A boy named Fidel

Margarita Alarcón Perea

 

Fidel Angel Castro Díaz-Balart was exactly the surprise one would expect. Much like his father, his voice was soft and gentle and his smile genuine and shy, because unlike most would prefer to think, the Castro´s are far from over powering bombastic larger than life presences, they are, in every sense, a true touch of class.

Today I have spent the better part of my day remembering the day we first met. Many years ago, in Havana, thanks to my dear friend Hermenegildo Altozano Garcia-Figueras, who introduced the two of us over lunch. He and Fidelito had met months before and developed a friendship that has lasted till … well, forever.

I remember on one occasion a few years ago laughing when after bumping into him he commented, “I won’t ask you about your father; we have lunch together almost daily!”

He would break molds and stereotypes. Fluent in English, Russian and Spanish, capable of speaking about science, the environment, philosophy, quote the classics and enjoy the arts, he was also proficient in politics and spunk. On one occasion proving this when in his presence someone didn’t know how to relate to the Cuban American Congressman then Rep Lincoln Diaz Balart,  Fidelito said with a slightly exasperated look on his face, “yes, I know, its OK,  go ahead, say it, my cousin…”

One of the last times we coincided anywhere was during the QBP here in Havana. I was there with the then defense attaché of the United Kingdom to the region and when he, Col Patrick Brown recognized Fidelito from afar, he asked if I would introduce him. We walked over to him and I made the introduction, they exchanged a few pleasantries and Fidelito made a joke regarding my English and translation abilities.  Col Brown was quite pleased and I think also appreciated the reality that he had met someone who was so completely down to earth it was almost surreal. But that was him. Brilliant minds are like that, just surreal. Beautifully surreal.

His death is ever so untimely, but, definitely to be respected. This is not a man who played the power game, this was not a man who benefited from much other than his own ability to strive for the betterment of mankind through science.

Yes, when approached to speak of his father he would be sparse in his comments, but after all, he was his own person, or as he once said “I am myself and my circumstances”.

But how he loved his father so! You really just need to hear him speak of him, or have seen his face in December in 2016.

I will always be grateful to my Spanish lawyer friend for that, he gave me the chance to meet and have the opportunity to share small talk and a joke or two with one of the loveliest people I have ever been able to share moments with. Because Fidel Castro´s first born, “Fidelito” the diminutive in Spanish for a boy named “Fidel”, was far from anything anyone with a cold heart could possibly imagine. He was, much like his father and namesake, shy, soft spoken, very cultured, dignified, gentle, intelligent to no end and had quite a sense of humor.

Rest in peace with the great minds that have graced this earth, dear sweet gentle man, you made Cuba, your parents and your family proud.

CENESEX se pronuncia ante la violencia contra la mujer

“Rompe el silencio. Cuando seas testigo de la violencia contra las mujeres o las niñas, no te quedes de brazos cruzados. Actúa.” Ban Ki-moon, Secretario General de Naciones Unidas

El Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX), en su labor de promoción de la No violencia contra la mujer, y coincidiendo con el Día Naranja, declara su posición ante la campaña mediática desatada en torno a un hecho perpetrado por el hoy sancionado Ángel Santiesteban.

Como parte de la declaración la institución reconoce que en el contexto cubano se han implementado políticas encaminadas al logro de la igualdad entre mujeres y hombres, sin embargo subraya y denuncia la persistencia de formas de violencia con impacto en la salud, la vida familiar y social.

Este es un tema que debe visibilizarse y atenderse, razón por la que cada día 25 activistas de todo el mundo promueven acciones de sensibilización sobre el fenómeno, que constituye un atentado a los derechos humanos.

Con esta declaración el CENESEX insta a tomar medidas que permitan a las mujeres disfrutar de una vida libre de violencia y evitar la impunidad que gozan los ofensores.

Declaración contra la violencia hacia la mujer

Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual

A partir de la Declaración realizada el pasado 8 de marzo de 2013 por un grupo de mujeres artistas, comunicadoras e intelectuales con la finalidad de oponerse a las acciones que pretenden justificar un evidente hecho de violencia perpetrado por el hoy sancionado Ángel Santiesteban, y la manipulación con fines políticos del delito que se le imputa, el Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX):

Observa con preocupación la persistencia de diferentes manifestaciones de violencia ejercidas contra las mujeres en el mundo y, en especial, en nuestra región.

Convencido de que es un tema que concierne a los derechos humanos y que su presencia impide el efectivo disfrute de estos, constituyendo un obstáculo para el logro de la igualdad, el desarrollo y la paz.

Reconoce los avances de las cubanas durante el proceso revolucionario, y las políticas sociales dirigidas al logro de la igualdad de oportunidades entre mujeres y hombres en el país, pero llama la atención de la sociedad sobre la existencia de  formas de violencia que laceran y violan el ejercicio de sus derechos durante el curso de la vida.

Denuncia, de esta manera, toda forma de violencia contra las mujeres sin importar el ámbito donde esta ocurra, por las consecuencias graves que estos actos tienen para su salud y el impacto en la vida familiar y social.

Considera la importancia de fortalecer la formación de actores sociales en capacidad de brindar una atención especializada a la violencia en los distintos escenarios, así como la toma de conciencia de la sociedad en su conjunto sobre la inadmisibilidad de estas manifestaciones.

Condena a los hombres que cometen este tipo de hechos y, especialmente, a quienes intentan blanquear su responsabilidad, amparándose en una supuesta “disidencia” política para evadir la justicia, utilizando campañas que tergiversan la realidad y contribuyen a la revictimización de las mujeres violentadas.

Celebra la respuesta del Estado cubano al sancionar este hecho concreto de alta peligrosidad social.

Por tal motivo, el Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual insta:

A todas las instituciones y organizaciones cubanas a aunar esfuerzos dentro del marco de sus respectivas competencias para intensificar acciones en contra de la violencia ejercida sobre las mujeres, pues, aunque Cuba muestra avances significativos en esta materia, se trata de un fenómeno complejo que aún persiste.

A tomar las medidas que se requieran para garantizar el derecho de las mujeres a disfruta de una vida libre de violencia y evitar la impunidad que gozan los ofensores.

A unir fuerzas y recursos  en una Campaña Nacional  que muestre a la violencia contra las mujeres como un problema de salud, social y de derechos humanos; y que integre a la sociedad en la superación de las brechas de equidad de género, a tenor del cumplimiento del Plan de Acción Nacional de Seguimiento a la Conferencia de Beijing y los Lineamientos de la Política Económica y Social del Partido y la Revolución.

Por lo antes expuestos convoca a cubanos y cubanas, amantes de la paz y el respeto, del humanismo que ha sostenido por décadas nuestro proyecto social revolucionario, a repudiar de modo pacífico toda manifestación de violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas, así como las conductas que pretendan justificarlas.

Cuba contra la violencia

 

Durante la última sesión de los talleres de la VI Bienal de Dramaturgia femenina “La escritura de las diferencias”, en la UNEAC,
sus organizadoras concedieron un espacio para hacer público el llamamiento “8 de marzo: tod@s contra la violencia”, leído por Helen
Hernández Hormilla, Laidi Fernández de Juan y Zaida Capote Cruz, junto a Lirians Gordillo Piña a nombre de las demás compañeras firmantes.

Varias de las personas participantes sumaron sus firmas al documento impreso y desde su envío por correo electrónico hemos recibido nuevas
adhesiones que sumamos más abajo. Agradecemos estos apoyos y rogamos la mayor socialización posible del texto.

