Lilianne Ruíz, Translator: Unstated
In 2003, what was I doing? Now I can't remember exactly. None of those
tried in summary trials in the Black Spring of 2003, they charged,
according to prosecutors' intentions, with 20 years or life
imprisonment, had committed any crime. They were made prisoners for
exercising their right to try to change this state of affairs, striving
for freedom, justice, law and the peace of citizens against the State.
It is not a protest against a foreign power, civil protest is against
the State. A State that has never wanted to be accountable to its, which
has always justified closing ranks and threatening nationals with all
its weapons, with the excuse of the ambition of a foreign power to
colonize the country.
From the beginning we have seen how they have manipulated Cubans but no
one had the spirit to protest, to avoid a major problem in the future.
Or rather, those who protested before us were imprisoned, some served
twenty years within the walls of la Cabaña,, turned into hell, and we do
not go out in their defense nor do we remember most of them.
Thus, almost without paying attention, all generations, in turn, have
granted permission to the "Revolutionary Government" to violate the
rights of everyone. Here the old people say that in the first years
after the triumph of those who came down from the Sierra, was there is
opposition in Cuba. That's not entirely true, because in all the years
of this ordeal there have been people who have defended their rights,
all the rights we have as human beings. But at that time there was still
something of a habit of Civil Society, so students could demand from the
Revolutionary Government, and were protected by Constitutional rights,
but gradually those rights were also erased.
From the beginning whoever did not serve the interests of power was
demonized the press, be they domestic or foreign;they were called
reactionary and counterrevolutionary and people were ordered to applaud
the restrictive measures of the new regime. And the truth is, if there
weren't people outside of Cuba who still believe that the human person
has a value before and after the privations to which the "New Man" is
subjected, the destiny of all those born in Cuba would be punishment.
And this I cannot allow because I am a person and a mother. And it is my
right, I don't want to live with a sentence hanging over my head. A "New
Man," armed, supplanting humanity, making excuses with schools and
hospitals, polishing my nails with cynicism, thinking myself decent.
Meanwhile ignoring that there are 30 rights proclaimed after much
observation and while new rights could be recognized, none can ever be
taken away. In Cuba they have taken away many rights. And anyone can be
kidnapped by the government in this country as in Sodom and Gomorrah. I
compare it with Sodom and Gomorrah for the unlimited violence, full of
hidden traps. Not for the issue of gays with which I sympathize faced
with a government that considers that this group pf people could signify
more sympathizers and more imaginary votes, because there are no free
elections.
Anyone would say they elections are always free, but in Cuba, no;
because they only choose the actors from one Party that always elects
the same master.
If it were not for all people in the world who condemned the
imprisonment of the 75 peaceful opponents arrested in the Black Spring
of Cuba; if it weren't for the Ladies in White, and for Guillermo
Fariñas; and finally only because the Cardinal was the only native the
government chose to talk with in closed session: What would have become
of them now?
They couldn't count on the people. They couldn't count on me. I was
tangled in my private life. There will always be a private life where
people take refuge. Admittedly, we depend on external help to handcuff
the clutches of the regime. In this vast concentration camp on the
island of Cuba, people are good up to a limit, within the limits imposed
on them by submission and self-preservation and survival. They have
surrendered to what they believe to be stronger than them, and maybe it
is, in fact, until the day when the certainty returns that we are not
orphans. There is still God in the Universe.
For every Cuba who has been incarcerated, while I am silent, I have been
complicit, I have sinned against God and against myself.
This regime, from top to bottom, has vilely tried to use the aspirations
that belong to us as Humanity, and has squandered in speeches as if
honesty has no value, because he does not fear God who does not make
himself responsible before Him for every word and every action committed
against his neighbor. What seems not to have been imported is that
normally in our private life we learn that people can lie with their
words, speaking of our desires without ever satisfying them, among other
things, because no person can truly represent the desires of every human
person who needs the best values of education and freedom, which already
carry a healthy conflict from the Oedipus complex of each one, from the
intervening instinct of education to direct them to the order of life.
We have endowed a monster of immense power and I have to hope that for
being unjust he can still be beaten. At least for our children, for our
grandchildren, not just for Cubans but so the world is not fooled any
more by some heretic seller of miracles who like a devil steals our
souls. We can do well in freedom, we can aspire to health care services
in freedom, and education and food, in another way. Without political
prisons.
March 18 2012
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