By Teresa Melo on May 22, 2021
Gerardo Hernandez
He wasn’t talking about unknown themes or topics chosen on a whim. Every word is backed up by his unquestionable personal experience. The conversation, with the background of the city and the sea, and with a person who listens to a neighbor, a godfather, a ballplayer, a young woman student, a hopeful child … let’s just say – to the people. That’s how he seemed to talk and listen on beyond his interviewer on the Pupila Asombrada program, entering with warmth and sharp truths into the homes and feelings of the viewers. This was the feeling that I perceived, in general, right after seeing the broadcast.
It’s just that this Cuban doesn’t believe in little comfort bubbles; he’s ready to jump beyond them or to burst them. He’s no keyboard dilettante. He speaks with the knowledge that the weight of his life’s experience has brought him.
Freedom of expression in Miami? Dictatorship of the anti-Cuba matrix in which millions of dollars are invested – as the public records show – the profitable business of the brutal machinery complicit in robbing us of our terms, identity, and history. Accept and follow our script or lose your independent point of view…
That is how I measure heroes: knowing that our country cannot be seen or measured from some height that doesn’t involve work and creation and coherence and sustained clarity. Not long ago, someone used a photo that is very special to me, by the side of José Martí in his sacred tomb, to say that he had “caught something.” So, among the thousands of images of this patriot whom I admire, I choose those of a Feria del Libro (Book Fair) in the same place where the program was filmed, La Cabaña, to tell GERARDO HERNÁNDEZ NORDELO personally: I’m one of your gang. These “hunting expeditions” are carried out by those who want us to stay quiet. We will continue to build and create, and we can speak out.
For Cuba forever, thank you Pupila, for better vision, … Thank you, Gerardo …
To see the full interview with Gerardo Hernandez in Spanish go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMW9SpiCLn4
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English