8 de marzo: tod@s contra la violencia

El escritor Ángel Santiesteban ha sido juzgado y condenado a prisión por agredir violentamente a su exesposa. Y enseguida han comenzado a
circular notas de apoyo al escritor y de cuestionamiento a la sentencia del tribunal que lo juzgó. En casi todas se acusa a la víctima de loca, o de magnificar una leve “riña doméstica”[1]. Nadie puede juzgar estos hechos sin conocer la profundidad de los daños causados por Santiesteban a su exesposa y a su hijo, y nadie debería acusar a la víctima de estar inventando un caso para que alguien sea condenado por ocultas razones políticas. La violencia contra la mujer tiene su origen, precisamente, en ese gesto tan usual de imaginarla carente de juicio, de  independencia,  o de opinión propia, y quienes esgrimen esas tesis están reproduciendo la agresión; como aquellos que culpan a la víctima de una violación de haber provocado a su agresor.

Las instituciones y organizaciones cubanas deben pronunciarse sobre este caso en particular y también acerca de la violencia contra la mujer en nuestra sociedad. Es preciso intensificar, multiplicar y hacer permanentemente visible una campaña pública contra la violencia de todo tipo, especialmente la que se ejerce contra la mujer. Hay que divulgar aquellas leyes que la previenen o penalizan y los debates que han tenido lugar en espacios académicos y con motivo de campañas específicas. Combatir la violencia contra la mujer solo puede lograrse si nos unimos tod@s contra la desigualdad que la inspira y reconocemos el derecho de las mujeres violentadas a defenderse de su agresor y a denunciar la agresión, aunque se trate de un genio artístico o científico, un general victorioso, un deportista de élite o un obrero de vanguardia. Nadie más que ella misma tiene derecho a decidir sobre su vida y sobre su cuerpo, y nadie, absolutamente nadie, tiene derecho a juzgarla loca por querer defender sus derechos.

Sandra Álvarez, Marilyn Bobes, Luisa Campuzano, Zaida Capote Cruz,
Danae Diéguez, Laidi Fernández de Juan, Lirians Gordillo Piña y Helen
Hernández Hormilla

(Leído en la sede de la UNEAC, hoy, 8 de marzo de 2013)

Firman además:

11 de marzo: Marta Castillo Domínguez Neyda Izquierdo Tomás Piard María Dolores Molinet Córdova Juana García Abás José Luis Fariñas Eduardo Sosa Laurencio Lourdes Fernández Rius Saray Remón Monteagut Kaloian Santos Cabrera Horacio Verzi, escritor e investigador uruguayo Dra. Rosa Salup Díaz,Pediatra David Ravelo Rodiles Gisela Arandia Iroel Sánchez Luis Carlos Marrero: Daylins Rufins: Camilo García López-Trigo Nadia Sánchez Nodar, asesora de TV Marianela Santos Camilo García López-Trigo Caridad Tamayo Fernández Olga Marta Ailyn Martín Pastrana Luis Rondon Paz Teresa Herrera, Uruguay Lily Suárez Rodés Marta Rojas Mabel Bertot Ernesto Gonzalez Ada Caridad Alfonso Rodríguez Delcele Mascarenhas Queiroz, Professora Titular da Universidade do Estado da Bahia – UNEB, Salvador – Bahia – Brasil Rubén Larrondo Muguercia, Médico Ambrosio Fornet Elizabeth Diaz Ines Rodriguez Dayneris Machado Vento Fernanda Martinez, Argentina Carmen del Pilar Serrano Coello, escritora miembro de la UNEAC Gerardo Fulleda León Elsa Lever M./ MujeresNet.info (México)

10 de marzo: Alesandra Riccio Gustavo Arcos Silvia Gil Lupe Alvarez Doctor José Carlos Hdez Aragoné Mabel Machado Nancy Fernández Rodríguez Roberto Valera Rebeca Chávez Zulema Hidalgo Dalia Acosta Alicia Valdés Miriam Rodríguez Betancourt Marilyn Solaya Dixie Edith Trinquete Liset García Óscar Loyola Marta Valdés Nisleidys Flores Carmona Yarman Jiménez, cubana resido en Costa Rica Dainerys Mesa Padrón Jorge Valiente Sahily Tabares Marlen Domínguez Teresa Díaz Canals Victor Fowler Carmen Berenguer Angel Eduardo Rosillo Grau: Magda González Grau Aurelio Alonso

9 de marzo: Sara Más Leticia Pérez González Fabián García Luna Teresa Fernández de Juan Cira Romero Alicia González: Nuria Gregori Torada Eduardo Montes de Oca Marcia Collazo Escritora y abogada uruguaya. Nelia Casado Castro Josefina Hernández-Téllez Pilar Sa Roberto Fernández Retamar Adelaida de Juan Seiler Vicente Battista (Narrador argentino) Marcia Collazo (Narradora uruguaya) Paloma Wigodzky (Argentina) José Naves Nasser José M Valladares Ponce Lic. Rosa Cristina Báez Valdés “La polilla cubana” lohania Aruca Alonso Leticia Becerril Salas Dr. Jesús Dueñas Becerra Mariela López Galano Zaida Cruz Domínguez Daisy Rubiera Yasmín S. Portales Machado Aurora Camacho Zoraida Amable María Isabel Díaz Livia Quintana Llanio Orieta Cordeiro Rosalía Arnaes Amaury Pérez Vidal Cipe Fridman (Argentina) Marta María Ramírez Pedo Pérez-Ortiz (nyc) Eva Rodríguez Angel Alonso Mabel Olalde Azpiri Marialina Grau Elena Palacios, directora, guionista y asesora de tv Pepe Menéndez Neyda Izquierdo

8 de marzo: Esther Suárez Durán Rodolfo Alpízar Castillo Yoimel González Hernández Maité Hernández-Lorenzo Vivian Martínez Tabares Fátima Patterson Patterson Consuelo Duany Patterson María Teresa García Tintoré Yamilé Coureaux Bogalló Daisy Sánchez Lezcano Maribel López Carcasés Miriam Núñez Benítez Evelín Gómez Hernández Eneyda Villalón Puig María Rita Mancaniello Alba Babastro Noris Susana Nicolalde Gilda Bona Jorgelina Cerritos Ana Gianserra Sahily Moreda Gallardo Raquel González Pérez Hemar Montero Velasco Aurea Martínez Fresno Ela Guillamón Rachel Domínguez Rosa C. Báez Waldo Franco Sandra del Valle Dannys Montes de Oca Dra Norma Vasallo, Presidenta de la Cátedra de la Mujer de la Universidad de La Habana Olga García Yero Consuelo Elba Ernesto Pérez Zambrano Jorge Fornet Luis Toledo Sande Vivian Martínez Tabares, crítica, investigadora y editora teatral Mirta Arbetman-México Rosa María Ameneiro (ROCHY) Leslie Salgado

Para adhesiones y/o comentarios, puede escribir a:
cubacontralaviolencia@gmail.com
Se enviarán diariamente actualizaciones con los nombres de las personas que se han sumado a este reclamo. Si desea dejar de recibir estas notificaciones comuníquelo a este mismo correo.

Nueva Declaración

Agradecemos el apoyo recibido al llamamiento tod@s contra la violencia y, aunque reconocemos  el derecho de cada persona a defender aquellas
causas que considere justas, declaramos que:

Rechazamos la manipulación política de este caso, con su consecuente naturalización de la violencia contra la mujer, así como la repetida agresión a la víctima, al exponerla repetidamente sin consideración alguna.

Nuestro llamamiento fue leído en la sede de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba durante la VI Bienal de Dramaturgia Femenina “La escritura de las diferencias” porque estábamos participando en ella, pero no es una declaración de la bienal, ni de ninguna institución cubana, sino una acción ciudadana coherente con nuestro reclamo de una cultura de paz y sin violencia para nuestro país.

El caso de marras demuestra la urgencia de impulsar la aprobación de una ley sobre la violencia de género en Cuba; la necesidad de capacitar a quienes deben recibir y procesar las denuncias y de crear centros de atención y apoyo a las víctimas.

Seguiremos trabajando por ampliar los espacios de discusión del tema y por contribuir a la eliminación de la violencia contra la mujer y por
motivos de género en nuestra sociedad, sin responder a agresiones ni cuestionamientos espurios.

La Habana, 10 de marzo, 2013.

