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By Susana Barciela Editorial Board Member.
Sbarciela@herald.com.The Miami
Herald, June 27, 2003.
Back in April, as 75 Cuban dissidents were sentenced to prison terms
totaling 1,454 years, Nicaraguan-born Ana Navarro decided she had to do
something for Cuba's political prisoners. She went to Idaho-born Gene Prescott,
Biltmore Hotel president, and told him she wanted to organize a ''little''
something for the dissidents. Then she recruited a willing Willy Chirino, the
Cuban-born salsa star.
That ''little'' something turned into Voices of Freedom: an art auction,
reception and concert at the Biltmore last Friday that netted some $300,000 for
the families of more than 300 political prisoners who are abused but not
forgotten in desolate Cuban prisons.
Headliners Chirino, Israel López Cachao, Lissette and other popular
Cuban acts dedicated their music to the cause as a packed house of 500 sat in
seats that went for $250. But the most important audience remained in Cuba,
where the concert was broadcast live via Radio Marti.
If sound waves could carry emotion, then island listeners would have felt
the solidarity and ache for Cuba's freedom in every chant of ¡Libertad!.
Chirino saw this as an historic occasion. It was, he says, a message from all of
the exile community to the Cuban people on the island: "Those of us on the
outside support you and recognize your bravery in confronting that repressive
regime every day.''
Of course, Chirino, who arrived in Miami as a Peter Pan child, has been
singing about his roots and the cause for years. In fact, his song Ya viene
llegando, on Cuba's coming liberation, has become as much of an anthem in Cuba
as it is in Miami. For him it's a commitment to "do something for the
Cubans who are suffering.''
But why would non-Cubans get involved? ''I've lived in Miami 22 years,
watching [Cuban] balseros arrive, knowing political prisoners, mothers who lost
their children, children who lost parents. I would have to have a heart of steel
not to identify with the cause,'' said Navarro, who is 31. "Besides, you
guys are fun.''
Actually, as a Nicaraguan who fled and whose father fought the Sandinistas,
Navarro holds Fidel Castro responsible for that war and devastation in her
homeland. ''The Cuban exiles took Nicaraguans in,'' she says. She still
remembers Miami telethons for the contras where Cubans donated more money than
the Nicaraguans themselves. And she brought all those experiences to Geneva two
years ago. There as Nicaragua's ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
she successfully pushed for the resolution condemning the Cuban regime's
human-rights abuses.
For Prescott, who made the splendid Biltmore setting affordable for the
benefit, human-rights issues transcend national borders. ''We should all aspire
to a world where people do not have to flee oppression,'' he said, "where
people are not jailed for dissenting.''
The Biltmore event was only a beginning. Navarro also raised funds at a
luncheon in Los Angeles this weekend. The concert was rebroadcast as a telethon
on Miami's WJAN-TV 41 Sunday night. Then Leopoldo Fernández Pujals, a
Cuban exile who made millions starting a pizza chain in Spain, pledged 50 cents
for every dollar raised; his contribution: $100,000. A CD and video of the
concert is to follow.
How will the money be used? Plantados, a nonprofit group of former political
prisoners who spent up to 30 years in Castro's jails, will funnel every penny to
the families of current political prisoners -- using every legal avenue. The
group is funded by another foundation, so it has no overhead. But the funds will
be supervised by an advisory group led by Navarro and others who work with Cuban
dissidents and their families. To make a donation to the group, call Plantados
at 305-269-1812. | 
