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FROM
CUBA
Free
without permission
HAVANA, Cuban, August (Tania Díaz Castro
/ www.cubanet.org) - The day I was born, April
30, 1939, there was a party in Camajuaní,
the town where I'm from. They told me I was born
at 6 p.m., when the fireworks started.
One of my mother's sisters, the youngest and
prettiest, chose to stay by my side that night,
looking on my smiling face and my wide open eyes.
I was the first granddaughter to be born, the
first niece to my nine uncles and aunts, and the
first daughter born to my parents.
Most significantly, my mother used to say as
I grew, inch by inch: "This girl carries
freedom inside of her. Nobody is going to be able
to stop her."
And so it was. In that, my mother was right.
Since she knew it, she never demanded that I ask
permission to play outside the house, to stay
longer in school, to have a boy friend, or to
make love before getting married.
As an adolescent, I fought against Batista's
dictatorship at the top of my voice. I repudiated
the moralists. Fortunately, I had no contact with
people from the revolutionary movement led by
Fidel Castro. I would have been obligated to bomb
a movie theater or to join the armed guerillas.
When the Castro regime triumphed, I joined without
giving it a second thought. I was free to do as
I wanted. Later, I had difficulties working as
a government journalist, and finally, in 1986,
I broke with the regime.
In 1988, Castro decided to sentence me to one
year in prison for founding a human rights organization.
That was the worst year of his government; the
Socialist camp came apart, and a Hero of the Fatherland
was executed by firing squad. There were also
rumors that Castro had suffered a heart attack.
Today, the Cuban secret police lets us know that
we may not practice journalism. For that reason,
many of my colleagues, friends and brothers are
serving long sentences in sub human prison cells.
But I continue writing what I think. I'm not
afraid. I don't back up. At my age, 64, I still
feel free, happy with life, satisfied, in love
with life, in love with freedom.
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