Sandra Álvarez, Marilyn Bobes, Luisa Campuzano, Zaida Capote Cruz,
Danae Diéguez, Laidi Fernández de Juan, Lirians Gordillo Piña y Helen
Hernández Hormilla

________________________________________
[1] Veáse a continuación la carta “Lamentaciones y esperanzas por un nuevo escritor encarcelado” enviada por el escritor Rafael Alcides
sobre el caso citado. El texto es una muestra de que la lucha contra la violencia hacia las mujeres en Cuba precisa aún un trabajo arduo,
eficaz y sostenido.

Lamentaciones y esperanzas por un nuevo escritor encarcelado

De Rafael Alcides
A Ángel Santiesteban

Querido Ángel:

Me cuentan que a partir de pasado mañana, jueves 28, pasarás a engrosar la larga lista personalidades que en diversas épocas y circunstancias de nuestra historia nacional han sido condenadas a años de cárcel, y lo lamento. En tu caso no ha sido por razones políticas, según he oído. Ni tampoco ha sido por desfalcar la caja de un banco, por matar, por tráfico de drogas, por robo de secretos de Estado, por usura, por chantaje, por
prostitución, por venta de visas falsas o no, nada de eso. En tu caso ha sido por una simple riña con tu ex mujer y madre de tu hijo. O sea, nada nuevo en el mundo. Una de tantas disputas entre parejas que dejaron de serlo, magnificadas por las mismas pasiones que a ellos los dejaran al garete, y lo lamento Ángel. Lo lamento por ti y por tu ex mujer y por tu hijo.

Lamento, asimismo, que esta curiosa fórmula de la que tan gloriosas reconciliaciones salieron a menudo, no haya sido tenida en cuenta por los instructores que se encargaron de tu caso, ni por los magistrados que te sancionaron en la Audiencia a cinco años de prisión, ni por el Tribunal Supremo. Todo esto lo lamento, Ángel, pero me quedan las esperanzas. Tengo la esperanza de que los escritores del mundo entero hagan suya
tu causa cuando se conozcan los hechos, despojados de la magnificación que le dio la parte acusadora, a lo mejor manipulada por personas que
no te quieren, pues en este mundo donde sobra la bondad, no falta la envidia. Párate en una esquina e interroga a la gente en ese sentido.

Haz ese ejercicio.

Tengo la esperanza de que junto a los escritores se pronuncien los gobiernos, ¿por qué no?, la ONU, el Papa, Dios mismo que tan discreto pero efectivo a la vez suele ser en estas cosas. Tengo la esperanza de que a todo aquel a quien en este planeta le sobre un dólar lance un tuit dirigido al presidente Raúl Castro informándole de esta arbitrariedad o tal vez exceso de pasión del poder judicial, o deje su protesta consignada en una página web que acaso se le ocurra abrir y administrar a alguno de tus lectores del extranjero… Pero tal vez nada de esto sea necesario. Pues también tengo la esperanza de que la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, nuestra querida UNEAC, Ángel, nuestra UNEAC, por espíritu de justicia y por cautela, consciente de la tremenda polvareda a que en el mundo pueda dar lugar el desacierto (incompetencia, y aun fraude le han
llamado algunos, yo no) de los magistrados que manejaron tu causa, se movilice en el acto, acuda al Buró Político, exponga allí las partes
sensibles de este delicado asunto que nunca debió exceder el ámbito de la cuadra. Sí, Ángel, confiemos en la justicia de los hombres y en la
de Dios sobre todo. Dicha por la ley la última palabra, ahora le toca a la justicia hacer su entrada en escena. Yo confío en ella.
No serías el primero en obtener sus favores. Caso que no te indulten, lo que en Cuba no es costumbre, podría el gobierno darle un carácter
simbólico a tu sanción, o digamos, reducida al mínimo, mandarte a cumplirla en tu casa, de modo que puedas seguir escribiendo y recibiendo a tus amigos sin desautorizar del todo a tus desacertados magistrados. Se ha hecho con otros. Que yo recuerde, se habló una vez de alguien que en uno de esos malos momentos que suelen tenerse en la vida, sacó raudo su pistola y le voló la tapa de los sesos a un imprudente; otra vez oí de un automovilista que yendo por una carretera de la antigua provincia de Oriente tomado y a exceso de velocidad mató a alguien, y se le echó polvo a eso; y sé de más de uno que por azares, porque les tocó, atropellaron o mataron a alguien a quien no vieron o que se les metió delante del automóvil, y tampoco pasó nada. Y ya en el drama de carácter folklórico que tan divertido suele ser, pero que drama al fin no deja de sacar lágrimas, no puedo olvidar a cierto amigo, ya difunto, que por una disputa con su mujer, empeñada, con esa inocente coquetería de las mujeres, en ponerse una trusa que él entendió intolerable, en el colmo de una cólera más temible que la de Aquiles, atacó su casa con bazuca y todo, dispuesto a no dejar allí ni el recuerdo de aquella trusa malvada. Y es famoso el caso de un deportista que pusiera una bomba en el motor del automóvil del marido de su ex mujer.

¿Favoritismo? ¿Venalidad? ¿Abuso de poder? No lo creo así, Ángel. Son, sí, de hecho, acciones de antemano condenadas por la ley, Pero la ley
es sorda, es ciega, la ley sólo tiene boca para dictar sentencia y manos para agarrarte y llevarte al paredón en ocasiones. La justicia, en cambio, puede mirar, y mira si es justicia de veras, lo que la ley no podría ver. La ley juzga a la criatura por su peor momento, el que la llevó a comparecer ante ella; la justicia en cambio la juzga por su mejor momento.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes fue a menudo autoritario y aun tiránico, y en ocasiones solapadito. Pensar en su golpe de estado a Aguilera, pensar en los esclavos a los que les dio la libertad en la noche de su alzamiento en el ingenio La Demajagua. No le dio la libertad a nadie. Los esclavos no eran suyos puesto que tampoco lo era el ingenio. Era de su hermano Eduardo quien por cierto lo tenía perdido en deudas de juego, y además –además!–, aquellos esclavos de su gesto para la galería eran unos ancianos ya. Empero, ni por estas astucias ni por aquella alevosía inicial podría calcularse el alma de Carlos Manuel de Céspedes sino por por su postura cuando el enemigo español le toma prisionero a su hijo Oscar, porque es allí, en ese momento, cuando el pequeño hombre ambicioso de gloria se levanta de pronto en su estatura de Padre de la Patria de los cubanos para todos los tiempos.

Los favorecidos que te mencionaba a manera de breves “botones de muestra” (como solía decirse cuando yo era niño) merecían justicia, Ángel Santiesteban, la merecían: esto es comprensión, reconocimiento –no perdón, no caridad, no: reconocimiento–, por su vida de servicios a la nación a cuya gloria habían contribuido. Estuvieron en la Sierra o fueron asaltantes de Palacio o trajeron títulos mundiales para Cuba.
Tú, desde luego –lo sabemos–, no eres deportista, ni tampoco estuviste en la Sierra. La escuela de comandantes de la Sierra cerró muchos años
antes de que nacieras. Pero eres un héroe de la cultura, eres un autor laureado, un hombre que ha dedicado ya más de la mitad de tu vida a
escribir, y a ganar premios que honran al país, a la patria, esa entidad mayor y para siempre, porque los gobiernos pasan, Ángel, pasan, pero la patria permanece.

