I feel so honoured today becuase among the many things you could be doing tonight, you
chose to be here with us. Thank you very much
and thank you to those people that have been
standing there for so long.
I was sitting there looking at this photo [points
at photo of all the Cuban 5 together at concert
in Havana], it was taken on December 20th,
2014. We had arrived to Cuba on the 17th,
and Silvio Rodriguez had already planned a
concert… big hand to Silvio [crowd applauses
for Silvio]... Silvio already had planned a
concert outside a Havana stadium, as part of
a tour he was doing through the country, he
didn’t know, of course, that the 5 would be
coming. When we found out about the concert,
we said: “Let’s go there!” so we were sitting
there, and I can tell you, it was a very important
and emotional moment for the Cuban
people. You could feel the emotions there. We
were sitting and then Silvio, called us up to be
with him for a couple of songs. And if you see,
I’m not looking down there, I’m looking way
up because it was more than 50,000 people
that day and many things crossed my mind in
that moment. And you have to believe me if
I tell you that in that moment you guys were
in my mind as well [applause]. I knew that if I
was living that beautiful moment, that happy
moment it was thanks to the many efforts of
friends like you that made it possible.
Remember, I was sitting in a maximum secu-
...YOUR SOLIDARITY WAS ALSO
IMPORTANT TO LET THE 5 RESIST"
rity prison with 2 life sentences plus 15 years.
And I only said that according to the word of
the US government, I had to die twice and
still have 15 years to go, but you changed those
plans [crowd cheers]. You changed those
plans. So thank you for being here tonight, It
is a huge honor those wonderful words that I
hear by the people who stood here before me,
thank you all.
I know that being here tonight its not being
with Gerardo Hernandez. I know that being
here tonight is being with the Cuban people,
being with the Cuban revolution and being
with all the progressive forces in this world,
they are the vanguards of this world and demonstrate,
everyday, that a better world is possible.
Thank you very much [cheers and applause].
I bring the message of gratitude and appreciation
for my 4 brothers; Ramón, Antonio,
René, Fernando. And I bring the gratitude of
families. Many members of our families, or
some of them came to Canada through the
years. And all time they were here, they came
back to Cuba very inspired and very hopeful
because of the support that they received from
you.
Now when you’re sitting in a prison cell, serving
2 life sentences and you witness so many
awful things as we saw in prison. I was telling
a friend not long ago, that when the prisoners
found out that I had been in the Angola war,
some of them came amazed and asked me:
- “hey, excuse me... I heard that you were in
the war in Angola.”
I said: “yeah.”
- “It must have been difficult”
- I said “well, you know what, I have never
seen people getting killed in Angola. I’ve seen
so many people getting killed here in prison
that it’s unbelievable.”
Of course we didn’t talk about that with our
families to not worry them. We didn’t talk
about that with anybody but people think
because we were political prisoners, they put
us in different places, not together with criminals.
But, that’s wrong. We had to share rooms
with killers, and drug dealers and drug users,
and we saw many people loose their lives. I remember
one of the latest was when my young
friend 32 years old. There are some comrades
here from El Salvador, I remember Walter
Hernandez, Salvadorian young guy, killed
himself. I mention those names not only to
remember them but also for you to know that
I’m not creating stories when I tell you this.
There was 16 years, and each year, 365 days
by 24 hours that we had to resist inside there.
And “how you did it?” People ask. Well, we
did it because we were inspired and we drew
strength from the example of the Cuban
people, for the example of resistance and resilience
of the Cuban people. But we also did
it because of the example of friends and comrades
like you that we knew were fighting out
there for our freedom. And for that we thank
you as well [applause].
The solidarity was very important not only to
free the 5, your solidarity was also important
to let the Five resist every single day and every
single hour in prison. Thank you once again
brothers and sisters.
Some people have said to me “well, we did
what we could but at the end you’re free,
thanks to the negotiations.” Don’t make that
mistake! There would have been no negotiation
if we were 5 unknown people that nobody
cared about. If there was a negotiation, it
was because the US knew about Cuban 5, and
we were getting uncomfortable for them. And
it was because Cuba cares about the Cuban
5. And the Cuban people care about Cuban
5. And you, brothers and sisters, care about
the Cuban 5. The empire knew that. Ask the
people of the U.S. Consulate here if they knew
about the Cuban 5. I guess when they heard
we were released they we’re like “yay!” [crowd
laughs] But guess what… the struggle goes
on. And there’s gonna be people there, because
the same way I’m here tonight celebrating
the freedom of Cuban 5 with you all, Iwant to be one day here with you celebrating
the end of the blockade against Cuba [cheers
and applause]. I’m inviting myself! I’ll be here
on that day!
