HAVANA, Cuba.- With each passing year, March 8 means less in a country pulverized under the boot of a dictatorship. As much as Castro’s propaganda tries to mask the truth; As much as the international community persists in looking only at what interests it, Cuban women have suffered since January 1959.
Never in Cuba has March 8 been worthy of celebration; but it is even less so since the drastic increase in the number of female political prisoners as a result of the popular outburst of July 11, 2021, and the wave of pressure that has forced the public resignation, silence or exile of Cuban journalists and activists united in the cause for freedom.
No woman willing to express her rejection of the dictatorship, and her commitment to democracy, has been able to live fully in Cuba. The sibylline violence of harassment has fallen on them, of the henchman knocking on her door with the summons in hand, asking about her children or her parents, slipping the most uncomfortable emotions through the loopholes of her monologue. .
The repression has decimated the traditional Cuban opposition. Mothers of families have been thrown into dungeons to go mad without food or medicine, suffering from all kinds of curable diseases that, in a dank and stinking dungeon, can become life-threatening.
In a cruel scenario, consented to by democratic countries that call themselves friends of the Cuban people, but whose only solution is to offer refuge to the exiles, independent Cuban journalists have worked tirelessly, with the promise of jail hanging over their heads, and suffering continuous violations of their civil rights.
Some have managed to save themselves thanks to precautionary measures; but they do not stop, from their new geographies, to denounce the terrible political and rights situation that the island is going through. Inside are those who persevere; which, with the same decorum of Sweet Maria Loynaz, they respond to the possibility of exile with a firm “let them go!”.
Gladys Linares, Miriam Leiva, Rafaela Cruz, Yoani Sánchez, Anay Remón (Ana León), Camila Acosta, Laura Rodríguez, Yania Suárez, Lucía Alfonso, Yadira Serrano and Claudia Montero continue to work in Cuba. Beyond the seas Claudia Padrón, Darcy Borrero, María Matienzo, Yusimí Rodríguez, Iliana Hernández, Annarella Grimal, Monica Baro, luz escobar and others that would make up an extensive list, closely follow what is happening in that beloved land that seems to be about to disappear.
Little by little, Tania Díaz Castro, Miriam Celaya and Martha Beatriz Roque have withdrawn; those who paved the way and dedicated years to the honorable and dangerous task of bringing to light the truth that the regime has worked hard to hide.
They have all tried to break them. Some have known the prison. They all keep personal stories about the consequences of doing journalism under a dictatorship; and they all know that the night was never darker than just before dawn. At least in Cuba, March 8 is justified by the existence of these brave women who believe in full freedom, with everyone and for the good of all.