Tengo por eso la esperanza de que no te den menos de lo que a otros héroes se les dio. El hecho de que se dé la casualidad de que también seas disidente, hombre de la oposición política, no creo que cuente. La oposición es el partido más numeroso del mundo, en todos los países el sesenta o setenta por cierto de la población pertenece a la oposición sin que eso se considere un demérito. En definitiva, todos los que después fueron poder estuvieron antes en la oposición. Mira al pobrecito Mandela. En todo caso, mi querido amigo Ángel Santiesteban, estamos hablando de
justicia, no de política. De justicia. Y mi memoria del porvenir, y mi experiencia de ochenta años de vivir en este mundo –los que cumpliré
ahora en junio si Dios me lo permite–, me dicen, me están diciendo que se te hará justicia, Ángel, que saldrás bajo un régimen de prisión
domiciliaria a purgar esa riña familiar, con una pena acorde a lo que dentro de unos años, después de todo, será folklore en el barrio,chiste incluso de tu ex esposa: “El susto que le hice pasar”, la oigo diciendo mientras ella allá en esos días de entonces juega dominó o le sirve té a las visitas y yo en esta madrugada del 27 de febrero del 2013, termino de escribir estas lamentaciones y esperanzas, que también serán folklore.

Rafael Alcides

The time is NOW

Margarita Alarcón Perea

Last week President Barack Obama gave Telemundo´s Jose Diaz Balart (yes, he is related to the other ones) an interview at the White House. The conversation revolved on the issues related to immigration reform, and gun control for the next four years in the presidency. Of course, being a Diaz Balart and working for Telemundo, Cuba was a hot topic. This was a given, what was not was the President’s response to the questions at hand.

The president didn’t have much new to say, and it wasn’t his actual wording that caught my attention, it was everything that you can read between the lines. He didn’t ramble on about how Cuba had to do this or that, and ended his comment. He didn’t offer a quick quip on Cuba’s human rights record (soooo yesterday’s news) or one independent blogger or another. He said things like: “I think we can have progress over the next four years. I’m happy to engage it.”, and he mentioned that it had to be “a two way street.” Before any of this he of course, mentions having to do something about “basic freedoms of the press and assembly” , but then he says “we don’t expect every country to operate the way we do”.

This, of course, the fact that he spoke so candidly about this topic, struck a nerve with Cuban Officials and prompted a quick response from Cuba´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by way of the Head of the Department that deals with US Cuba relations, Josefina Vidal. Ms Vidal calls attention to President Obama’s need to stop listening to some of the people he has around him and to start looking and paying attention to the changes that are taking place in Cuba and the many more to come. It was a brilliant game of Wimbledon Tennis at its best, a pleasurable serve was sent back with a blissful back hand.

It’s a slow game we are watching in play. It will take longer than a normal Grand Slam game of tennis. But the important thing is it is in play.

Now, what we mustn’t forget is that when Ms. Vidal mentions “those who surround you” she is not naming names but she is very much on track of the reality that encompasses Barack Obama regarding Cuba. The fact that he picked Richard Blanco, a Cuban American poet of no specific political background, whose parents are nowhere to be found anywhere in the mesh that is the Cuban American community in Miami or New Jersey, nor do they appear to have political ties to anyone in particular, was very significant to many. Even more than when Mrs. Obama chose a Cuban American designer for her first inaugural attire.

Richard Blanco is now the target of anti Cuban rhetoric, but not the specific political one that we are all used to, nope. He is now being lashed out against together with the President for not being all sorts of things that I refuse to rewrite about here but rather remit the reader to a brilliant piece appearing in the Huffington Post today:

A Supposedly Gay-Friendly Cuban Writer Questions Richard Blanco’s Manliness

Ariel Gonzalez

It was inevitable that Richard Blanco’s selection as President Obama’s second inaugural poet would provoke a response from a predictably vocal segment of the Cuban exile community. But I was surprised at the shoddy screed Zoe Valdes, a writer of distinction, posted recently on the right-wing website, Babalu Blog. This assault on Blanco is digressive, self-contradictory and based on false premises. It warrants attention, however, as an admonition against allowing ideologically-driven emotion to overtake stylistic rigor and sound judgment.

Read entire piece here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariel-gonzalez/zoe-valdes-richard-blanco_b_2579081.html>

The time to act is so very much in the making that some of these people are just simply loosing it! President Obama has a window, he is obviously pulling the shades and is looking out; let’s help him wipe off the mugginess that is interfering with clear vision.

In the words of Richard Blanco: ”(according to the Cuban exile community) Castro…destroyed the paradise that was Cuba. Yet my high school history teacher portrayed pre-revolutionary Cuba as a destitute country full of corruption, and praised Castro for his social reforms, quoting statistics in support of dramatic improvements in health care, literacy, and education; and many intellectuals I met in college glorified post-revolutionary Cuba as a model society. Who was telling the truth? Which was the “real” Cuba? Who got the story “right?”

Castro on Democracy Now!

Mariela Castro Espín on Democracy Now! live at the firehouse in New York City

 

<pAMY GOODMAN: In a Democracy Now! special, we begin our show today with a rare U.S. interview with the daughter of the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, and First Lady Vilma Espín. Her name is Mariela Castro. She’s best known in Cuba for her ardent support of gay, lesbian and transgender rights and as the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana.

Mariela Castro was recently granted a visa for a rare trip to the United States. Democracy Now! had a chance to sit down with her last week at the Cuban consulate here in New York City. We talked not only about her work combating homophobia, but also her thoughts on the Cuban Five and what’s happening in Cuba 50 years after the start of the U.S. embargo. She called on the United States to release five Cubans jailed for spying on violent anti-Cuban militants in exchange for U.S. citizen Alan Gross, who was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years on charges of subversion. She says, “Free the six.”

We turn now to my interview with Mariela Castro. I began by asking her about what brought her to the United States. Mariela Castro was translated by Elizabeth Coll.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I presented my work at the Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, which was held last week in San Francisco. I was also invited by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the work that you’re doing in Cuba.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I am the director of the National Center of Sexual Education. This is an academic center that is part of the Ministry of Public Health. Its mission is to coordinate the national program of sexual education with a multidisciplinary focus which coordinates different sectors.

AMY GOODMAN: Why have you chosen to make sexuality and the politics of sexuality your issue? You, yourself, are heterosexual. You’re married to a man. You have three children.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] This is work that my mother began with the Federation of Cuban Women. She was the one who created CENESEX. Though professionally I worked with preschool children and adolescents, as I heard about the difficulties of LGBT people, I began to sympathize with their needs and problems. Many LGBT couples chose to come to counseling sessions with me, and as I listened to them, I started to study, to find tools to be able to help them.

AMY GOODMAN: You’ve come to the United States at an interesting time. The president, President Obama, has just endorsed same-sex marriage, marriage equality. What are your thoughts about that?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I think it’s very valuable that the president of the United States speaks out publicly in favor of the rights of same-sex couples. Being the most powerful country in the world, what the president says has great influence on the rest of the world.

AMY GOODMAN: Yet we do not have across-the-board law that says that same-sex marriage is accepted. And in Cuba, you don’t, either. What are you doing in Cuba to change the laws?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] In Cuba, CENESEX is leading an educational strategy, with the support of the media, to promote respect for free and responsible sexual orientation and gender identity. We are also doing some advocacy with state institutions and civil society organizations, so that they support this educational strategy. Beyond the educational strategy and our media strategy, we are also promoting legislative initiatives that support the same rights for homosexuals and transgender people, so that, for example, the family code recognizes the rights of these people and also their possibilities as couples, the legalization of their union as a couple.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you pushing for same-sex marriage in Cuba?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I am promoting marriage, but it was not accepted by many groups of people. And so, what we are negotiating is the legalization of consensual unions and that the legalization of these unions would guarantee, more than anything, their property rights, inheritance rights.

AMY GOODMAN: So, do same-sex couples have the same economic rights as heterosexual couples?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] All rights are guaranteed for all people. There is no exclusion for LGBT people. But where there is still not respect for their rights is around the guarantee that if one member of a same-sex couple dies, the survivor be recognized as the person who should receive the inheritance, or even just be allowed to enjoy the goods that they had enjoyed as a couple.

AMY GOODMAN: Presumably, you have your father’s ear, the president of Cuba. How does he feel about making it fully equal between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] He is convinced that it is necessary, that it is part of the project of full justice the Cuban Revolution proposes.