Remember what I told you, remember! And
guess what… if one day, the blockade is lifted,
we’re going to have to continue the fight, so
they won’t put in place, any time, for no body,
no more blockades! We cannot rest.
They’ve been talking about normalization
now of the relation between Cuba and the US.
But it’s a long way to go. We cannot talk about
normalization while the blockade is still in
place [applause]. We
cannot talk of normalization
if Guantanamo
is still illegally
occupied by the US
[applause]. We cannot
talk about normalization
if the US
continues to spend
millions of dollars in
regime change plans
or whatever they call
it to subvert the Cuban
government and
the Cuban order [applause].
We cannot
talk about normalization
when the US
doesn’t compensate
Cuba for the loss of
lives and for all the
economic damage of
more than 50 years of
blockade [applause].
So, there’s a long way to go. But we are, of
course, on the right path, because remember,
some people have dared to say, our enemies of
course, that Cuba is giving up because we are
talking with the US. But you guys have good
memories and I’m sure you remember the
time when the US presidents, and Vice Presidents
and Senators and congress people and
candidates and many others, everybody used
to say we have nothing to negotiate with Cuba
if the Castro’s are in power. We have nothing
to talk to Cuba if the revolution is still in
place. We have nothing to talk to Cuba if they
don’t renounce this and that, if they have only
one party, if they don’t make free elections
with out our receipts and so on and so on. But
guess what… none of that has happened! And
they negotiated with Cuba! Whose victory
is that!? [cheers and applause]. Last time I
checked, the president of Cuba is Raul Castro,
and the leader of the Cuban revolution is still
alive, Fidel Castro, so the Castro’s are in power!
[crowd shouts “Viva Fidel!”, Viva Raul!].
And on the other hand, Cuba has been saying
the same for more than 50 years; “we’re
willing to talk to anybody, we’re willing to
negotiate with anybody, but on the basis of
mutual respect, from equal to equal. We’re not
second to anybody. We’re a small country, but
we are as sovereign and as independent as any
country in the world. And you have to respect
that [applause]. And that’s exactly what happened;
we have not renounced one single of
our principles. Of course we know there are
dangers involved in all these processes and
you can be sure that we Cubans are not naive.
We know of all those dangers. There are risks
involved. We believed that we are prepared to
take those risks and you can be sure that we,
Cubans, know very well who our real friends
are! [cheers and applause]
We know very well how we like the Cuba of
the future to be and not to be! We know where
we want to get at. So you don’t have to worry
about that. You can keep counting on the
solidarity of the Cubans. You can keep counting
on the revolutionaries in Cuba. We will
never let our friends down. You can be sure of
that, because of course, I don’t have a crystal
ball to tell you how the Cuba of the future
will look, but I can assure you the 5 are not 5
people created in a laboratory, the 5 are not an
experiment. There are many people in Cuba
like the 5. And there are millions of people
in Cuba willing to do whatever it takes so the
Cuba of the future won’t be like what many
people in the US want. Maybe I shouldn’t say
many. They’re not that many but they are the
powerful ones because I know that the minority
of their own people are aware that most
Americans would like to have a normal relations
with our country. And that applies to the
minority of the Cubans living in that country.
But there’s a saying that the people who
got the power, got the resources, that had all
plans in mind. And they might see an opportunity
to achieve through this new relationship
what they haven’t been able to achieve
through 50 years of aggression and terrorism
and blockade and so on. We know that. We
are taken those risks because we trust in the
Cuban people. And we ask you to trust in the
Cuban people and the Cuban revolution. We
know what we are doing. You don’t have to
worry. And that’s right, maybe Havana will be
a little more packed if the Americans go there,
but there’s room for everybody, so don’t worry
about it [crowd laughs].
We will never forget that when bombs were
exploding in hotels, Canadians were there.
They were not scared. When they were threatening
people, with this and with that and
wanted to depreciate the Cuban economy,
Canadian people were there. When the US
back in 1962 basically blackmailed the whole
region and forced the whole region to break
relations with Cuba, only Mexico and Canada
where there. And Cubans never forget that.
So, I thank you for
this extraordinary
opportunity you gave
me tonight. I remember
when I was sitting
in prison that I
received many, many
letters from Canada,
from Vancouver. I
was telling some of
you last night that I
knew many of your
faces that’s why many
friends sent me photos
in the letters because
I knew how encouraging
it was for
the 5 to see people
picketing outside, to
see people struggling
outside for our freedom.
