It Is Not Because Fidel Says It, It Is Because I Believe It

It Is Not Because Fidel Says It, It Is Because I Believe It / Somos+,
Arlenys Miranda Mesa

Somos+, Arlenys Miranda Mesa, 21 December 2016 — December 3rd was the
ceremony in Santiago de Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro and the
procession of his ashes across the entire Cuban archipelago. I sat down
to observe the ceremony, although I knew it would be repeated many
times, but I preferred to be an eyewitness rather than "hear about it"
in the hallway. At the end, Fidel Castro stood up. His speech is
important, of course, be is the president of the nation. And not because
the majority elected him, in fact, I don't know who elected him, no one
ever explained it, but he is.

His speech was more of the same, and the figure of his brother was
exalted one more time, to the height of a god. May God have mercy on
Cuba, for He sees the wickedness of the idolatry of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate Him.

He spoke about how, in circumstances of extreme difficulty, Fidel always
said, "Yes we can." Yes, we can attack the Moncada Barracks, yes we can
make a revolution i Cuba, arrive on the coast in a yacht, resist the
enemy and even do away with him in less than 72 hours; resist hunger,
rain, cold. Yes we can organize an army in the Sierra Maestra and open a
new guerrilla front, withstand the blackouts, the limitations of public
transport, preserve health and education in the midst of crises and
blockades, in short, so many things. A visionary man.

Today he no longer exists. It is the end of one era, giving way to
another, where we see our hopes reborn. It is for this that I feel very
excited and inspired because like him I believe that "Yes we can." But I
go in the opposite directions from everything he believed and that he
could do and not do in Cuba. He imposed his opinions, his crazy ideas. I
am even-tempered, sensible, logical. I am a mother, woman and Cuban. I
think about my children, my family, my country.

I believe that Yes we can have internet in Cuba, cheap and uncensored.
Why in internet a human right in other countries but not for us, is it
perhaps that we are not human. What are they hiding from us that is on
the internet?

Yes we can have free elections, where every Cuba can, with dignity and
conscientiously choose their president. Yes we can dream of a younger
leadership in tune with our reality, that although it did not
participate in the in attack on the Moncada Barracks in the 1950s,
arrive later that decade on the yacht Granma, or fight in the mountains,
is not therefore less qualified to take on the challenge.

Yes we can aspire to have different political parties for one to belong
to and identify with. Yes it is possible for an army and a police
officer without surnames, that responds not to the interests of the
elite but rather of the people.

Yes we can aspire to a government that pays attention, and creates a
space for dialog with those who think differently. Yes we can aspire to
an objective and committed journalism, but not with an ideology, but
simply with the truth, so that the press doesn't silence those who shout
in the street.

Yes we can respect those who think differently and not call them worms
or scum, those who want to "change everything that needs to be changed,"
as Raul Castro himself is so fond of repeating.

If, for capturing these ideas in this article, they disappear me, then
what is said about Camilo Cienfuegos is true. If after doing so, I die
in a car accident, then what is said about Oswaldo Payá is true. If they
put me in a car and drive me far away and release me in some other
province without any money, or bruised in a gutter or threatened, then I
am fighting for the right side, because Fidel fought against these
things in the Batista dictatorship. The national president of the
Federation of University Students said in her speech that Fidel was a
friend who defended just causes.

I am defending a just cause, freedom and democracy, therefore I am not
on the opposite site, I am not a terrorist nor a counterrevolutionary. I
am a 41-year-old woman, married for 18 years, the mother of three
children, Christian since I was 19, pastor of a church for 9 years. A
licensed English Teacher and licensed in Sacred Theology.

I am a woman who years for changes and who has not lost faith or hope,
because I believe "That Yes We Can."

Source: It Is Not Because Fidel Says It, It Is Because I Believe It /
Somos+, Arlenys Miranda Mesa – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/it-is-not-because-fidel-says-it-it-is-because-i-believe-it-somos-arlenys-miranda-mesa/