AMY GOODMAN: Is he supportive like you are?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] He has been supportive since before, from when my mother was working on these issues.

AMY GOODMAN: And what about gay men and lesbians in the military?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] In all of Cuban society, there are all kinds of people. In the army, as well, there are homosexuals and lesbians. They don’t manifest it publicly, but they are there.

AMY GOODMAN: If it is known, if they are open, would they be kicked out of the military?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I see that the rules have become more flexible. Of course, before, they were more rigid. I think that in all Cuban society, the policy and laws are becoming more flexible. And the same will happen in the army.

AMY GOODMAN: We return to my conversation with Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro. I asked her about the Cuban Five, the five men convicted in 2001 for spying on violent anti-Castro militants in the United States.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] As part of the Cuban population, I am committed to fighting for the liberation of the five Cubans, in this case, four Cubans who are imprisoned and one who is out on probation in Miami. And, really, they are serving very severe sentences that do not correspond with the evidence. There is no evidence for such severe sentences. If they had been tried justly, they would have already completed their sentences. And yet, they are still prisoners.

AMY GOODMAN: I dare say most Americans don’t even know who they are, why they’re in jail. Can you explain?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] It has been silenced because it is a kind of political vendetta. You know that Cuba, since the beginning of the revolution, has been the victim of terrorist attempts, organized and perpetrated by terrorist groups based in Miami of Cubans who have even confessed to be killers. They have confessed their crimes, even in books that have been published and in interviews on television. But they have not been brought to justice. However, Cuba has more than 5,000 victims of state terrorism between the dead and the wounded. Thus, as a society, as a sovereign nation, we have the right to defend ourselves, and we do it peacefully.

How? Infiltrating Cuban people who identify with the revolution, infiltrating them into these terrorist groups to alert the Cuban government as to when these terrorist attacks were going to take place, in order to be able to thwart the attempts and defend our population. These terrorist groups enjoy great economic and political power in Florida, and thus, judgments were made that violate the laws of the United States, and they were made in Miami by totally partial judges who oppose the process of the Cuban Revolution.

AMY GOODMAN: Would the Cuban government be open to a prisoner swap, the Cuban Five for Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned by the Cuban government?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] The Cuban government has expressed interest in finding a negotiated solution on humanitarian terms, and of course it is fully disposed to negotiate with the government of the United States. But it has not received any response.

AMY GOODMAN: Cuban-American Congress members in the United States have condemned the Obama administration for giving you a visa into the United States. Díaz-Balart, Congressman Díaz-Balart, said, “It is appalling that the Obama administration is welcoming high-level agents of the Castro dictatorship onto U.S. soil. While the Cuban people are struggling for basic freedoms in the face of increasingly brutal repression…”

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says, “Mariela Castro is part of a ruthless dictatorship that has oppressed the Cuban people for more than half a century. She wants to spew [out] the lies and propaganda of her family’s failed regime and doesn’t want to answer questions from a free and independent media.”

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I am not going to respond to the mediocre yellow press that she tries to impose on me, which for 50 years has spread lies about the Cuban Revolution. I also want to say about these Cuban congresspeople that you mentioned, everyone in the United States and Cuba knows that they promote laws that violate the rights of Americans to travel to Cuba, that violate the rights of the Cuban community and Cuban descendants in the United States, who are 1.8 million people, to travel freely to Cuba to reunite with their families. These people are constantly promoting legislation that worsens the economic blockade. And with the revolutionary government of these more than 50 years, the Cuban people have found freedom and full justice.

AMY GOODMAN: You’ve been allowed into the United States under the Bush administration.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I entered in 2002 for another congress in Los Angeles.

AMY GOODMAN: What would a lifting of the U.S. embargo against Cuba mean for your country, Mariela Castro?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] In the first place, it would mean that the government of the United States would begin to respect international law. It would mean the beginning of the end of one of the worst human rights violations: that suffered by the Cuban people because of the blockade. For Cuba, it would mean access to development that has been limited by the blockade. And Americans and Cubans could meet in friendship, without the mediation of these unscrupulous congresspeople who manipulate the policy of the United States towards Cuba in service of their personal power and economic interests, and not in function of the necessities of the Cuban people both within Cuba and beyond.

AMY GOODMAN: Your father, President Castro, has been making a transition in Cuba. Can you talk about the changes that you think are most important for people in the United States to understand?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] One of the most important changes is that the new economic and social strategy has been designed with the full participation of all the Cuban population, who have participated in the debates, both to question the current reality as well as to propose what changes should be made.

AMY GOODMAN: There is a lot of discussion of a post-Castro Cuba. What do you think that would look like?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] The same—with the same strategy of socialist development, which is always looking for more efficient mechanisms to support social justice and national sovereignty, and also with new public figures, because there are many people participating in Cuba in all the decisions. So that would mean new faces for the media. But for Cubans, those faces would not be new.

AMY GOODMAN: Would you consider the presidency of Cuba?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] No. That job doesn’t interest me.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I like my job.

AMY GOODMAN: There are other socialist governments in Latin America—Bolivia, Venezuela—where there are elections. Would Cuba go in that direction?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I think Cuba has publicly expressed what the mechanisms of popular election will be, and what is being proposed is to perfect them, not repeat what others do.

AMY GOODMAN: What would it look like?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] Well, how we do it now is through mechanisms of popular election. It is the people who nominate their leaders. Term limits have been established, and the president, my father, is included in these term limits. This has been the result of a collective discussion, to give opportunities to others, so that they assume their responsibilities. And the mechanisms of control are being perfected so that the people have access to the control of the mechanisms of power.

AMY GOODMAN: How is the health of your uncle, Fidel Castro?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I just want to add, in Cuba, we don’t have electoral campaigns, and the Communist Party doesn’t field candidates. And the leaders don’t receive an additional salary. And the legislators don’t receive an additional salary, because they are still doing their jobs. So positions of power in Cuba do not generate economic interests in people.

Fidel looks like he’s doing really well. He is an octogenarian, so he doesn’t have the same vitality that characterized him his whole life—that where there was a problem, Fidel was there with the people looking for solutions; that where there was a threat or danger, Fidel was right there in front of his people. Fidel is now giving us the privilege of his writing, of the writing of history. There are things that only he knows. And he is giving us a marvelous historical legacy that gives the Cuban people a spiritual strength that is priceless.

AMY GOODMAN: How did he manage to survive? I believe it’s more than 600 assassination attempts by the United States, at least hundreds. The CIA documents many of them.

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I think it was three things. First, his charisma and his sense of justice convinced even his executioners. Above all, he was the leader of the Cuban people, he is the maximum leader of the Cuban people, and the people have always protected him. But he is also a third world leader. And in the countries that he visited where they organized the attempts, mostly organized by the CIA, these same populations protected him.

AMY GOODMAN: What is your assessment of President Obama?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] President Obama represents an imperialist government and policy. So if you were to say to me, “Do you prefer him? Would you like him as a president?” I would say I would prefer a president who responds to the interests of the American people, who protects the poor from the arbitrary actions of the rich, and that respects international law. I have a very personal impression that Obama is a person who tries to be just. But while occupying the position of the presidency of the United States, it is very difficult to be just. However, I am a person who always likes to think positively, and I would like to believe that Obama in a second term will be a better human being and a better president.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned issues of poverty and equality. What is your assessment of the Occupy movement in the United States?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] It’s very interesting to me how the American population has found new languages and forms of struggle, a new language of struggle to fight for their social demands. And they do it peacefully and with deep reasoning. I don’t think they are against the government. They are against the policies that violate their rights. And I feel admiration for the courage of these people.

AMY GOODMAN: What would you like to see most change about the United States?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] I want the Cuban Five to go back to Cuba and for Alan Gross to go home. I want an end to the financial, commercial and economic blockade that violates the human rights of the Cuban people, and the normalization of relations between both countries.

AMY GOODMAN: And what would you like to see most change about Cuba?

