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Cuba frees prominent political dissident
By Nancy San Martin. nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Mon,
May. 06, 2002
Vladimiro Roca, Cuba's most prominent political dissident and son of a
longtime Communist Party leader, won an early release from prison Sunday and
vowed that his commitment to the struggle for freedom in his homeland was as
strong as ever.
More than 50 friends, relatives and supporters were waiting for Roca when he
arrived at his Havana home after a three-hour drive from the prison in central
Cienfuegos province where he served almost five years on charges of sedition
against President Fidel Castro's communist government.
His wife, Magaly de Armas, handed her husband the keys to the house where he
was arrested on July 15, 1997. Roca said he was elated to be back home but that
he would continue his fight for greater freedom in his country.
''Dialogue and reconciliation without exclusion -- that has always been and
will continue to be my mantra,'' Roca said in a telephone interview. "The
things that are good about this country, such as health and education, should
not be touched. But the things that are bad, like the economy and lack of
freedom, that must change.''
Roca, 59, a tall man with salt and pepper hair, is one of the most important
Cubans ever to break with Castro's government. He is the son of the late Blas
Roca, for decades a Cuban Communist Party leader, and a former MiG fighter
pilot, a position achieved only by the most trusted.
A DECADE AGO
Vladimiro Roca began calling for a Western-style democracy a decade ago, and
was one of the four signers of a daring declaration criticizing the Communist
Party's monopoly on power under Castro titled The Homeland belongs to us all.
Roca's release came a week ahead of a scheduled visit to Cuba by former
President Jimmy Carter, raising speculation that freeing Roca was a goodwill
gesture on the part of the Havana government.
Carter has made human rights a chief theme throughout his political career
and publicly denounced abuses around the world, including in Cuba.
''Roca's release is a positive thing, but it has to do with Carter's visit,
without a doubt,'' said Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, a former political
prisoner who lives in Miami. "It's one less gesture Carter will have to
make when he goes to Havana. For the Cuban government, it will be a lot easier
for Carter to see Roca at his house than in a prison.''
Others saw a deeper purpose in Roca's release.
''Classic manipulation of victims,'' said Joe García, executive
director of the Cuban American National Foundation, which recently sent a
delegation to Atlanta to meet with Carter in preparation for his visit.
"This is exactly what we told Carter to be wary of. Any time an
innocent man gets out of jail, that's good. But it doesn't mean the act itself
is good. They're giving away hostages.''
Roca said he did not believe his release was related to Carter's visit.
Although his sentence was scheduled to end July 16, Roca said the early release
was the result of guidelines in Cuban law that allow authorities to free inmates
before they complete their sentences.
''I served my time,'' he said.
''He should have been released a long time ago,'' said Roca's stepdaughter
Milady Castro, 33, who immigrated to the United States eight months ago. "He
didn't belong in jail. He did nothing wrong.''
''If there were a lot of people like my father in Cuba, there would be
freedom of speech and much better lives,'' said Castro, who now lives in Tampa
with her husband, and their two daughters, ages 6 and 1. "But not everyone
can confront problems in the same way. He has always stood by his ideals and
always told us that he was prepared to go to prison if necessary.''
AFTER DECLARATION
Roca and three other activists -- engineer Félix Bonne Carcassés,
attorney René Gómez Manzano and economist Marta Beatriz Roque --
were arrested after publishing the declaration that criticized Cuba's one-party
system and Castro's government.
Roca received the longest sentence, in 1999, on charges of sedition and
threatening the nation's economy. The other three were released in May 2000
after serving part of their terms, which ranged from 3 ½ to four years.
Roca told The Herald that his first priority was to get up-to-date on
current events, including the upcoming Carter visit, which he called "positive.''
''Anytime you have a visit by a dignitary, especially someone like Carter
who did good things for Cuba while he was president, it is a good thing,'' Roca
said. "I think his visit will help Cuba and the Cuban people.''
Carter has said the 41-year-old trade embargo makes little sense, an opinion
that is shared by Roca.
He said he would love to meet the former president if asked.
''I would be honored to meet him and answer whatever he wants to know,''
Roca said. "I think it would be very beneficial.''
Roca also expressed support for the ''Varela Project,'' a drive to collect
10,000 signatures and force a referendum on government reforms away from the
current model.
''I have always supported that project,'' Roca said. "I couldn't give
them my signature because I was in prison, but if they want it now, I would be
glad to give it to them.''
Roca said he would continue to battle for change for his homeland from
within Cuba, and would never go into exile abroad.
''I would not exchange prison for exile,'' he said. "I would never
accept that. The problems of Cuba have to be resolved here.''
This report was supplemented by Herald wire services.
Jesús Díaz, Cuban writer, filmmaker
By Fabiola Santiago. fsantiago@herald.com. Posted on Fri,
May. 03, 2002
Cuban novelist and filmmaker Jesús Díaz, founder of Encuentro,
an international magazine that brought together Cuban intellectuals from the
island and in exile, died Thursday in his Madrid home, apparently in his sleep.
