If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that nothing feels quite as good as a full night's sleep. When you sleep well, it sets the tone for the rest of your day. You wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go. It's almost like the world knows when you sleep well: your morning coffee hits just right, the sun shines just a little brighter, and you've got a little extra pep in your step.
Your friends and colleagues may notice, too, especially if good sleep is becoming a foreign concept for you. If it is, you're not alone - according to the CDC, people around the U.S. are in need of some serious zzzz's - more than 1 in 3 Americans aren't getting enough sleep. Perhaps even more shocking is that 40% of people fall asleep during the day once a month, according to the National Institutes of Health. Experts agree that most folks should get at least seven hours of sleep a night, but in reality, most Americans struggle to get five or six.
While some ultra-rich CEOs claim they only need a few hours of sleep a night, that's not true for most people. In fact, your body and brain will hate you if you're not getting enough shuteye. If you're feeling sluggish, unmotivated, snappy, achy, sick, or just down in the dumps, you may not be getting enough sleep. And it may not be your fault - that old, dilapidated innerspring mattress that you're sleeping on may be the true culprit.
Fortunately, Sleep King is here to help you get on the fast track to falling asleep with the ultimate comfort of MLILY mattresses in Macon, GA.
Change can be challenging, but if you had the opportunity to boost your immune system, improve heart health, and increase productivity levels by ditching your old mattress, would you take it? If you're reading this page, you're probably nodding your head with a resounding "Yes!" And that's great because, at Sleep King, our mission is to provide you with the most comfortable, supportive mattresses in the industry: MLILY mattresses.
Unlike other mattress companies, we offer the lowest prices on MLILY mattresses in Macon GA - even lower than you can find on Amazon! Though we're locally owned and operated right here in beautiful South Carolina, we have the ability to ship these revolutionary mattresses anywhere in the U.S. So, if you're craving the comfort and support of an MLILY mattress, but live in Maryland, don't lose hope. A great night's sleep is available for you too.
With an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and hundreds of positive reviews on Google and other platforms, we're Macon's first choice when it comes to great sleep. Here are some of the most common reasons why our customers choose Sleep King over the competition:
Not sure why type of mattress is best for your body and sleeping style? Our knowledgeable, friendly mattress experts would be happy to help you get started on a better night's sleep. Why not swing by our showroom and check out our wide selection of MLILY mattresses? If your traditional innerspring setup is cutting into your sleep or even hurting your back, it's time to upgrade. After all, in a perfect world, you're spending 7-8 hours a night on your mattress, and you should get the best product for the price.
When you rest on an MLILY mattress, you experience a cooler, deeper, more restorative sleep, so you can enjoy tomorrow to the fullest. Though MLILY is a global company, their local mattresses are made right here in the U.S., in facilities located in Arizona and South Carolina. Unlike many innerspring mattresses, MLILY mattresses are designed for a more supportive sleep while wicking away moisture and fighting off-putting odors.
While many large, mainstream brands you see on TV are built using outdated technologies, MLILY mattress and pillow products are produced using proprietary machinery built exclusively for MLILY. This machine uses precise cutting technology, ensuring that your mattress is the right size for your body and the right price for your budget. Plus, without ozone depletes, lead, mercury, or heavy metals, MLILY foams are manufactured to be safe for you, your spouse, kids, pets, and the environment. It doesn't get much better than that!
At Sleep King, we offer a number of different MLILY mattresses, including:
These specialty foams give you superior sleeping support, long-lasting durability for years of sleep, and rejuvenating comfort to keep you rested and ready for the day.
These unique mattresses feature individually pocketed springs that transform traditional innerspring mattresses into a whole new level of comfort and rest.
Kids need great sleep too! This collection includes happy designs and endless flexibility, creating the perfect foundation for families to create memorable bedtime memories.
This fan-powered sleep system lets you experience sleep like never before, keeping you cool on even the hottest nights.
Have questions about MLILY mattresses? Contact Sleep King today or simply stop by our showroom to get the full rundown of this incredible brand. Whether you're a side sleeper with spine problems or a back sleeper not getting enough sleep, there's an MLILY mattress in Macon GA that can help. Remember, at Sleep King, we sell MLILY mattresses at a deep discount, so you can get a good night's rest without going into debt.
Take a moment and think about all the different things that have happened in your life over the last decade. Maybe you graduated college or got the job of your dreams. Perhaps you got married or moved to a new home in a new state. But if you're like the average person, one thing remained the same: your mattress. It might be surprising to hear, but the average lifespan of a mattress is between seven and ten years.
