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FROM
CUBA
75
to top dissidents' Christmas trees
HAVANA, December 15 (www.cubanet.org)
- Many dissidents and government opponents
here are topping their Christmas trees with
the number 75, in remembrance of the 75
political prisoners sentenced by the government
in April this year, said Yolanda Huerga,
wife of imprisoned poet and journalist Manuel
Vázquez Portal.
Gisela Delgado, director of the Independent
Libraries project and also the wife of an
imprisoned dissident, said it was difficult
to come by the 75s, so she had commissioned
some to be made by craftsmen. "They
will be present in our hearts," she
said.
Laura Pollán, the wife of imprisoned
journalist Héctor Maseda, said she
had made her own 75. "The lights on
the tree are intermittent, but the 75 on
top shines constantly. I mean by this that
the way of the 75 is always bright,"
she said.
Others had more extreme views. Independent
journalist Ana Rosa Veitía said,
"As long as there is a totalitarian
regime in Cuba, there will be no Christmas
tree in our home. We'll just have the number
75."
The idea of topping the trees with the
number was the initiative of some of the
wives and mothers of the prisoners themselves,
and spread by word of mouth through the
island.
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