Cuba Gives its Heart Again (+ Photos)

In 2013 I met Graciela Lois in Havana and we talked about many topics. At The Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (HSMN), where the largest clandestine detention center operated during the dictatorship, she lost a love and her daughter lost a father, so she had to go there. On top of that, because then the trials against the accomplices of the dictatorship were reopened and also the hope of turning that place into a place for memory.

We met at the lobby of Habana Libre Hotel, I remember it as if it was today, she told me excited that just before traveling she had received a call at the Ombudsman of Buenos Aires, where she works, with the good news that President Cristina Fernández, had decided to put the resources for the HSMN project.

A lot has rained since that conversation, even a retrogression Macri came and went, but this week, when the new dawn of Argentina has begun and the Cuban President arrived in the land of San Martín to share the taking office of Alberto and Cristina, I remembered Graciela, her beautiful words about Cuba:

«For me, Cuba is like the must-see point before death, has to live, has to walk, has to travel, for everything it means for our militancy which in the 70’s when our comrades had to flee the country they passed through Cuba; Fidel, excellent, because he welcomed them here, gave them everything, the nursery of children whose parents were not present or maybe they had other tasks to do was here in Havana and the boys raised here have their little heart half Argentine, half Cuban ».

Then Díaz Canel arrives at the former HSMN, today a Museum, and says, paraphrasing Fito Paez, that "Cuba is coming to give its heart" and I understand that it’s a historical truth, with deep roots, I can feel it in Graciela’s words:

«Some say: you are idealistic, but Cuba is what has been in my heart during the time that with all the generosity on behalf of the Cuban people saved our lives, and I say our not because I was there, but because the plural are my partners, it’s every one of us ».

Then I have no other choice, but to write to my Argentinian friend and confess to her how much I have thought about her, her people, in the resistance and hope. She answers with a gift: «I have photos of the visit. Do you have an email? I will send them to you". And here they are, the photos of a country that thinks like humanity, before the sister country that has decided, resolutely, not to forget. The presence of my president there, carrying, sharing that multiple, Latin American heart of my people, when the blows, repression, and torture make our America scream in agony again. Let the memory be comfort of resistance and hope ...