I grew up hearing my father, Bernardo Pérez (1939–2006), tell the story of his late-1960s immigration from post-Revolutionary Cuba by swimming across Guantánamo Bay. He always said that he was terrified by the fireworks going off above his head as he approached the U.S. Naval Station because he didn't realize—or hadn't remembered—that it was July 4th. In 'Independence Night,' I wanted to capture his vulnerability and the emotional cost of leaving the only place he had ever called home, even more than his heroism. I dedicate this poem to refugees, migrants, sanctuary seekers, and all those working to shine a light on their human rights.

Elizabeth Pérez is a Cuban American writer and associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed a 2025 VONA residency in lyric poetry and is participating in the 2026 McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House) Winter Workshop. Pérez was a finalist for the 2024 Cardinal Poetry Prize and for three other prizes in 2025: the Alta California Chapbook Prize, Palette Poetry’s Nature Poetry Prize, and Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest. She has published poetry in two edited volumes and several journals. Pérez is also the author of two award-winning books on Afro-Caribbean religions: Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions (NYU Press, 2016) and The Gut: A Black Atlantic Alimentary Tract (Cambridge University Press, 2023).