Letting go of your old, worn-out mattress might be hard, especially if it's served you well over time. As with most products, however, nothing lasts forever. But how do you know when it's time to ditch your old bed and choose a new MLILY mattress in , GA? Here are just a few of the most common reasons that customers tell us when it comes to buying a new bed.
Is your mattress starting to smell less like roses and more like the dirty socks in your hamper? When your mattress gets smelly, it's most often a result of mold, fungi, and mildew buildup over time. There's not too much you can do to avoid this from happening, especially if you live in a humid climate. So, the next time you change your sheets, give your mattress a sniff. If it smells funky, it's time to upgrade.
If your mattress has a noticeable sag, it's a surefire sign that you need to get a new mattress. Mattresses sag because, over time, coils begin to weaken, and memory foam loses elasticity. If you lay down on your bed for a moment, get up, and your bed sags instead of returning to its original appearance, your mattress is nearing the end of its life.
Waking up in pain is basically the an thesis of what a mattress is supposed to do. Due to wear and tear over time, even the best mattresses lose their ability to support your body. If you've been waking up with dull aches and pains in your hips, lower back, or shoulders, it's a red flag. Finding a comfortable, supportive mattress like an MLILY Fusion Lux is of utmost importance.
Constantly moving side-to-side or switching positions in the middle of the night is a great way to get your partner angry. It's also a big sign that you need to consider buying a new mattress. Like the supportiveness of our mattresses, general comfortability also lessens with usage and time. Here's the truth: You shouldn't need to toss and turn to get comfortable in your bed. If you are, your mattress has probably declined in quality and needs replacing. You shouldn't ever have to put your sleep health on the line for an uncomfortable mattress.
It might sound obvious, but the #1 reason why people choose to buy a new mattress is to get better sleep. Sleep, in and of itself, is a bit of a mystery - somehow, our bodies just know when it's time to clock out for the day and go to sleep. But if you've been sleeping on a poor quality or dilapidated mattress for long enough, you might have become used to the feeling of lackluster sleep. If that sounds like you, we're here to tell you that you're missing out.
Getting a great night's rest is one of life's little pleasures, but according to experts, it's also much more than that. If you swear by limiting your sleep to be more "productive," you may be doing yourself a disservice.
When you don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, it can lead to serious heart issues like high blood pressure and even heart attacks. Why? Because poor sleep causes your body to release cortisol. This stress hormone causes your heart to work harder. That's great in some situations, but long stretches of poor sleep are quite bad for your heart. Like other parts of your body, your heart needs to rest in order to function correctly.
Getting a cold is never fun. But if it feels like someone slapped your head with an anvil when you get the sniffles, you may need better sleep. When you get great sleep, the proteins and immune cells in your body have a better chance of fighting off things like the common cold and flu. Your immune system also helps mitigate symptoms like runny noses, congestion, headaches, and more. Without the right sleep, symptoms from colds and cases of flu will be much worse.
Do you roll out of bed and feel like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? You're probably not getting great sleep. When you sleep well, you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready to attack the day. Your energy levels are high, making life's little annoyances more manageable. And when you're not annoyed, you're typically not angry. When you're not angry, you're only a half-step away from being happy. So, put on our PJs and get to bed early on an MLILY mattress in , GA. Your friends and family will thank you!
Earlier, we mentioned how some people purposely lose sleep so that they can be more productive. On the surface, that makes some sense since you have more hours in the day to dedicate to work. However, burning the midnight oil again and again is a bad idea. Eventually, you'll start making mistakes that an afternoon pot of coffee won't fix. Instead of cutting your sleep short, try getting more. Studies show that great sleep is linked to higher cognitive function and improved concentration. If you're not purposely limiting your sleep, it's time to ditch that old mattress and swing by Sleep King.
Getting eight or more hours of sleep doesn't mean you're going to lose lbs. overnight. But getting better sleep can seriously help with your diet or weight loss goals. When you get poor sleep, your body creates a hormone called ghrelin that causes you to get hungry. It also lowers the amounts of leptin in your body, which is a hormone that lets you know you're full. With great sleep, these hormones remain balanced, so you don't wake up finding for a sugary bowl of Captain Crunch.
If you're sick of mediocre sleep and want to take on tomorrow with a fresh mind, better sleep begins with MLILY mattresses in Macon GA. When you trust our mattress store in Macon for MLILY mattresses, you're already taking the first steps towards better sleeping habits.
