Traying to save the human spirit.

I do have faith in the human being.
I do have faith in the values of this country and in the principles Americans live by; even when real life situations often make me forget that.

On the other hand, in mornings like today's, when I read about Americans speaking out about the situation of my homeland, all that faith is multiply by the thousands.

Via Babalú Blog, today I met John Cross, AKA "Footy" in the South Florida radio waves. And I just want to thanks him for being another non-Cuban willing to see the reality of the island.

Footy and Cuban American Ignacio Méndez went to Cuba for a few days.
The Cuban American went to met his relatives and to see the place he left behing more that 30 years ago. The American went to document the real life of the real Cubans.

And this is the excellent video they came up with.

My favorite part?
When Footy acknowledges that Castro's regimen "is killing the human spirit".

Gosh! there were so many days that I felt exactly the same thing!
Some kind of Big Brother was killing my human identity, was erasing my brain and trying to suck up my feelings... I felt hopeless. I felt angry --and I do still feel angry, sometimes-- because that sicko regimen with that sicko man tried really hard to steal my whole life from me.

Finally, someone gets it, straight y sin vaselina.
Boy, you have to be there to believe it!

Thank you both, for doing this.
It is highly needed in today's US society.

(I can't wait to see my boy getting older enough to see and read this)

Going back to the (whitest) weather...

A quick view of our surroundings during the weekend, up here in the Rockies.
Snowed beautifully, really. You've got to believe me.

Sweetie is having the best times of the years; followed by my kiddo, whose debut in a sled (yeah, right, the Colorado-snow-version of our childhood chivichana).

On Sunday, when I took these pics, we had hot and creamy chocolate with saltines con mantequilla for breakfast.

And ended up having a nice time (after meeting the quota of snow shoveling).

Did I heard "honoring Human Rights Day" ?

A wrapping up post about the tireless quest of Cuban dissidents to honor Human Rights Day and their ultimate quest to end apartheid in Cuba.

The credits go to all those Cuban (and non-Cuban) bloggers and independent journalists that teamed up this day to spread the word.

A big "Gracias" to Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramirez and all the dissidents that marched yesterday in Cuba, amid the beaten of the thugs from Castro's government.

To see a collection of photos from the march, go here.

What I consider the best media coverage of yesterday's events? The op/ed from the Charleston Press and Courier unmasking Castro's hypocrisy.

Need real life images? Check the video from the march here.

The reports from Cuban independent journalists (in Spanish), via Misceláneas de Cuba, can be read here.

Take a look at the new human rights friendly decorations at the Cuban consulate in Barcelona.

The Sun Sentinel came out with a very good coverage of the march;

not BS allowed by reporter Ray Sanchez.

To meet the hombre nuevo Castro have been fabricating in the past 50 years (and the Cuban dissidents facing the thugs) take a look here.

For a summary of the videos showed in several Miami stations showing the brutal attacks against peaceful demonstrators, go here.

To give yourself notice of the threats, arrest, harassment and assaults suffered by Cuban dissidents planning to attend the march, check this post.

For those needing a reminder of why Dr. Darsi Ferrer called to an end to the apartheid in Cuba, check his blog (Basta de Apartheid en Cuba) linked to my "Cuban blogosphere" bar.

To see the premier launching poster of a series to come, click in my new "Se busca / Wanted" section, just to your right...

Poniendo la otra mejilla... all for human rights (UPDATED)

(2:01 p.m. Mountains Time)
Check the AP story, published in El Nuevo Herald, here.

Wanna try some dissection?

• 11 paragraphs / sentences to the officialist speech, led by the least-useful-idiot of Pérez Roque's quotes. Castro's propaganda by the pound, and for free.
• 4 paragraphs / sentences in reference to the dissidents; not a single quote from the included. Like if the whole Anti Apartheid campaing was non-existent.

Either J-School caused me serious and irreversible brain damage, or AP correspondents really suck when dealing with biases.

Unbelievable.

(3:31 p.m. East)
See the photo of Dr. Darsi Ferrer and his wife being pushed by the hordes of the Rapid Response Brigade during their attempt to make a peaceful and silent demonstration in Havana here.

More faces of the thugs threatening peaceful dissidents can be checked here.

