By Cotton Delo. Journal staff writer. The Jersey Journal
News. 08/03/01.
UNION CITY - For more than 25 years, Ricardo Montero Duque languished in
Cuban prisons while those who fought beside him during the 1961 Bay of Pigs
invasion were freed.
He came to Union City in 1986, when he was released by Cuban authorities,
and quickly established himself as a pillar in Hudson's Cuban community, working
as director and editor of local Spanish-language newspapers El Cubano Libre and
La Semana and serving two terms as president of the Union of Former Cuban
Political Prisoners.
Earlier this week, the Union hosted a farewell ceremony for Duque, who plans
to move to South Florida with his wife, Esther, to be closer to family following
his impending retirement from Hernandez Realty on 64th Street.
"He has been a leader and he, like many, have shown their patriotism
beyond words, putting their lives on the line," said Matt Perez, who
commutes from East Hanover to work with the Union, which moved from Miami to
Union City in the late 1970s.
About 100 colleagues, friends and local dignitaries packed the Union's 43rd
Street office on Tuesday, President Alfonso Angel calling the space "a
sanctuary of political expression."
The small room's walls are lined with names and photographs of political
dissidents silenced by Fidel Castro's firing squads.
As a young man, Duque had a promising military career in Cuba under dictator
Fulgencio Batista and was elevated to the rank of major in the Constitutional
Army, which campaigned against Castro's guerrillas.
When Batista was deposed in 1959, Duque and his wife fled to the United
States, but a twist of fate brought the decommissioned major back to his native
island.
Duque commanded Infantry Battalion No. 5 of the 2506 Brigade, from which
1,189 soldiers were ultimately captured in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion.
Castro agreed to release all but nine of the prisoners a year later, and
Duque remained behind bars after receiving a 30-year sentence. His friends at
the Union believe the dictator held a personal grudge because of Duque's
tireless activism against the communist regime.
Duque said he was inspired to persevere by his love of freedom.
After 16 months of negotiation by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, Duque
was released in June 1986, while one Bay of Pigs veteran remained incarcerated.
When he arrived at Newark International Airport, Duque was greeted by 50
journalists who came to witness his reunion with Esther. The couple's picture
appeared on the front pages of The New York Times and the New York Daily News
the next day.
"His marriage to Esther has survived the years of anguish and
separation," said Angel, who himself was imprisoned from 1960 to 1979.
"My heart was always with him," Esther Duque said in Spanish.
West New York Mayor Albio Sires met Duque at the airport that June day, as
an emissary from then-Gov. Tom Kean.
Sires presented Duque with a key to his city on Tuesday, and Union City
Mayor Brian Stack read from a resolution declaring Duque a "relentless
warrior." U.S. Rep. Bob Menendez, D-Union City, was detained in Washington
but sent a representative to the ceremony.
Union Vice President Guillermo Estevez, who was incarcerated between 1960
and 1979, estimates the organization - which lobbies the U.S. government to seek
a free Cuba and educates schoolchildren about Cuban history - represents 700
former political prisoners in the tri-state area.
Vice Secretary of Press Lionel Rodriguez was imprisoned between 1962 and
1972 for disseminating anti-Castro propaganda and served some of his time with
Duque in Isla de Pines, Cuba's biggest prison. He recalls Duque constantly
challenging prison staffers.
But Rodriguez noted there are many less vociferous heroes.
"There are a lot of Cubans here who don't speak or cry but are really
heroes," he said.
Despite his upcoming change of address, Duque expects to remain active in
the Cuban political scene, continuing the struggle for the installation of a
democratic regime in Cuba, which he still considers home.
"Even though I'm 76 years old, I'm still rebellious," he said.
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