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Catholic's passion sets
him apart in Cuba
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press. Washington
Times, October 29, 2005.
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba -- He's on the Vatican's
30-member peace and justice council, but
his state-appointed job in Cuba consists
of spending eight hours a day in a shed
guarding palm tree stalks used to make cigar
boxes.
One might say Dagoberto Valdes has failed
to reach his potential. But the 49-year-old
Roman Catholic layman says punishments including
his latest job assignment have emancipated
him.
"There are people who have all the
power in the world, and they're unhappy,"
said Mr. Valdes, speaking from the church's
bishopric in the western city of Pinar del
Rio. "I trade that for the interior
satisfaction in knowing that I've been able
to walk as a free, responsible person. That
is priceless."
Mr. Valdes is a man of faith and an innate
optimist. His spirituality helps him overcome
the daily challenges of pushing for increased
civic and economic freedoms in communist
Cuba, where he is a strong alternative voice.
He spends his nights as volunteer director
of the independent Vitral magazine, writing
and editing provocative articles on the
state of affairs, religious and otherwise,
in Cuba. During the day, he works his shift
at the shed on state-controlled grounds.
"It's what I call the palm tree cathedral,"
Mr. Valdes said with a chuckle as he described
a soaring, long storage area filled with
rows and rows of the stalks. "As the
day passes, I just meditate, and pray."
Equally devoted to Catholicism and freedom
of expression, Mr. Valdes is among the most
consistent and eloquent critics of Fidel
Castro's government.
He is marginalized by his location in
the western extreme of Cuba -- an island
where most political activity and international
press attention generate from Havana --
and perhaps by his religious zeal in a nation
once officially atheist.
But his deep connection to the church
gives him credibility. It's difficult to
swallow the idea he is a "mercenary"
controlled by the United States -- a blanket
accusation used against government opponents
here.
Mr. Valdes has no specific political agenda.
But through his magazine, as well as the
nongovernmental Center for Civil and Religious
Rights he runs in Pinar, he has created
an independent channel to express himself
-- and encourage other Cubans to do the
same.
"The soul of Cubans has no price,"
he wrote in a Vitral article this year that
criticized a highly touted government distribution
of rice steamers at subsidized prices. "Each
Cuban man and woman is worth more than all
the material and psychological incentives
that can be invented."
In the article, Mr. Valdes argued that
Cubans should receive just wages in lieu
of rice steamers, and urged his countrymen
to open their eyes to government attempts
to buy their loyalty.
Copyright © 1999 -
2005 News World Communications, Inc. http://www.washingtontimes.com/
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