(12:26 p.m. Mountains Time)
The Real Cuba just posted more details on repression in Cuba on Human Rights Day. Dr. Darsi Ferrer and others planning to make a peaceful walk in a Havana's park are being the victims; and the real life heroes:

BREAKING NEWS - Dr. Darsi Ferrer, his wife and several dissidents severely beaten by Castro's state security. Lazaro Garcia Cernuda, former Secretary of the Partido Pro Derechos Humanos en Cuba, was able to reach Dr. Darsi Ferrer around noon today. I just listened to the phone conversation that was recorded by Garcia Cernuda.

Dr. Ferrer said that while he, his wife Yusmaini, Manuel Benito del Valle Ruiz, a Spaniard who came to Cuba to participate in the march, and several other dissidents tried to walk to the park where the march was supposed to take place, they were intercepted by state security officer who told them that they would be killed if they tried to reach the park...
Castro's thugs yelled obscenities and hit several times Manuel Benito del Valle Ruiz, who is a Spanish

(12:50 p.m. East)
Word from Babalu Blog that Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramirez was beaten up by Cuban military forces.
No details available yet.

I know my prayers won't ease his pain, but for Christ's sake, in the distance, we are suffering with him and with all those Cubans that today took the streets of Havana to call for an end to the Cuban apartheid.

CAMBIO

Más of the same...

I just can't believe it.
We better get used to the idea that this will be going on forever.

Today, The Greeley Tribune published an announcement that some group called Women International League for Peace will be sponsoring the screening of Michael Moore's film about health care in America.

At a local Family Resource Center.
My godness, masses kept being poisoned.
Yeah, right, here we go with the Sicko saga. Again.

Then, with this big mouth I have, that I have developed considerably since I became a reporter (and haven't been able to get that ink out my veins, right Mami hen?); I just couldn't help to post a comment below the note, in the paper's website.
Fully signed, you know, I am medio gallega anyway.

Here goes my litany, one more time. (Let's bet who will get tired first!)

... those reading these posts will need to excuse me, but I just can not keep my mouth shut when reading this announcement.

It would very nice (not say fair) that the Women International League for Peace consider to sponsor also the videos showed by Fox Hannity and Colmes, or the preview segment at 20/20 about the reality if the Cuban hospitals, in the so called health care paradise.

They should tell attendees to go online, at The Real Cuba site, so they can learn, first hand, about the reality of the health care in Cuba, for Cubans -- not for the “dollars paying tourists” and high ranked military and government official. (They can search another views in the Internet; Cubans can’t).

They should let Greeley people know about the Cuban apartheid --including in the health care system-- and let them know about the videos a Cuban doctor, dissident and human rights fighter, managed to send out of the island, without the government's authorization (of course!), so the rest of the world could see Cuba's reality first hand.

Do not contribute to feed America's ignorance about Cuba.

Do not fool Greeley's residents about the reality of a communist dictatorship where the health care paradise is just a plain lie and where honest working individuals are dying for democracy; despite being called “worms” and “mercenaries paid by the US’.

For Christ's sake; do not do it just a day after Cuban dissidents, human rights fighters and political prisoners' wives were being beaten up, arrested and dragged through Havana street for daring to honor human rights and calling for an end to the Cuban apartheid (by the way, not with violence, but with a silent and pacific walk around a park in Havana).

You said you are an organization for peace; hopefully, is it not for some kind of biased peace. Looking for peace is a noble quest, just do it for the whole world, including Cuba.

Please, do not take sides with a dictatorship where political prisoners, independent journalists and librarians and human rights fighters are dying in Castro's gulag's jails. By showcasing Moore’s film without an alternative view you are, indirectly, exactly doing that.

It’s up to you. You could choose to keep feeding the lies sold in the world by individuals like Michael Moore. But that is not what America's deserves.

Americans deserved more because, at the end, history will always judge those who side up with criminals and murders. It might take time, it might come slowly, but justice always arrives.

America: do not be fooled by a scum like Michael Moore. If Cuba is such a paradise, like he describes in Sicko, what the hell is he doing here? Why he doesn't move there and enjoy the wonders of Castro's gulag?

Bloggers and non-bloggers out there reading this post, please, do me a favor: take a couple of minutes of your time to post to that article about the reality of Cuba's health care.

