José Fernández's perilous journey out of Cuba changed his life

"Dream big, nobody can tell you that you can't do it."

That's the advice Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández once gave in an interview when talking about his journey from Cuba to Major League Baseball.

The beloved baseball player who died on Sunday in a tragic boating accident tried several times to escape the communist regime of Cuba with his family. Fernández even served prison time for being a dissident. During his final attempt in 2008, he made it out with his mother, but their journey to the U.S. was a perilous one.

Fernández is now being mourned by thousands, including many in the Cuban community who consider him an icon and inspiration.

The athlete, who died at 24, was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, where he grew up playing baseball.

"You don't really have much to go play baseball, sometimes you didn't have a ball or a glove," he told Fox Sports Florida in 2014. "One time I didn't have a glove for like two years and my mom got me one, I don't know how...I was really really really excited."

On that fourth and final attempt to leave Cuba in 2008, Fernández once again showed bravery at a young age. The boat ride from Cuba to Mexico, the first leg of his trip to the United States, was a rocky one and a passenger was thrown overboard in the night. Without knowing who it was, Fernández jumped in the water. The woman he would rescue was his mother.

They later settled in Tampa, Florida with Fernández's father, who had left Cuba a few years earlier. Fernández ended up playing baseball for Braulio Alonso High School. Not long after, in 2011, the Marlins drafted him out of high school.

Although he connected with his father in Florida, Fernández left his beloved grandmother behind in Cuba. He wouldn't see his grandmother, Olga, whose name he has tattooed on his arm, for about five years. As a surprise in 2013, the Marlins brought her to the U.S. The next day he would be honored as National League Rookie of the Year.

In 2015, Fernández became an American citizen, a moment that he had dreamed of since a young age.

But he remained close to his Cuban identity.

Earlier this year, he opened up to reporters about what the game between Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team would mean for Cuba. The game marked the first visit by a major league team to Cuba since 1999 and was part of President Barack Obama's larger plan to normalize relations between the former enemies.

“Hopefully this is the beginning of change over there,” Fernández told the Miami Herald. “We all have our concerns about what is going on there. It gives you some hope when things like this happen and you see the president [of the United States] over there now. But a lot still has to change ... For all of us, it’s a dream to come to America and play baseball. Some of us will do whatever it takes to achieve that. Hopefully, this will open a lot of doors and can change a lot of things.”