My uncle, who was a political prisoner in Cuba for many years and came here as an immigrant, helped raise me and my cousins. You see, he was my father’s brother, and his wife, my aunt, was my mother’s sister — so our families were really close. He and my father owned a small construction company in Miami. On April 20, 2002, while he was giving an estimate to a man who wanted to build horse stables on his ranch, my uncle and the owner of the property were shot to death by an unknown assailant. I constantly imagine how he felt before the fatal shot, what he was thinking, whether he tried to run away. I also saw my aunt and my cousins fall apart, as he was a stable force in their lives, in a way that my own father was not. The loss is not measurable, and I work every day to help prevent this from happening to other families.