From cold-to-the-touch mattresses like the Fusion Luxe to popular hybrid bed options like the Fusion Supreme Hybrid Mattress, Sleep King has got you covered. With a vast selection of bed frames, adjustable bases, bedroom decor, and even whole-home furnishings, you won't have to look anywhere else besides our showroom in Macon. One look at our prices, and you'll understand why we're South Carolina's go-to choice for premium mattresses like MLILY. Call or visit our location today to get started on your journey to healthier sleep.
Order NowA Milledgeville man who prosecutors say was the leader of a Middle Georgia drug ring that distributed more than five kilograms of meth pleaded guilty in federal court, along with 16 co-defendants.The drug ring was based in Milledgeville and revolved around Jarvis Havior, 31, who was also known as “J Bo” while he dealt the drugs, according to a statement from the ...
A Milledgeville man who prosecutors say was the leader of a Middle Georgia drug ring that distributed more than five kilograms of meth pleaded guilty in federal court, along with 16 co-defendants.
The drug ring was based in Milledgeville and revolved around Jarvis Havior, 31, who was also known as “J Bo” while he dealt the drugs, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Havior pleaded guilty Feb. 16. while 16 others admitted their part in the drug ring later, authorities said.
“...Law enforcement agents coordinated a successful take-down of a drug trafficking network pushing high volumes of methamphetamine into the Milledgeville area,” U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said. “Local, state and federal law enforcement are helping us hold those distributing large quantities of the most deadly and addictive illegal drugs accountable at the federal level.”
According to court documents, an investigation into the drug ring started in June of 2020 when the DEA, GBI and the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force got a tip about Havior’s operation. Agents located the “trap” houses Havior stored bulk drugs in, the statement said, and planned a seizure.
In 2021, agents tracked Havior as he drove to Stone Mountain to re-up his drug supply. They saw him buy drugs in a Publix parking lot, the meth packed into a bright green Publix bag, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Havior met with Anrico Taylor, 34, in Covington to give him the meth bag before the two traveled back to Milledgeville in separate cars.
When Havior and Taylor were pulled over in Baldwin County, Taylor tried to run from the cops with the drugs, spilling several small bags of meth on the ground before he was caught, the release said.
The meth in the not-so-unassuming Publix bag weighed in at about five kilos, including the drugs Taylor spilled on the ground.
Havior pleaded guilty to possession of meth with the intent to distribute and faces a minimum of 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced in May. Taylor and 15 other co-defendants pleaded guilty as well and will be sentenced later.
Three dealers in the ring, two from Milledgeville and another from Lilburn, are still wanted. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Kalim is prosecuting the case.
This story was originally published March 6, 2023, 12:00 PM.
Macon-Bibb County’s commissioners approved the use of security cameras in downtown Macon late last month, raising privacy concerns and sparking debate over surveillance.The government will install cameras from a private company across Macon, including 36 cameras downtown, eight along the Riverwalk, and 20 in Carolyn Crayton Park. Mayor Lester Mill...
Macon-Bibb County’s commissioners approved the use of security cameras in downtown Macon late last month, raising privacy concerns and sparking debate over surveillance.
The government will install cameras from a private company across Macon, including 36 cameras downtown, eight along the Riverwalk, and 20 in Carolyn Crayton Park. Mayor Lester Miller and the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office hope the cameras will serve as a deterrent and help investigators solve crimes.
The 64 cameras will not need to be constantly monitored and can send notifications to deputies much like traffic cameras, according to a presentation by the sheriff’s office. Investigators will also be able to review footage after crimes happen.
Some county commissioners worried that citizens’ privacy may be breached by the cameras. Legal experts say the cameras don’t break any laws.
Former dean of Mercer Law School and constitutional law professor Gary Simson said that, on a constitutional basis, the cameras are legal.
“While there have been court cases that prove that cameras are a form of search under the Fourth Amendment, these cameras are not targeting any one individual, they survey a large area,” he said of the downtown cameras.
Simson referred to Katz v. U.S., a case that established modern technology surveillance as a form of search. It also established a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” meaning a surveillance camera invading someone’s private space is an unlawful search.
The cameras downtown are not targeted, though, and watch over a public space as opposed to a private one like someone’s house.
“These cameras are not going into residential neighborhoods where people can have some issues of violating their privacy,” Mayor Lester Miller said in a commission meeting. “There’s no reasonable expectation of privacy when you’re walking down a public street or if you’re in a park or when you’re along the river walk.”
The next step in the legality of the cameras is tort law, civil wrongs that are not laid out in constitutional law but are still illegal. Simson, though not an expert in tort law, doubted that the cameras violated any prior precedents there, either.
