Letter from a Dissident’s Daughter

Partido Por La Democracia En Cuba "Pedro Luis Boitel" ^ | (translated) 5/22/2003 | Sayli Navarro

[Luis Gonzalez]

Perico, Matanzas, March 28, 2003

Dear Mrs. Nancy Perez-Crespo,

My name is Sayli and I am the daughter of Felix Navarro Rodriguez.

At this moment my dad is in prison, it is not the first time that this has happened, but the last time I was too small to understand the reasons why they had taken him away from us. My mother suffered a lot, I did as well because I missed him so much, and I didn’t know how to console her.

Today however, I understand why my dad and so many other good men have been incarcerated. I have cried so much that I felt my heart was breaking into one thousand pieces, I think that I will never again be able to cry, because right now I feel a great emptiness inside of me. Perhaps you are asking yourself why I am directing myself at you.

I will tell you that I do so for many reasons; one of them being the fact that you are a woman, and this allows me to speak to you as if I am speaking to a mother, mothers always understand better the suffering of their children. Another reason is that you are a journalist and a professional, dedicated to the cause of Liberty for our country in your radio program “Monday Communiqués With Cuba”, with Mr. Agustin Tamargo, as well as in your other program; but the main reason why I write to you is than on more than one occasion, during your broadcasts, I have heard your voice break and I realize that you feel the anguish of our people, as if instead of living in a free country, you lived here, with us, and suffered with your own body and spirit our pain. That is a miraculous thing, and even difficult to comprehended.

I will tell you that the messages of solidarity we are receiving from all parts of the world seem to be infinite in number. Not only from Cubans overseas, but also from Spaniards, Canadians, Americans, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Chileans, etc. But the most emotional ones have been the ones we have received from our neighbors, including people from the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, Communist Party members, police officers, the Federation of Cuban Women, members of The Young People’s Communist Party, and even from a State security agent who stopped by to tell us how embarrassed he felt witnessing these abuses. It is a comfort to know that we are not alone.

My parents taught me not to hate, to never resort to violence, and to understand the true meaning of Freedom: a free man is not the one who oppresses an entire people to stay in power, because the addiction to that power turns him into a slave.

A free man does not incarcerate another man for dissenting, that’s done only by cowards who have no response to the dissenting voice, and whose sole source of power lies in the use of brute force.

Free men do not incarcerate poets, this is a useless act; maybe they do it because they are not aware of the words written by the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Becquer in mid XIX century Seville: “perhaps there will be no poets; but there will always be poetry”.

Our nation is not a nation of cowards. It’s been over two thousand years since a man from Judea turned the other cheek and allowed Himself to be crucified, it was His actions, and not the Inquisition or the Holy Crusades that set in place the base for western civilization to come.

I pray that this letter reaches your hands.

Respectfully;

Sayli Navarro

[Luis Gonzalez]

Sayli’s father (Felix Navarro) is president of The Party for Democracy in Cuba “Pedro Luis Boitel”. This past April he, along with other Party members, were sentenced to 25 years in prison for anti-revolutionary activities by the Cuban courts. Sayli is 17 years old and has been unable to continue her college education because her parents refused to have her participate in the so-called “countryside schools”, where children and adolescents of both genders, far from their parents, work the earth and live under the supervision of government teachers and personnel.

[Luis Gonzalez]

They will not be still any longer, mi gente. When one falls, another picks up the banner of Freedom, and Human rights...even children.

Listen to their voices, las voces de mi tierra herida.

[F.J. Mitchell]

BTTT!

[aiquile]

It's terrible that people have to be afraid of speaking their mind. It's like that in many other parts of the world, as well. Dissenters in the US don't know how lucky they are. Imagine, protesting against the very thing that gives them the right to dissent in the first place! Cubans who have been incarcerated can truly appreciate what freedom means. Hopefully, with the efforts of the many fighting for democracy there, Cuba will be free someday... For now, I just thank the Lord that I live in America!

[Luis Gonzalez]

"For now, I just thank the Lord that I live in America!

Me too my friend, me too.

[marron]

God, I love these people.