MARIELA CASTRO: [translated] In Cuba, I want to see the socialist system strengthened with mechanisms that are always more participatory and democratic, and that the sovereignty of Cuba always be respected.

AMY GOODMAN: Mariela Castro, daughter of the Cuban president, Raúl Castro. She is the most prominent champion of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in Cuba. She called on the United States to release the five Cubans imprisoned here in the U.S. They were spying on anti-Cuban militants in the U.S. In exchange, she says, Cuba should release Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen jailed in Cuba.

Amanpour & Castro

The United States had a rare and unique opportunity last week to witness first hand a one on one conversation between two intelligent women. Unfortunately the event was promoted on live television for Spanish speaking audiences and for the international section of CNN.

Below please find the full English transcript of the conversation held between Christiane Amanpour and Mariela Castro Espín.

MAP

Mariela Castro during the May Day Parade march holding a sign from the “OBAMA GIve Me Five!” campaign

 

 

AMANPOUR: Mariela Castro, thank you for being with us.

MARIELA CASTRO ESPIN, DAUGHTER OF RAUL CASTRO: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you first, who inspired you to this cause of gay rights?

ESPIN (through translator): In the first place, it was my mother.

My mother began to do this kind of work in the Cuban women’s organization, first defending women’s rights, children’s and youth rights and little by little she began to try and have people be respected in the LGBT community that, because of a very patriarchal culture inherited from the Spanish system continues to be our reality, these prejudices are still repeated.

AMANPOUR: Let me show you these pictures that we have found, amazing pictures of you and your family, your mother and your father and your siblings. This is the current president, Raul Castro, your father. And this is your mom, Vilma.

ESPIN: Yes.

AMANPOUR: And which is you here?

ESPIN: Here. Esta.

ESPIN (through translator): I’m right here. This is me. I’m the second child.

AMANPOUR: Given your family’s history and the revolutionary hero and the tough guy image in Cuba, was it difficult to take up this cause of gay rights?

ESPIN (through translator): All families in the world are patriarchal families and they’re machista families. And in the case of my family, the fact that my mother was already working in this field, she ensured that my father interpreted this reality in a more flexible way.

And for me it was always easy to speak openly with my parents and this idea of fighting against homophobia was really something that I took from them.

But even so, although I found understanding in my family and my family was very understanding, even my father is very understanding right now, it’s a very difficult and complex process, and this is why my father always said that I have to be very careful about everything and to do this very attentively and carefully so that I wouldn’t hurt other people who don’t understand, but that I do have to provide people the instruments with which they can respect other realities, even though they don’t understand them.

AMANPOUR: You have written, “As I began to recognize the damage that homophobia was doing to society, I would come home and confront my parents with the issue. And when I got home, I said to my father, `How could you people have been so savage?’ My dad said, `Well, we were like that in those days. That’s what we were taught. But people learn.'”

So it was an evolution for your father.

ESPIN (through translator): Exactly. I think that Cuban society as a whole has been changing and its political leaders are also changing as part of society.

AMANPOUR: Even in this country, it’s taken a long time for politicians to agree, for instance, to gay marriage, same-sex marriage. President Obama has just said that he supports it. You must admire President Obama.

ESPIN (through translator): Yes. And when I heard this news, and I was questioned about it in the press, of course I can say that I support and I celebrate what President Obama has done. I believe that it’s very just and I feel a great deal of admiration for President Obama.

I believe that if President Obama had fewer limitations in his mandate, he could do much more for his people and for international law and international rights. Yes, I think that I dare to say that, because I’m not American. That’s really a right that the American people have. But I feel the right to express what I feel, and if I was an American citizen, yes, I would vote for President Obama.

AMANPOUR: On this issue of same-sex marriage, do you think that will become legal in Cuba?

ESPIN (through translator): Already several years ago, my mother began to promote this bill and even trying to propose changing legislation. First we were proposing the freedom of same-sex marriage.

But since there’s been such a debate on this and there are so many diverse opinions in Cuba, what is being proposed right now are civil unions, where gay couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples. However, this hasn’t happened as yet, and people who are in same-sex couples do not have any protection.

AMANPOUR: You can see these pictures of gay rights marches in Cuba itself. When do you think this law will be taken up? When do you think that there will be progress from the Cuban parliament on this?

ESPIN (through translator): According to what had been planned, it’s this same year that this still has to be presented, which recognizes the rights of same-sex couples.

AMANPOUR: As we’ve been talking, you’ve talked about human rights and you’ve talked about the limits of the state. So let me ask you about the rights in your country and whether you think that gay rights, civil rights, could lead to more different kinds of rights, political kinds of rights. Where do you see this trend going, opening up the space for civil rights?

ESPIN (through translator): At present, in the last few years, there’s been a big debate that the Cuban people have participated in in many sectors. And there have been criticisms and suggestions of what we have to change in Cuban society.

And many valuable ideas have come from this. And what we’ve seen is what the population believes should be our socialist transition process in Cuba. And we want to include everything that we believe to be our need. And of course, this translates into rights, civil rights.

AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you about that. I’ve been in Cuba several times over the last 14 years, and I can see that under your father, President Raul Castro, there’s been opening on the economic front, but not so much on the political front. Again, do you think these civil rights will lead to more political diversity, more political rights?

ESPIN (through translator): As to political rights, what are you talking about?

AMANPOUR: Obviously, there’s one party in Cuba, so that’s one issue. But Human Rights Watch says that Cuba remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent. So I’m trying to figure out whether there is space in Cuba for broader political rights, where people, for instance, can dissent without being sent to jail.

ESPIN (through translator): All right. Human Rights Watch does not represent the ideas of the Cuban people and their informants are mercenaries. They’re people that have been paid by foreign governments for media shows that do not represent Cuban positions correctly.

However, the presence of a sole party in Cuba came from the fight against colonialism, from Spain. Jose Martin had the merit of creating the Cuban revolutionary party in Cuba as a sole party, specifically to achieve independence and to avoid domination by the United States. So that’s the line that we followed in Cuban history because conditions haven’t changed.

And it hasn’t been easy. We’ve been working for many years to achieve this. We’ve achieved it in many spheres, in human rights, the rights of women, health, in many areas. But in other areas, where we haven’t reached that, we’re still working. That demand, that Cuba have various parties, no country has shown that having plural parties leads to democracy.

So the suggestions that they want to make to us aren’t valid. Conditions haven’t changed. Cuba is a country that for over 50 years have been subjected to the violation of international law with the financial blockade which has not allowed Cuba to access development.

AMANPOUR: I think I heard you suggest that if the embargo was not there and if you were not under pressure, that there would be a different political reality or there could be a different political reality in Cuba. Is that right?

ESPIN (through translator): Exactly. That’s right. If Cuba weren’t the subject of an economic and trade embargo, which has created so many problems for us, then Cuba, it wouldn’t make sense to have a sole party, just one party. But it’s when our sovereignty is threatened that we use this resource, which has truly worked in Cuban history.

AMANPOUR: As you know, there are many people, even inside Cuba, who feel that if the embargo was lifted, it would actually cause the one-party system to collapse. It would cause, perhaps, socialism to collapse.

ESPIN (through translator): I don’t think it would collapse. I don’t think socialism would collapse. I think it would become stronger. This is why they don’t lift the embargo.

AMANPOUR: Let me get to some of the reaction that your visit here has caused. Were you surprised that the U.S. government gave you a visa?

ESPIN (through translator): Even though I had obtained a visa under Bush in 2002, I was surprised this time. I didn’t think that I would be granted a visa. But I’m grateful. I was able to have a very rich exchange with professionals and activists in San Francisco and in New York as well.

AMANPOUR: You don’t need me to tell you what the Cuban-American community thinks. Florida Senator Marco Rubio accused you of bringing a campaign of anti-Americanism to the United States. Is that what you’re doing here?