David Hricik, a law professor at Mercer who teaches tort law, also didn’t immediately see a violation.
“In a public place, absent some kind of misuse of the images, I don’t see a current legal issue,” he said. “ I do think people should consider contacting their legislators, since it may be that there aren’t clear limits on use.”
Verkada, the company providing the cameras, has experienced security problems of their own, according to media reports.
Verkada is a multi-million dollar tech company that provides similar security to dozens of cities and private companies, including the Macon Housing Authority. The package approved by Bibb commissioners will cost almost $700,000 for 10 years of camera use, according to a presentation in a commission meeting.
In some past contracts, however, Verkada encountered issues. Bloomberg reported in 2021 that hundreds of Verkada employees could see camera footage from thousands of customers. They also reported that employees could toggle the “privacy setting” on customer cameras.
Another report noted that hackers breached the cameras for dozens of clients, including Tesla and multiple jails and schools. Verkada also had to nix facial recognition software after law changes earlier this year.
Verkada serves multiple Georgia cities like Columbus and Marietta. The county did not set an installation date for the cameras in Macon.
Several high-profile acts come to Macon in spring and summer of 2023 as concert season ramps up. Here’s a look at some bands playing shows at the Macon Centreplex in the upcoming months.The band is touring in support of their new albums Unplugged and Our Bande Apart as part of their “25 Years in the Blind” tour. They were well-known among fans for their early albums including a self-titled debut in 1997 and “Blue” in 1999.Tickets are available online via ...
Several high-profile acts come to Macon in spring and summer of 2023 as concert season ramps up. Here’s a look at some bands playing shows at the Macon Centreplex in the upcoming months.
The band is touring in support of their new albums Unplugged and Our Bande Apart as part of their “25 Years in the Blind” tour. They were well-known among fans for their early albums including a self-titled debut in 1997 and “Blue” in 1999.Tickets are available online via Ticketmaster.
The iconic R&B group comes to Macon as part of their latest tour, which will hit other southern cities including North Charleston and Fayetteville, North Carolina. The famous trio have sold over 64 million albums thanks to hit songs like “End of the Road” and “Motownphilly.”
Fans can buy tickets online via Ticketmaster.
While it isn’t one band, the festival will feature several blues groups performing classic tracks as part of a joint performance.
Guests include J-Wonn, Ronnie Bell and Lenny Williams. Tickets are available online.
The 70’s rock group is hitting Macon as part of their latest U.S. tour effort. Known for their songs “Joy to the World” and “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” Three Dog Night once had 21 straight Top 40 singles.
Tickets are available online through Ticketmaster.
The renowned Allman Brothers offshoot featuring Warren Haynes will play in Macon this summer. It will be one of the last stops before their Spring 2023 tour concludes in Asheville.
Tickets will go on sale March 8 at 10 a.m. online and at the Centreplex ticket office.
The iconic surf rock and pop group hits Macon in May as part of their “Sixty Years of the Sounds of Summer” tour. Headlined by co-founder and lead singer Mike Love, the tour won’t feature other iconic members such as Brian Wilson.
Tickets are available online through Ticketmaster.
The singer-songwriter added the Macon show to his tour late. He’s touring in support of his latest album, “Out of the Blues.” Scoggs’s music ranges from blues to jazz.
Tickets are available online via Ticketmaster.
The famous rock and funk group will be one of the last concerts of the summer season in Macon. Michael McDonald and other band members are touring together for the first time in more than 25 years.
Tickets, including special VIP packages, go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. online or in person at the Centreplex ticket office.
This story was originally published March 6, 2023, 5:00 AM.
In June of 2021, a nonprofit organization in Macon tasked with providing housing aid flagged a potential conflict of interest with the federal government.The Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council (EOC), a private nonprofit that receives between $250,000 and $300,000 annually for housing support, had received a request for $2,850 in housing assistance.In a note to the Atlanta office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, an EOC program manager noted that the woman requesting the assistance was the daughter-in...
In June of 2021, a nonprofit organization in Macon tasked with providing housing aid flagged a potential conflict of interest with the federal government.
The Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council (EOC), a private nonprofit that receives between $250,000 and $300,000 annually for housing support, had received a request for $2,850 in housing assistance.
In a note to the Atlanta office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, an EOC program manager noted that the woman requesting the assistance was the daughter-in-law of state Sen. David Lucas and Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Elaine Lucas.