Díaz, 60, was found dead by his son, Pablo, who went to check on Díaz
after he missed a scheduled flight to Galicia and couldn't be reached by phone.
A former revolutionary who defected to Europe in 1991, Díaz had
recently published a new novel, Las cuatro fugas de Manuel (Manuel's Four
Escapes), a tale based on his adopted son's four attempts to flee from the
Eastern bloc.
Encuentro (Encounter), the magazine Díaz launched in 1996 on the
crest of the Cuban literary boom, is considered by many to be the premier Cuban
cultural magazine. He also established a popular online version of the magazine
at www.cubaencuentro.com.
''Along with his contributions as a novelist and filmmaker, the magazine he
founded established a bridge between intellectuals in Cuba and intellectuals in
exile, and because of the high-caliber of people who dared to contribute, Jesús
earned the ire of the Cuban government,'' said Carlos Alberto Montaner, a
prominent writer based in Madrid.
In Cuba, Díaz wrote the prize-winning collection of short stories Los
años duros (The Tough Years), which became a model for the ''new
narrative'' under Revolution standards.
After his defection, Díaz criticized his own role in support of Fidel
Castro's government, a position that earned him respect among many, although
others in exile didn't believe his change of heart.
''I harbor no rancor, but I don't forget,'' Díaz recently said in a
newspaper interview. "I believe that Cuba should not forget, that
reconstruction must take place. But the memory of the atrocities must be
preserved, not for vengeance, but to not repeat them.''
Before his defection, Díaz produced works on the island that touched
on subjects previously considered taboo.
He directed Lejanía (Distance, 1985), starring Verónica Lynn,
the story of an exiled mother who goes to Cuba to visit the son she left behind,
who is now married and resentful toward her.
His novels include Las iniciales de la tierra (The Earth's Initials), Las
palabras perdidas (The Lost Words), Siberiana (Siberian), and La piel y la máscara
(The Skin and The Mask).
''He always considered himself more a writer than a filmmaker, and his
legacy is that of a significant novelist,'' said Alejandro Ríos, director
of the Cuban Film Series at Miami-Dade Community College and a contributor to
Encuentro.
Survivors include three children, Claudia and Pablo Díaz and Manuel
Desdín; a sister in Havana, Amalia; and a brother in Tenerife, Rolando.
Funeral services are in Madrid today. His body will be cremated, as he wished.
Foreign MDs becoming Rx for shortage of U.S. nurses
By Tere Figueras. tfigueras@herald.com. Posted on Mon, May.
06, 2002
Even as he piled watermelons at Winn-Dixie or cleaned out the garbage cans
of accounting firms, Rene Rodriguez always kept a reminder of his former life
close at hand, poring over his stash of medical journals on his lunch breaks.
''I felt stupid. I could diagnose anthrax, but I couldn't hammer a nail,''
said Rodriguez, an epidemiologist and physician in Cuba who fled to the United
States seven years ago. "They would ask me if I had experience stocking
apples or wiping floors. I didn't. All I knew was medicine.''
Rodriguez and 41 other displaced foreign doctors now will get a shot at new
careers in medicine.
This time, they'll be nurses.
The group will be the first students in Florida International University's
foreign physicians program, which fast-tracks transplanted doctors through the
School of Nursing's undergraduate program and into the workforce -- one of the
novel approaches to relieving Florida's nursing shortage.
The would-be nurses, winnowed from a pool of almost 500 South Florida
applicants, begin orientation this week.
HOSPITALS CONTRIBUTE
Four local hospitals -- Mercy, Aventura and Kendall and Cedars medical
centers -- are funding roughly two-thirds of the program, contributing $150,000
each for additional staffing, materials and partial scholarships. The foreign
docs cover the rest of the expenses themselves -- roughly $5,000 for the
two-year program, about the same as regular nursing students.
In return, the hospitals get a two-year commitment from a new batch of
nurses upon graduation.
A fresh infusion of talent could ease a state nursing shortage that is the
worst in 13 years and expected to grow, FIU School of Nursing dean Divina
Grossman said.
THOUSANDS NEEDED
According to the Florida Hospital Association, the state needs to add 26,000
nurses to its increasingly thinning -- and aging -- ranks and will need another
34,000 in the next four years as the state's population continues to grow and to
age.
Schools across the state are partnering with hospitals, targeting high
school students and minorities, and working to boost the professional image of
nursing, said Sue Reed, president of the Orlando-based Florida Organization of
Nurse Executives.
Officials in Orange County have pushed for a housing incentive to attract
nurses. ''But that's robbing Peter to pay Paul,'' said Reed. "The FIU
program brings new nurses in, not just move them from one place to another.''
Another bonus of FIU's program, said Grossman: diversity.
"We need as many people from as many different backgrounds as we can.''
• • •
Marie Decatus ministered to the poorest communities in the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince. Despite earning a master's in public health at Columbia
University and working as an assistant in a doctor's office, Decatus said she
felt "wasted and frustrated.''
