Willy Chirino remembers his father: "He died dreaming of returning to his beloved Cuba."

The Cuban singer-songwriter Willy Chirino shared this Sunday on Facebook an emotional tribute to his father, Dr. Wifredo Chirino Llorens, describing the struggle of a man whom the Cuban Revolution stripped of his homeland when his life was at its most promising, and who never had the chance to fulfill his dream of returning.

The message was accompanied by an old photograph of Dr. Wifredo Chirino Llorens, a lawyer graduated from the University of Havana, and it coincided with the celebration of Father's Day.

"A model man with a life full of sacrifices to graduate as a lawyer from the University of Havana," wrote Chirino.

"In the moments when he was starting to see the fruits of his efforts, his life was shattered, and he had to leave the land he loved and start over in the U.S.," he added.

According to the artist, his father arrived in the United States without speaking English and had to find work picking tomatoes in Homestead and working in factories, in a Miami of the early 1960s that was not yet the bilingual city it is today.

Despite the adversities, Dr. Wifredo Chirino Llorens never lost his dignity. "Always with his head held high and never burdened by what life handed him," his son recalled.

However, exile left a wound that never healed. "He never adapted to life outside of Cuba and died at 66, always dreaming of returning to his beloved Cuba," wrote Chirino, summarizing in one sentence the fate of an entire generation.

The singer-songwriter connected the tribute to his song "Para mi viejo," which he recorded with Leoni Torres and released on June 18, 2021, as a gift for Father's Day. The music video was made in black and white using photographs from the family albums of both performers.

"The song captures everything it meant to me, and today I miss it more than ever," Chirino confessed, inviting his followers to listen to it on his YouTube channel or any digital platform.

Willy Chirino himself is well acquainted with the exile he describes: born in Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río, he left Cuba in August 1961 at just 14 years old through Operation Pedro Pan. In a interview published on June 21, 2020, the singer stated that he thanks his father every day for making the decision to take the family out of Cuba.

The story of Dr. Wifredo Chirino Llorens is a mirror reflecting the lives of thousands of Cubans who were stripped of their professional future and homeland by the dictatorship, many of whom died in exile without the regime returning what was taken from them.

"That’s my old man," Chirino concluded his post, with two words that encapsulate pride, pain, and a nostalgia that has no expiration date.