The Lucases were buying the woman a home and she wanted federal housing aid to give her the $1,900 deposit and $950 first month’s rent she was going to owe her in-laws, according to a partially redacted letter obtained by GPB News in an open records request.
The federal housing official decided there was no conflict of interest, and the woman did not end up receiving the rental assistance after leaving the program. Carlton Williams, who manages housing aid at the Macon-Bibb EOC, said the back and forth on the way to the eventual greenlight from HUD took so long that the applicant found help some other way.
It’s an example of the often opaque world of housing aid, where — despite a growing number of people desperate for homes — federal, state and local governments and nonprofits struggle to get aid where it needs to go.
The state senate passed Senate Bill 62 Thursday night, which calls for a state audit of public money spent by nonprofits on homeless services.
State Sen. David Lucas was one of only seven “nay” votes on SB 62.
“What does an audit do in terms of direct effect to someone who is living on the street?” Lucas said. “I voted against it because they need to get off their behinds and fix the system to give folks housing.”
In its original form, Senate Bill 62 included language which would have provided for state-sanctioned, tent-based shelters for homeless people around the state, as well as sections setting up a path for civil suits against municipalities that don’t enforce their ordinances against camping by homeless people.
By the time the vote on SB 62 came, the tent shelter provision was completely removed and the protections for no camping ordinances were dramatically weakened. What remained was the call for the state audit of public money spent by nonprofits on homeless services.
Jake Hall is the executive director of United to End Homelessness, an arm of the Macon-based United Way of Central Georgia. He said he was never for the now-moot tent shelter idea, but he said he’s behind an audit as he tries to understand the local landscape of service providers in his still-new job.
“I do think an asset map of where service dollars are going is an important thing,” Hall said. “That due diligence happens because there is always geographic equity in how these funds are disbursed in any state.”
In Georgia’s largest cities, that spending is already easy to see. Atlanta, Athens, Augusta and Columbus all have an organization called a “continuum of care.” A CoC is an organization of homeless service providers working under one leader and communicating withthe federal housing department.
Part of being a CoC is transparency about how you spend money and what the spending accomplishes. Groups such as Atlanta’s Partner for Home already publish data in deep detail online. For other CoCs, the data is accessible via a HUD portal.
Where transparency may fall short in Georgia is in communities that don’t have their own relationship with HUD.
Those places are often members of Georgia’s Balance of State Continuum of Care, which means information about the efficacy of homeless programs from essentially the entire state gets balled up into a single HUD report, making it tough to tease out the cause and effect of local actors in any single town.
That’s the case in Macon. There, the private nonprofit Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council contends that, as a non-governmental actor, it does not have to share program data with the public.
But reports made from the Macon-Bibb EOC to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and, ultimately, to HUD acquired through open record requests, suggest the group has only provided Rapid Rehousing aid to about 10 chronically homeless people — those commonly thought of as “street homeless” — since 2016. More typically, that aid goes to people recently evicted, often single mothers with children. Even then, the aid falls short of some estimates of need.
Lucas said none of it — neither the lack of transparency from a local nonprofit nor the way his position might have influenced the flow of money — adds up to his seeing a need for state audits of service providers as described in SB 62. And he doesn’t care how others may see it.
“I don’t care how it looks,” Lucas said. “My books are open. I pay taxes.”
Jake Hall of United to End Homelessness said there are other ideas he would prefer to see in a piece of legislation aimed at helping people without a place to call their own.
“What is needed is a direct and earnest interest in critical housing supply and not simply removing vulnerable populations from sight,” Hall said.
One of the recommendations in the Senate study committee report which preceded SB 62 was to increase state spending on housing options for the homeless. No version of the bill has yet included such a provision.
SB 62 now heads to the Georgia House.
This story comes to The Telegraph through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state of Georgia
A few days after selling all she had to flee Cuba with her three children on a crowded boat, Daneilis Tamayo raised her hand in praise and sang the rousing opening hymn at Sunday worship in this Miami suburb.“The only thing that gave me strength is the Lord. I’m not going to lose my faith, whatever I might go through,” she said. The family has been sleeping in Iglesia Rescate's improvised shelter since the promises of help made by her contact in the United States turned out to be “all lies.”In the ...
A few days after selling all she had to flee Cuba with her three children on a crowded boat, Daneilis Tamayo raised her hand in praise and sang the rousing opening hymn at Sunday worship in this Miami suburb.
“The only thing that gave me strength is the Lord. I’m not going to lose my faith, whatever I might go through,” she said. The family has been sleeping in Iglesia Rescate's improvised shelter since the promises of help made by her contact in the United States turned out to be “all lies.”