ESPIN (through translator): In the first place, that senator doesn’t represent the Cuban-American people in the United States, just a very small interest group that has dedicated itself to manipulating policies in the United States towards Cuba affecting the civil rights of the Cuban-American people to travel freely and as often as they want, to be able to go back and see their families in Cuba.

So their leaders have always asked that we normalize relations based on respect towards our sovereignties and our social and economic projects. And I think that we can achieve this. I think it’s easy. It’s unfortunate that a small group of people are really limiting this process. I felt the friendship and the affection of the people of the United States.

I felt very well here. I’ve met wonderful people and I see that we share many points in common, Cuba and the United States. Right now in Cuba, there are many Americans because of the flexibility that Obama has. And it’s wonderful. They may feel very well there. And we’re ready. We’re ready to meet in friendship with any type of conditioning or political (inaudible).

AMANPOUR: Did you expect more from President Obama or has he gone as far as you expected him to go on the Cuban issue?

ESPIN (through translator): I think that the whole world and the American people have placed great hopes on President Obama and I personally understand that that is his position and that his public mandate limits him a great deal.

But I believe that President Obama needs another opportunity. And he needs greater support to move forward with this project and with his ideas, which I believe come from the bottom of his heart. He wants to do much more than what he’s done. That’s the way I interpret it personally. I don’t know if I’m being subjective.

AMANPOUR: Do you think that he wants to lift the embargo, and that there could be proper relations between Cuba and the United States under a second Obama term?

ESPIN (through translator): I believe that Obama is a fair man. And Obama needs greater support to be able to take this decision.

AMANPOUR: Do you want Obama to win the next election?

ESPIN (through translator): As a citizen of the world, I would like him to win. Seeing the candidates, I prefer Obama.

AMANPOUR: Now, as you know, there are many issues that cause problems between Cuba and the United States. One of the issues right now is Alan Gross. I want to play you something that he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN GROSS, AMERICAN HELD PRISONER IN CUBA: I have a 90-year-old mother who has inoperable lung cancer and she’s not getting any younger. And she’s not getting any healthier. I would return to Cuba, you know, you can quote me on that. I’m saying it live. I would return to Cuba if they let me visit my mother before she dies. And we’ve gotten no response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So my question to you is why should Alan Gross not be allowed to visit his sick mother?

ESPIN (through translator): The Cuban government has publicly requested that they want to negotiate based on human considerations, Alan Gross’ situation as well as the situation of the five Cubans who have been in prison for 15 years in the United States. And the Cuban people who are participating in this process is to seek a satisfactory solution for the six families, the five Cubans and for Alan Gross.

I think that it’s fair. I’m hurt by any families suffering. I’m dedicated to helping people and making them happy, and it seems to me that independently of the fact that he’s committed a crime and that he’s only served a short period of his sentence, I think that it’s fair that people can receive the benefit of flexibility in the world of law and justice, and that these negotiations go forward into the two governments. I think that as a people, we’re going to be very happy the situation has been solved.

But we have the case of Gerardo Hernandez, who’s in prison. His mother fell ill. He asked for permission to see his mother. His mother passed away, and Gerardo was not able to say goodbye to his mother. He also hasn’t been able to see his wife this whole time.

Alan Gross has been granted everything that he’s asked for. He’s been able to see his wife. He’s been able to have matrimonial conjugal visits and he has been treated with respect and dignity the way we always treat prisoners in Cuba.

We haven’t received the same treatment on the other hand for our five prisoners who have very long sentences. They’re not right. So what we want is the well-being of all of these families. That’s what we (inaudible) the most. I think that the six must be released, both the five Cubans and Alan Gross.

AMANPOUR: You yourself have said in New York this week, our system is open and fair, as you’ve just told me. Many would disagree with you, but you have said that. But you’ve also said that it could be more democratic. What do you mean by that?

ESPIN (through translator): I meant to say that we need to establish permanent mechanisms for the people’s participation when we make decisions, because this is the only way that all our people can participate.

AMANPOUR: We often wonder why it is that Cubans can’t travel very easily. Cubans have to get permission from the government to travel and come back. They can’t just leave. And it’s quite difficult to get permission. I mean, people have told me that inside Cuba. Why? I mean, what’s the point of that?

ESPIN (through translator): The subject of migration in Cuba was always managed politically from here and you know that there are many difficulties. And immigration law, even though the law in the United States is maintained, should change in Cuba.

So several years ago, there’s been a great discussion regarding the subject about how to modify this law and I understand that the fear and new immigration law will be approved in Cuba, which opens up to everything that the Cuban people have requested in our ongoing debate.

AMANPOUR: So you foresee change in the travel laws?

ESPIN (through translator): Yes, and I believe it’s going to come about very soon.

It’s one of the things that we’ve asked for the most in all of these discussions.

AMANPOUR: I have to ask you about somebody who you’re already having a bit of a verbal war with, and that is Yoani Sanchez, the dissident blogger inside Cuba. Why shouldn’t she be allowed to blog? Why shouldn’t she be allowed to say what she does?

ESPIN (through translator): The way I see it, Yoani Sanchez is allowed to express herself. She has a blog. She’s on Twitter. She’s on Facebook. She’s not in prison, even though she’s a mercenary. (Inaudible) she’s received over half a million dollar in prizes (inaudible) form of payment and (inaudible) mercenary does exist in Cuba.

Even though she’s done that, she’s not in prison. Even though she is breaking the law, she’s allowed to express herself and she’s allowed to lie. She has time to lie in everything that she wants. She’s free. She even has the most sophisticated technology which exists in Cuba to connect to Internet and to be able to publish her ideas.

AMANPOUR: In that regard, a couple of years ago, journalists came to Cuba, and they met with your uncle, Fidel Castro. And he gave an interview and he basically said the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore. What do you think he meant by that?

ESPIN (through translator): He meant to say that in this new era, in Cuba’s new reality, with the development of the political culture and functions (ph) in our country, it was time for a change. We had to change our strategy. And that’s what we’ve been doing. He realized it. And as a leader, he was calling upon us to do that.

But those changes do not happen overnight. I repeat, they have to be worked on. We have to generate a debate, and I think that that is what we’ve been doing. And I’m very satisfied to see that the maximum leader of our revolution has identified our difficulties, because as a people we were also defining them.

AMANPOUR: Thank you very much for coming in.

ESPIN (through translator): Thank you very much.

Behind the wall

Margarita Alarcón Perea

Every two years the city of Havana gets a new makeup job. Not paint, and not cement. It’s a makeup job in the sense that it is unfortunately ephemeral but no less beautiful to contemplate and enjoy while it lasts. The Biennale of Havana is the makeup job I refer to and this year it has hit the town hard and is painting it bright red.

Artistic Practices and Social Imaginaries is the theme of this 11th Havana Biennial 2012 and most of the work present is made up of interactive groundbreaking concept art reminiscent of Alexander Calder back when he revolutionized the notion of art and movement as one.

Over one hundred artists from 45

 countries are sharing in this festival of graphic imagery, many in collaborative works, all taking over the streets, the pavement, buildings, scaffolding and breathing in from the energy of the city itself to create in some cases a city of their own.

“Behind the Wall” gives title to one of the more expressive and interactive of the exhibits which stretches along the Malecon Habanero, (Havana ocean front walk). Cuban artists of the younger more provocative generation living both inside and outside the island have chosen this part of town to show their work. Pieces that have in common the desire for peace, belonging, movement and acceptance.

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The Biennale will go on for a month from its inaugural date of May 11^th. During this time, over 1,500 legal US visitors will be walking the streets of Havana partaking in the event, learning, and writing about the days they spend here. This year the Biennale is proving that art can create a bridge to bring people together on the common ground of beauty and self expression.

Arles del Rio “Fly Away”

Meanwhile, back home in the US, members of Congress are having a field day over a couple of visas granted to two Cubans. A couple of visas, TWO mind you, not 100, not even 200, just TWO. One was to the historian of the City of Havana and a world renown preservationist, Dr Eusebio Leal Spengler who also happens to be an honorary member of the French Foreign Legion and an invited speaker at the Brookings Institute. The other is Mariela Castro Espín, who is a sexologist, the director of the Center for Sex Education in Cuba and yes, well, her last names give her away, she is also one of the children of Raul Castro.