[rontorr]

I'm not ashamed to say I am crying. I know firsthand the things I can't say that are happening to my dear friends in the Shan State of The (ex)Union of Burma and Laos. How many people will read this letter and not see what is being said, and say it is not true. Most just can't see because they are unable to understand what is really happening in a place that is so much different from their own experiences. My wife, who is Thai, and so many others I know over there, say that those things are not happening when they hear about them because they just cannot look at it...I could go on, but...

[aiquile]

It takes a lot for people to see what's really going on outside America. Only then can they be thankful for what they have. That's why I wish that freedom would spread to every corner of the world! Unfortunately it will not be easy. For now, we should focus educating people.

Also unfortunately, many people who see the truth about conditions outside our borders are liberals. While their goals of peace and prosperity for the world are the same as ours, they simply cannot be acheived with liberal means. That is why we ought to encourage a world where people earn what they get, instead of the liberal socialist welfare junk...

GO USA!!!

[snippy_about_it]

Very powerful letter Luis. Thank you.

[Humidston]

Hi Luis!

Not sure if you've seen this, and hopefully the link will work. I received it from our Houston Cuban friends and watched last night. It's great!

http://www.martinoticias.com/moretv.asp?MODE=PROGMAN&ProgramID=90

[rontorr]

I had to go where niether I nor my wife wanted me, to go to see some things, adn I totally agree that things can only be iimproved with education, which is the REAL gift, not material gifts

[daviddennis]

As many of you know, I visited Cuba late last year. I was curious to see one of the last outposts of true-blue Communism in the world.

Leftists tend to get the VIP tour, which makes Cuba look like a real paradise with happy people and free health care. It's really easy for Castro to create a nice fake world and gently insert you into it.

That's the only excuse I can find for the kind of self-deception I see in much writing about Cuba. "I know it's a dictatorship, but there's free health care and people ride bicycles to work to save fuel, therefore helping out the fuel crisis and becoming more physically fit!"

I tried to go to Cuba with as open a mind as I could, despite my conservative politics. When going there, I accepted most of the lefty arguments, since they were the only writing on Cuban life I could find. But my thoughts very quickly veered rightward, as soon as I drove in a Soviet car and saw the heartbreakingly beautiful but collapsing housing.

Anyone who believes in Communism should ride in a Soviet car, fly in a Soviet jetliner and live in a Soviet-designed apartment block. Do it for a week, and whatever's left of your sanity will be screaming anti-Castro slogans at the top of your lungs.

Not to mention the secret police ...

I really wanted to go to Cuba again - it's a great place with wonderful people. But after I read about the sentences for the dissidents and the air to Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez, I knew my troubled conscience wouldn't let me return :-(.

D

[ladyinred]

A very touching post. I am ashamed to say that I don't know what is going on in the area you discussed, as we don't seem to be told that on our news. I will pray for the people there, as I pray for the ones in Cuba, and everywhere people are abused and oppressed. We are fortunate indeed, which is why I have such respect for the military who secure this freedom we so enjoy, and don't appreciate as we should.

[McGavin999]

By her letter it doesn't appear she needs a college education. What a beautifully written piece.

[Arpege92]

If Danny Glover were a Cuban citizen and he spouted off about Cuba like he did with the United States, he would either be dead or locked up.....and knowing how racist Castro is, he would be dead.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I hope Bush tosses Fidel out of Cuba, along with his war against oppressors. Send him to South Miami for a little while :o)

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Most just can't see because they are unable to understand what is really happening in a place that is so much different from their own experiences."

Please go on, I want to know what is happening in Burma and Laos.

[Luis Gonzalez]

The original Spanish is far better than my translation, you can find it here.

This is Sayli's picture.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You know, I am still waiting for CBSCNNABCMSNBC to report that the three men executed for attempting to hijack that ferry boat in Cube were black, and that the number of black dissidents arrested by Castro, are completely out of proportion with the population.

The majority of dissidents in jail are black BECAUSE CASTRO'S GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST BLACKS!

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Send him to South Miami for a little while."

We'll have a little party in his honor ready when he arrives.