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The subject of the opera is the story of the rafters, or balseros (from the Spanish, balsa meaning raft), who have left Cuba on homemade rafts, seeking sanctuary in the United States. For the balseros, the objective is to get beyond the twelve-mile offshore limit into international waters with the hope of being rescued then by the U.S. Coast Guard. Just over half of those who leave are heard from again. The ninety-mile “channel” between Cuba and South Florida has extraordinary difficulties of currents and weather. It is shark-infested. And even a successful journey to the twelve-mile limit still leaves the rafters simply in open sea.
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