Neither Mariela nor Eusebio are travelling to the US to do proselytism on behalf of the “communist” regime. They are both visiting the US in regards to their fields of expertise, and because they were invited,  one to speak at  LASA “Latin American Studies Association” and the other at Brookings.

While members of Congress are insulting the current administration’s policy of reasonable and logical engagement with Cuba, and taking the Department of State to task over its decision to grant visas to a couple of Cuban citizens who happen to be academics other North American’s  are taking advantage of the Obama Administrations efforts to close the gap between both nations  by allowing travel and the parting in an artistic and scholarly  event that will help them better understand Cuba.

 

Rachel Valdés Camejo “…Happily Ever After…”

More Cuba in the loop.

 

 

1. Tell  Congress to address April’s terrorist attack in Miami
2. Let the State Department know that you denounce the visa denials of Cuban academics

 

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Tell Congress to address April’s terrorist attack in Miami

1) On April 27th there was a terrorist attack on a travel agency in Miami that is active in organizing travel to Cuba, and that arranged the travel for the group of 300 pilgrims who traveled to Cuba with Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. The Coral Gables Fire Department says: ” A fire at a company that charters flights to Cuba was sparked after a chunk of pavement was used to break open an office window and an incendiary device was then tossed into the building.”

The FBI report has not yet been issued, yet the presence of the FBI South Florida counter-terrorism task force says enough, and unofficial agencies present at the scene have said that this attack was “deliberate.”

Folks, this was a terrorist attack, plain and simple. You’d think that members of Congress from Florida would condemn it, wouldn’t you? Nope, not one word. In fact, not one member of Congress from ANY state has issued a statement denouncing the bombing. We want to see a serious investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators. Congress should be interested in this, too.

Send an email to your member of Congress here asking for a public response to a terrorist attack within our country’s borders. If you are from Florida, it is especially important that you take this action.

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Let the State Department know that you denounce the visa denials of Cuban academics

2) You may have heard about the State Department’s denial of visas to 11 respected Cuban scholars who were planning on attending the Latin American Studies Association meeting in San Francisco this week—while at the same time approving visas for two prominent Cubans invited to the same conference. The approvals of visas to Mariela Castro (a sexologist and President Raul Castro’s daughter), Dr. Eusebio Leal (the historian of the City of Havana), and two weeks earlier to Josefina Vidal (head of the North American Section of MINREX, Cuba’s foreign ministry). BTW, we applaud these visas, as there should be free and easy exchange between Cuban officials and U.S. officials, too. (Aren’t they “people,” too?) You can read comments from The Havana Note here.

The Cubans who were denied visas are a “Who’s Who” of Cuban academe who favor increased exchange between the United States and Cuba, and even the normalization of relations. They are effective in their messaging. Perhaps that is why they were denied? Click here to tell the State Department that you support educational exchanges with Cuba. We want to see a free flow of ideas on both sides of the Florida straits!

During an election year—when Florida is a crucial focus for both political parties—moves toward fully ending the travel ban have been stalled. But playing defense is an honorable role for us to play. As we wait for the right climate to push for more openings and significant progress toward normalization of relations between the two neighbor nations, we can’t let forces that oppose engagement win the day and succeed in eroding the advances we’ve made—or frighten away people and institutions that support travel to Cuba.

Thanks for your continued advocacy on behalf of the End the Travel Ban campaign! And we’ll be back in touch soon with an announcement about a delegation to Cuba in January 2013 which LAWG will be accompanying and co-leading!

All the best,

The LAWG Cuba Team.

Mariela Castro and Rea Carey in Conversation

LGBT Rights in Cuba, the United States and Beyond

In 2010 the Cuban government began providing sex reassignment surgery free of charge as part of their universal healthcare. This was the result of several years of work by the Cuban National Center for Sex Education under the leadership of Mariela Castro Espín, niece of Fidel Castro and daughter of current Cuban president Raúl Castro. The current developments in LGBT rights in Cuba are remarkable given the discrimination suffered by gays, lesbians, and transgender people in Cuba in the 20th century, as well as comparison with current LGBT movements in the U.S. and abroad.

Please join us on Tuesday May 29th at 7pm in the Trustees Room of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building as Mariela Castro Espín and Rea Carey, Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, discuss the current international context of LGBT rights, including issues of sexual identity and orientation in contemporary Cuba.

 Mariela Castro Espín is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). She was President of the Cuban Society for the Multidisciplinary Study of Sexuality (SOCUMES) from     2000 to 2010. She is president of the Cuban Multidisciplinary Centre for the Study of Sexuality, president of the National Commission for Treatment of Disturbances of Gender Identity, member of the  Direct Action Group for Preventing, Confronting, and Combatting AIDS, and an executive member of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). She is also the director of the journal Sexología y  Sociedad, a magazine of Sexology edited by her own National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). She is the author of 9 books, published in Cuba and abroad, among them Transexuality in Cuba (Havana, CENESEX Publishing House, 2008). In 2009 she was awarded with the Public Service Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), and in 2012 she received the Eureka Award for Academic Excellence, given by the World Council of University Academy (COMAU). She is married with 3 children.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is one of the most prominent leaders in the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement. Carey, who came to the Task Force in 2004 as deputy executive director, has served as executive director since 2008.  Through her leadership, Carey has advanced a vision of fairness and justice for LGBT people and their families that is broad, inclusive and unabashedly progressive. Prior to her work with the Task Force, Carey worked extensively in HIV/AIDS prevention and in the LGBT community as one of the co-founders of Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence and the founding executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. She has also served as an advisor to major donors and foundations, and has served on the advisory boards for such wide-ranging publications as Teen People magazine and the Georgetown University Journal of Gender and the Law. She serves on the Advisory Board of the LGBTQ Policy Journal, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

Dialogue or what isnt mentioned dosen´t exist…

 

By Alberto Roque Guerra

I was reading on the digital web site Cubadebate an article by Arleen Rodriguez Derivet “El espíritu del Partido frente a la realidad nueva” and this caught my attention:

As some might suspect, when it comes to the commissions, I chose the ideological one to follow during the event. I could no longer distance myself from the debates till the very end. It is because of this that I would like to go over some of the more intense moments. The first when guest speaker Mariela Castro suggested that the word “dialogue” be included in an explicit manner, where it had till then be deemed implicit (…). Had I been a delegate I would have voted in favor of including the polemic word, essence from where one must look on to the political communications of these times. Only thing is, as Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler would say, “there are words that say it all and there are no words to say it all…but words are not the determinant, actions are.”

Magnificent piece. Regarding Mariela’s proposal, I see nothing polemic about the word dialogue but what does worry me is that someone as brilliant as Eusebio Leal might think that way, when no other like him has given such use to words in their just context and with a clarity that has no bounds. No one has had to confront dogmas like Eusebio has, silences and omissions in order to build the great body of work that without a doubt, have given him passage through the Gateway of the history of this nation.

Dialogue is necessary, it invites unity, consensus, participation, and cleansing; it adds, never subtracts, it is necessary in order to evolve and to continue giving impulse to this Revolution. I agree with everything said by Eusebio in regards to action and the implementation of ideas, yet, our feminist colleagues have said something brilliant: “what is never mentioned, doesn’t exist.”

Paulo Freire, the great pedagogue and defender of the oppressed described and practiced the principle that he termed ¨diologuery¨. To it he gave a transcendental value inside popular education in order to over throw the relations between human beings based on inequality. Within our context, we too have to establish dialogue with the burocrat, with the dogmatist, which are the worst form of counter revolutionaries preventing this country from being a better place. We will have to establish dialogue among Cubans regarding gender relations, racial issues, education, culture, inequality, access to culture and citizen participation.

Once again, bravo Mariela!