In the past 18 months, an estimated 250,000 migrants and asylum-seekers like Tamayo have arrived in the Miami area after being granted only precarious legal status that often doesn’t include permission to work, which is essential to building new lives in the U.S.
This influx is maxing out the migrant social safety net in Miami's faith communities, long accustomed to integrating those escaping political persecution, a lack of freedoms and a dearth of basic necessities. Cubans were the first to arrive during the island’s communist revolution 60 years ago, and they’re still fleeing here alongside Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
“The Lord says to welcome the stranger. It’s the saddest thing, the quantity of people who come and we can’t help them,” said the Rev. David Monduy, Iglesia Rescate’s pastor.
Miami’s faith leaders and their congregations remain steadfast in their mission to help settle new migrants. But they’re sounding the alarm that the need is growing unmanageable.
“We can get a call on a Saturday that 30 migrants were dropped off, and two hours later all have been picked up,” said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, the CEO of Catholic Charities in Miami. “But the challenge is at what point you reach saturation.”
The number of arrivals, by sea directly to Florida and from those heading here from the US-Mexico border, surged earlier this winter. For most newcomers, the best hope to settle in the U.S. is to win asylum, but immigration courts are so backlogged migrants can be in limbo for years, ineligible to get a job legally.
Advocates say that makes them vulnerable to criminals, puts an impossible financial burden on existing migrant communities that try to help, and slows down integration into U.S. society.
“It’s completely irrational that they’re not giving out work permits,” said Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, whose Catholic archdiocese has long helped welcome migrants. “Because of that, the government can make a situation that’s not too bad yet, become worse.”
Many migrants are already homeless due to soaring rent and motel rates.
“Every day, people knock on the doors of our parishes, saying they have no place to sleep,” said the Rev. Marcos Somarriba, rector at St. Agatha Catholic Church on Miami’s outskirts.
In addition to providing food, clothes and some housing relief, churches are helping educate migrants about their legal options.
St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church put together a migration forum with Catholic Legal Services in mid-February about a new humanitarian parole program that allows 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the U.S. each month if they have a sponsor who assumes financial responsibility for them for two years.
Parishioner Dalia Marrero attended to learn about sponsoring an uncle in Nicaragua, where many are fleeing President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on opponents.
“I don’t want to fail him or U.S. law,” she said, worried about how long she’d be required to support her relative.
Miami’s established diaspora communities know all too well the hardships that migrating entails, and that motivates many to help. But there also is mistrust among some old timers who remain active in opposition to autocratic regimes like Cuba’s and view some new arrivals’ politics with suspicion, said Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
That underscores the potentially crucial role for faith leaders — to preach forgiveness and build a sense of shared experience.
“That’s it — to unite,” said the Rev. Elvis González, pastor at St. Michael the Archangel, a historically Cuban church that welcomes faithful from across Central America. “They have seen the church as the only institution that can give some hope.”
A few miles south on the seashore stands La Ermita, a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Charity that’s long been a beacon for Cuban exiles.
Migrants from all over Latin America come to bring sunflowers to the Virgin, to cry in gratitude for having made it and to ask for help with food and clothing, said Sister Consuelo Gómez.
“Jesus also was a migrant,” said Gómez, who helps many newcomers find jobs and decent housing, often with the aid of diaspora members. “We try to help so that they can get ahead on their own.”
Among them were two Venezuelan sisters Gómez helped get their own place as well as jobs that allow them to send money back to their ailing mother.
“Here I motivate myself, even though, yes, I miss my family,” said older sister Daniela Valletero, who works two jobs, six days a week. “Here I feel that I’ll make it.”
That’s the kind of faith that motivates Marylin Rondon, an attorney originally from Venezuela whose weekly prayer group of professionals from Latin America prepares hundreds of sandwiches for the nuns to distribute to migrants and the homeless.
“As a Catholic, you can’t stop at sadness,” Rondon said. “The biggest faith is that of the one who is arriving. He has to depend 100% on providence.”
Outside the Ermita shrine, a couple stood under the palms, their homeland of Cuba some 200 miles across the sea. Roberto Sardiñas came seven years ago, and in December managed to get his wife, Dadiana Figueroa, to immigrate legally through family reunification.
Asked about the influx of new arrivals, Sardiñas said it would be selfish to argue anything but that “all who can come, let them come.”
“The ideal would be that freedom existed in Cuba,” Figueroa added.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
This story was originally published March 5, 2023, 9:05 AM.