''There is a language barrier that is sometimes very sad to see,'' said
Decatus, 50, who lives in Davie. "I speak Creole, I have the knowledge, and
now it's time to give.''
For Nigerian-born George Tissing, who was inspired to attend medical school
by tales of missionary doctors in Africa, nursing is the next step in a
spiritual quest to heal.
''God put me here to serve, and if I'm needed as a nurse, that's what I will
do,'' said Tissing, 34, who has worked with the poor in the Bahamas and Jamaica.
He has a master's in public health from FIU and lives in North Miami.
''Looking at this shortage, I realized you don't need to be a phlebotomist
to help people,'' he said.
Some of the students wanted to practice medicine in the United States but
gave up their dream after realizing the time and money it would take to pass
medical board exams and complete residencies.
'NURSING CONVERT'
''I watched my colleagues growing old and gray trying to become doctors
here,'' said Rodriguez, 35, now a security guard living in Kendall. "I'm a
nursing convert now.''
Doctors in the two-year program are given credit for some of their earlier
studies, like general education requirements and nursing prerequisites that have
overlapped with their previous medical training. Although FIU has money only for
the first round of students, Grossman hopes government grants and other local
hospitals will keep the program afloat.
But the program is not without criticism.
Diane Horner, dean of the University of Miami's School of Nursing and
president of the Nursing Shortage Consortium of South Florida, said that in
almost two decades as head of UM's nursing program, she has seen only one
foreign-licensed doctor graduate.
''It hasn't worked well. It's a matter of relating,'' Horner said. She said
UM has no plans to create a similar program. Students used to having greater
control over patient care as doctors often have trouble with their redefined
roles as members of a medical team, she said. "A physician's primary focus
is to diagnose and treat. Nurses provide very holistic care.''
Cheryl Peterson, a senior policy fellow for the Washington-based American
Nurses Association, is equally skeptical.
TEMPORARY FIX
''The question is, is this the best place for these resources?'' Peterson
asked, adding she is worried that doctors may use the program as a temporary fix
before going on to get medical licenses. "It's an innovative program and a
creative program, but it needs to be studied.''
FIU's dean counters that the number of foreign doctors living in South
Florida could prove to be a much-needed and as-yet untapped resource.
''From a human resource perspective, the fact that we had 500 applicants
with no advertising or marketing tells me there's a greater pool out there,''
she said. "I see it as community building.''
Grossman stressed the FIU program is tailored to help former doctors adjust
to their new roles.
PROGRAM DIFFERENCES
Unlike UM's program, the 42 doctors turned nursing students won't be part of
the mainstream nursing classes, allowing them to discuss topics with their
peers. Students will also be required to take at least one ''role transition''
seminar each semester.
Rodriguez, the Cuban doctor, said he's already dropping old habits.
'I still get faxes from old patients who live now in Texas or New York
asking, 'Doctor, what do you think of this or that?' '' he said. "My mind
is already switched, and my hands are tied. In this country, I'll be a nurse,
and to me, that's a heroic thing.''
But students still harboring ambitions of returning to their old jobs have
already been given a not-so-gentle reminder of their new commitment.
'' We told them any of them still actively pursuing their medical boards
were not really wanted in the program,'' Grossman said.
Nun returns to Cuba despite her anti-Castro sentiments
By Maria Recio. Knight Ridder News Service. Posted on Sun,
May. 05, 2002
HAVANA - The leaders of the Cuban government in their big breezy hillside
homes have an unlikely neighbor in what was once the capital city's upper-class
Nuevo Vedado district -- a convent of five cloistered Dominican nuns.
Although President Fidel Castro of Cuba is an avowed atheist, the communist
island is hospitable to nuns, who have long served as nurses in what was
traditionally a Catholic country. Pope John Paul II's historic visit in 1998
also eased tensions.
Among the Nuevo Vedado nuns is Texas-raised Sister María Rosario Fernández,
who left Havana as a teenager but has returned to pray for the country and its
government. Sometimes, she admits, she also prays against it.
Fernández, 60, fled Havana at age 18, as Castro came to power in
1959. She attended college in Fort Worth, Texas, and was managing Pier One
stores in the North Texas area when she took a midlife turn and entered the
Dominican order.
She returned in 1998 to Cuba, where the Dominicans have maintained a convent
throughout 41 years of communist rule. Her homecoming was a shock.
''He's just dilapidated -- like the island,'' Fernández, formerly
known as Haydee, said of Castro. When I left, he was 33 and so handsome. This
man could have done something beautiful. He turned everything into the trash
can.
"He had everything in his hand. To take God out of the home and
country, to me that is a big mistake.''
When Hurricane Michelle threatened Cuba in November, Fernández prayed
for it to hit Havana -- to make Castro's life difficult.
The storm nicked the capital, but hit the center of the island hard. Five
people were killed.
Her order's home monastery in the small east Texas city of Lufkin recently
granted her request to spend another three years in Cuba.
''Deep in my heart, I feel the Lord wants me to stay here,'' Fernandez said. | 
