Freedom?

Freedom? / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on March 13, 2015

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, Border Control Prison, February 2015 — If I
had any desire to be set free, it wouldn't be with a great desire to
accompany my children in their human, academic and social growth and to
cooperate in this dream of liberation for my country.

When I think that I will have to return to that huge prison that is Cuba
for Cubans who cannot express their opinions about the reality that
surrounds them, or the artists who, through their art, bring another
aesthetic that doesn't make the leaders happy, the emotion fades like
that light they try to turn off, to hide.

I makes no sense to say that freedom is outside my imprisonment when I
fell that I am more free than those who say they are free and speak
softly to hide their thoughts, or prefer to lie to others with the
intention of not being identified by the officials — somehow the police
— persecutors of those who dare to be honest, although they silently
envy them.

To be punished by a dictatorship is one of the best experiences I've
received in my life and I am very proud of it.

Knowing that history will record me as against the tyranny that has
ruled the archipelago for more than half a century, fills me with joy
and is, in itself, the greatest payment for the suffering that I have
received, for the punishment they deal like a decoration impossible to
match.

Today, Wednesday, February 25, I called the headquarters of the Ladies
in White and thanked them for their shouts of freedom for the political
prisoners; their boundless courage, and for bearing up under the
beatings and humiliations they receive, as one Sunday 22 February, when
they were physically abused, humiliated and imprisoned, as well as Human
Rights activists who support the Ladies in White, among others Ailer
Gonzalez and Antonio Rodiles.

The government has to stop its constant violation of these rights, and
accept that once the opposition is a tangible reality it is impossible
to annul them no matter how many outrages are committed against them.

In addition, the countries who converse with the dictators must demand
respect and not allow them to be used and underestimated in this game
that the tyranny smears in search of the oxygenation that guarantees
their remaining in power.

Down with the dictatorship! Nation and Liberty!

Published: 13 March 2015

Source: Freedom? / Angel Santiesteban | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/freedom-angel-santiesteban/