So I hung those
letters, right there on
the wall of my cell. The
guards painted a square like this [Gerardo
opens his hands 1 meter afar moving them to
form a square] with different columns, just to
teach us that there was the only place that we
could post cards. And prisoners put the photos
of their families, half naked women, all
that you could imagine, but what I did was to
fill that place with photos of friends around
the world doing something for the 5. I got
photos from London, from California, Seattle,
Washington, and I certainly had photos from
Vancouver there [crowd cheers and applause].
And I saw your faces everyday, that’s why I
remembered. And I tell you, every morning,
when I woke up, some times I use to dream
that I was in Cuba, and it was very hard to
wake up and open my eyes, I was like: “shit,
I’m in prison.” But when I looked to my left,
to those photos, and I said to myself, come
on, get up, you cannot let those people down.
They won’t let you down, but you Gerardo,
you can’t let them down. Wake up and face
the next 24 hours with the same spirit of the
Cuban revolution and with the spirit of those
friends out there, who strongly are fighting for
you! [crowd cheers and applause]
That’s how much you helped the Cuban 5!
I know you have an idea of how much you
helped the Cuban 5, but believe me, you still
much you helped us. Not only our freedom
but our resistance.
In one of the worst moments I had in those
16 years, was when it was back in 2003, they
took me once again to the hole (solitary confinement).
We were use to the hole already
after having spent almost 20 months there.
But this time the orders from who knows
who, were that we had to be in complete isolation,
no contact with any human being except
the guard that took the food to me. So,
the hole was not enough because there were
people cleaning our prison and they could talk
to you and say things. So they took me to a
section that prisoners in there used to call it
‘the cage’. It was in the basement below the
hole, just 10 cells with double doors. The first
door bars with a plastic screen so you couldn’t
speak to anybody and a space like this [again,
he opens his hands almost a meter apart and
forms a tall but very small space] and a metal
door. Oh man, when they closed that you were
completely isolated. You wouldn’t know if it
was day or night. They got me there wearing
just underwear, no shoes, light on 24 hours,
no reading material, no writing material. I remember
there was a Colombian guy, another
prisoner that was the one that cleaned the
floors. And the people in the other 9 cells
had the middle door open, so they could
at least chat with one another, and this guy
comes cleaning everyday and goes there and
says: “hey buddy, how you doing? You need
something? Keep up” whatever… I used to
listen to his voice. He’d get as close as possible
to my cell, and be like: “hey you, the
one in the last cell. I’m sorry man, I can’t get
closer to you. The guards are watching me.
They told me I could not be closer to you.”
And one day when I was in the yard after all
that finished I listened to the same voice and
I called him saying:
-“are you Colombian?”
- “Yes”
- “You were the person who cleaned the
cage?”
- “Yes”
- “Oh, I was the one in the last cell”
And I tell you to have an idea of how they
behaved with the 5, without having committed
a single disciplinary record. In that
cell, in a very old facility, when the guy in
the cell on top flushed the toilet, dirty water
used to run through my wall [crowd gasps].
And the plan was to have me there for one
year, under something called S.A.M., Special
Administrative Measure. One day, they
gave me a bunch of paper to sign; no contact
with other prisoners, no visitation, no this
and this and this… and you’re gonna be here
like that and you’re gonna be here for a year
and after a year we can check and sign for
another whole year. That was the plan. But I
received the visit of one lawyer. He told me:
“Keep up, keep your strength, there are many
people out there fighting for you. There are
people in front of the State Department,
there are people in front of Justice Department,
in front of the Bureau of Prison, there
are people in front of many embassies and
consulates around the world fighting for
you.” Those words were with me during the
30 days that lasted. The only thing that I
could do was pace from one wall to the other
but I kept thinking about that. I kept thinking
about many people like you who were
out there and thanks to that I didn’t lose my
mind. And thanks to that, what was suppose
to last for a year, lasted only for 30 days. And
I knew every time you resisted something
like that it makes you stronger. Because you
said if I resisted that, there’s nothing that I
couldn’t resist. And this is one example of
how much you helped to the Cuban 5.
So, don’t be tired, I’m sorry if I made you tired
by listening to this. Thank you very much!
thank you all! [crowd cheers] on behalf of
my four brothers, on behalf of our families,
on behalf of the Cuban people, thank you
very much! Long live solidarity!
[standing ovation]
Click here for the report from the Gerardo Hernández event in Vancouver
Click here for the reports from Gerardo Hernández events across Canada
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