Exile and creation

By: Pedro Corzo - 13/03/2023

Guest columnist.
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Unfortunately, the Cuban political exile has not been able to achieve its maximum aspiration, to destroy the totalitarian regime that prevails on the Island, however, as the writer José Antonio Albertini stated in a conference on exiled personalities, the Cuban exiles and their legacies are a a benchmark of progress and creativity, to be taken into account in the Cuba of tomorrow.

We cannot ignore the high number of academics who contribute their talents in American universities and in other countries. It is practically impossible to name a profession, trade or business development in which a Cuban did not participate, even more, individuals who suffered horrible misery on the Island, when they arrive in this country or another where freedoms concur, are capable of forging a future , thus demonstrating that Castroism, in addition to violating their rights, forces them to live in misery due to the unfeasibility of the system.

I am a fervent admirer of what the Cubans have done outside the Island, while continuing to fight against the regime that led them into exile, it is true that there have been no shortage of black sheep, but it is also true that the Cuban presence from 1959 to date It has seriously contributed, without ignoring the contribution of exiles from other countries, to the growth and development of this region of the country.

A notable example is the life work of Esperanza Bravo de Varona, recently deceased, a woman whose cordiality and good manners competed with her efficiency.

The legacy of Esperanza and her team of like-minded ladies, Ana Rosa Núñez, Lesbia Orta Varona, Rosa Abella and Gladys Gómez de Rosie and several others, is the creation of the University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection, a registry of the largest repertoire of documents related to Cuba outside its territory, with the addition that this archive contains, if not all, most of the works from exile, creations that totalitarianism rejects due to its exclusive nature.

Many are the disciplines that have had the contribution of the islanders, journalism being one of them, standing out among others Carlos Alberto Montaner, Ricardo Brown, Roberto Rodríguez Tejera and Agustín Acosta. Investigation is another activity in which Enrique Ros and Juan Clark set standards without forgetting the gigantic effort of human solidarity by the Miami Medical Team where the admired doctor Manuel Alzugaray formed a team where he cured combatants in Angola, Nicaragua and distant Afghanistan.

There is no field of intellectual creation that Cuban exiles have not ventured into, the most recent example being the film "Plantadas" by Lilo and Camilo Vilaplana, an excellent film that would not have been possible without the commitment assumed by Reinol Rodríguez, a prominent combatant against the totalitarianism that enlists in any honest effort against the evil that has destroyed the Republic.

Reinol, with the collaboration of numerous people and entities, raised the necessary resources to produce a living testimony of the bloodiest and most ruthless prison for women that our continent has ever experienced, the Vilaplanas, put their indisputable talent to collect some of the most tragic episodes of our history.

The scenes of the films are not products of the imagination, as they were not those of "Planted". Everything that you see in both films occurred, despite the fact that many fellow citizens could not see or hear as a result of the strict censorship of the regime, although it is fair to say that the dictatorship did not lack accomplices to commit its crimes.

The torture suffered by Gloria Agudín, including the simulated firing squad, took place in October 1960 in the Topes de Collantes tuberculosis hospital, converted into a prison by the Castro brothers, as well as the punishments suffered by all the prisoners, including others, Ana Lázara Rodríguez, Gloria Lasalle, Isabel Tejera, Cary Roque and Alicia del Busto, one of the promoters of this film testimony.

The ominous hunger strikes were difficult decisions for numerous women, among them María Amalia Fernández del Cueto and Maritza Lugo, as Albertini himself states in his magnificent book, “Cuba y Castroismo, Huelgas de Hambre en el Presidio Político”, al Like Olguita Morgan's walk, to the firing squad at La Cabaña where thousands of Cubans were executed, including her husband Commander William Morgan.

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