”
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