All he wants is to die in his native Cuba

Since that day in 1980 when Lazaro Blanco Garcia set foot in Key West, Fla., he has not returned to his native Cuba. But when doctors told him they could do nothing more to treat the prostate cancer that has plagued him for 11 years, he had just one thought: I want to go home.

Garcia, 59, knows he has limited time on this earth, and he wants to spend those days where he began his life, in the coastal city of Matanzas, Cuba, about 65 miles east of Havana.

“I feel like I’m American. … I have even more years in America than I have living in my own country,” said Garcia, who lives in the Fountain Square area. “I would do anything for America, but I have to go and be next to my family in Cuba for my final wish.”

Returning to Cuba will not be easy. Not only does Garcia have to fill out reams of re-entry papers, he realizes it will take money, not only to transport himself and his belongings but also to help support him once he relocates.

He has worked as an electrician, but his cancer has spread to his lungs, and Garcia fears that he won't be able to keep working full time.

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So a friend started a GoFundMe account for Garcia in the hope of raising the $15,000 that he estimates he needs to realize his dream.

His doctor Pablo Bedano, an oncologist with Community Health Network, has given him his blessing to move. The majority of his treatment will consist of pain control and end-of-life care rather than advanced lifesaving techniques that Cuba might not offer.

“From a palliative treatment standpoint, I’m sure that they will be able to provide just as good care there as they would here,” he said. “Medically he should be able to do this.”

At this point, Bedano has tailored his treatment to keep Garcia as strong as possible for his trip home. That means no more cancer treatments that could be futile and weaken him.

Although it’s difficult to predict how long Garcia has to live, Bedano said he could have as little as six months to a year remaining.

Leaving Cuba 37 years ago was not an easy decision for Garcia. At the time, he was helping his sister and her young child. But the opportunity to come to the United States was just too good. He left as part of the Mariel boatlift, which brought more than 125,000 Cubans to these shores.

Garcia had only the clothes on his back and his birth certificate but made a life for himself in the United States. He worked as a maintenance man, first in Detroit. He moved to Indianapolis in 1994 and has lived here ever since.

For years he had no contact with his family. Then two years ago a niece who was living in Spain reached out to him through one of his grown children. Suddenly Garcia and his family were speaking on the phone regularly. His sister told him that their father died of prostate cancer in 2005, the same year he was diagnosed.

One of his father’s last wishes was for his daughter and son to be reunited.

In 2011, Garcia’s cancer returned and spread to his bones. For the next few years, he concentrated on getting treatments to buy more time.

It’s not uncommon for patients facing their final years to want to go home, Bedano said.

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“I have had patients where, when it comes to a point when they realize that they have come to the end of the line of the treatments we can offer, for closure they’d like to go back home,” he said. “He obviously has been gone for such a long time, but he developed nostalgia for when he was healthy and young. I think that’s natural when someone reaches this point of his life.”

Once Garcia receives government approval to move to Cuba, he will buy a plane ticket and look into moving his belongings.

At first, he will likely share a room with his great-nephew, the son of the niece he helped raise before moving to the United States. He hopes to be able to use some of the skills he’s acquired here to improve life for his family in Cuba.

“Every time I call my sister and tell her about things here, she says, 'They don’t have that here in Cuba,' ” he said. “The things that I have learned, I want to take back to my country and show them how to do things. They don’t know how things are, because there have been blackouts in Cuba for almost 60 years.”

If all goes well, he hopes to relocate by January or February.

When he leaves, he knows he will never return to the country where he has lived for more than half his life. He will also leave behind his grown children, hoping they will visit him.

“It’s time for them now to do something for Daddy, because Daddy is going to rest his body,” he said. “I’m only trying to get to Cuba to spend my final times with my family.”

Call IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.