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FROM
CUBA
When a friend has gone
Rafael Ferro Salas, Abdala Press
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - May (www.cubanet.org) - I answered the telephone call with joy. René Cruz was calling from California. He's been more than a father for me in the distance, and that was the reason for my rejoicing as I heard his voice at the other end of the line.
But when he gave me the bad news, my happiness disappeared. René told me that black Peñalver had died. In moments like that, you realize how briefly life passes.
Black Peñalver led a life completely devoted to the cause of freedom for Cuba. He suffered prison sentences under the Castro regime and then went into forced exile. From there he continued to fly the flag for his country. Cuba pained him in his chest of an old fighter.
René gave me the news and I couldn't help but be saddened in the solitude of the interior exile we Cubans are also suffering on this side of the ocean. Peñalver has finally left us, but he stays with us as an example to follow.
I would have liked to accompany the brothers in Miami who gave him his final goodbye. To be able to cry on René's shoulder, and take out all my lamentation by talking with Tobías or Ignacio Castro; but the pain in the distance multiplies when friends are missing. Death treats those who dream brutally and bites with more pain.
I finished talking with my father René, and wasn't even left with time to write all I would have liked. Between the pain and the helplessness, the words almost don't come out. Peñalver is like a voice that keeps its renewal constant on the crest of a wave, like the tides of this our Caribbean. He can't truly die, we're not yet ready to let him.
Versión
original en español | 