Some people may ask themselves "Who is this crazy lady taking part on Cuban issues so fiercely?". But you know there is some kind of pandemic: most of them are just totally clueless. The peaceful league of women are not another example. No that I care that much the crazy thought, but I feel, deep in my heart, that truth must prevail, by any means.

Human Rights Day in Northern Colorado

It's 11:15 a.m. in colorful Colorado, and since 9 a.m. Mountain Time I've been praying for the fate of those Cubans facing the monster of Castro's repression.

Over here, Cubans in the Rockies are having some sort of mixed feeling.

We are just too far from Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Madrid, Sevilla, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, where fellow Cubans and others have organized pacific demonstrations in solidarity with Dr. Darsi Ferrer's call to end the Cuban apartheid.

Haven't got any news from the demonstration in Calzada, just what happened yesterday while the Ladies in White did a demonstration in front of the Asamblea Nacional.
(English version here; see more photos here).

Everytime I visualize a thug from the CDR, las Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida and the rest, I can feel the beating in my own body.

However, over here, no nos quedamos con los brazos cruzados.
On Friday, I sent a Letter to the Editor of The Greeley Tribune. They've told me Monday's page was full, but they published on Saturday.

For some reason that I don't know, the letter it's not available in the Opinion window of the paper's website yet. But here, I have the original draft:

“Let’s send a prayer to the Caribbean’s gulag”

On Monday, while reading this paper and sipping a coffee to kick off the morning, some of us will be giving thanks to God for living in a country where our human rights ought to be respected, and where we have the choice to fight for them.

Monday is Human Rights Day, and at the same pace that your coffee is getting down in your mug, fighters for human rights will be beaten and dragged through the streets of Cuba.

On Monday they are supposed to be doing a peaceful and silent walk around a park in the Vedado neighborhood, in Havana. Besides honoring human’s rights, they will be calling for an end to the Cuban apartheid.

One of the organizers, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, is the Cuban doctor who managed to film and send out of the island the unauthorized footage of the hospitals for Cubans in the so-called “health care paradise.”

Well, there are not many Cubans in northern Colorado, one could say, But here is where the tradition of solidarity always kicks in for the American people.

Only by spreading the word about Monday’s demonstration in Havana will the rest of the world be able to do something to protect the lives of these men and women in Cuba who have been receiving death threats from the state security forces, and whose only sin is daring to ask for democracy.

Reports from independent journalists (mostly published on the Internet) said the Cuban repression forces have gone into panic mode, desecrating churches, kicking students off the universities and performing “preventive arrests” to block the demonstration.

In the distance, the only thing they are asking form us is our solidarity, our support and spreading the word. You won’t find much about it in the mainstream media; I guess this not the apartheid of South Africa, is it?

But Cubans around the world — through blogs and organizations such are Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty (BUCL), Plantados, Cuba Democracia !Ya!, Babalublog, The Real Cuba and many others — are spreading the word through the Internet. Peaceful demonstrations have been organized in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Madrid, Sevilla and Puerto Rico. Another one is being called in Venezuela, in front of the Cuban embassy.

For those of us who are too far from those demonstrations, praying and speaking out is the only choice.

Wearing the cambio (“change”) white bracelets, the same ones that lead to the arrest of several Cuban students when they wore them in public to protest against the masquerade of elections.

Thinking of those who dared to wear the sticker “I don’t cooperate with the dictatorship,” of the university students who collected signatures to propose the university’s autonomy, and of the political prisoners who are dying in Castro’s gulag.

To them, my prayers will go out this Monday.
To them, my hat goes off.
Every. Single. Day.

Same letter was sent to The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, The Windsor Tribune and Fort Collins Now. Only this morning The Denver Post got back to me. Still don't know if they finally will publish it but, no hay peor gestión que la no se hace.

Did you really tought that was snow?

Then you better get comfortable, because el viaje es largo.
It all look like this in the morning, but hasn't stopped since then.

After a week of flaky white stuff falling here and then, we are getting serious into the snow issue. Weather report says it continue snowing during the night, temperatures going down --even more--, and that tomorrow we'll be in single digits.

I decide not to drive out the neighborhood (who needs to get the car stuck like happened during last year's storm?)... there is always a zillion of things pending to do get done in a house anyway --specially if we are talking about "A Cuban House".

Keep looking for the update pictures...