A Message From my Faith to the State Security Authority

A Message From my Faith to the State Security Authority / Somos+
Posted on October 9, 2015

Somos+, Pedro Lago Segura, 8 October 2015 — If you believe you can
change me from your position of power, you don't know where the real
power lies. And if you think that with that sabre-rattling you prevent
my voice from being heard by others or me from hearing others' voices,
you are not free in spirit and confuse the weak, fully twisting a
democratic exercise.

Anonymous messages do not intimidate me. And so you will never prevent
me to say and express what I feel. And intending to manipulate around
wherever I try to earn a living, won't work out either. It may cause
some distrust and fear of me, but the one who truly gets to know me and
understand in depth my ideas, really knows who I am and what I want,
which is nothing but good for my country and everyone, including them
and all of you too.

They are mistaken and do not know how much. They're not doing anything
other than chopping down their main goals, giving less credibility and
losing more people every day.

Instilling fear is not a way to build a model or a nation. Those who do
so, end up building in themselves and internally an atmosphere of fear
and despair. Because he who is afraid now -understandably- because of
the one who believes he is right and doesn't seem to fear at all,
tomorrow may not forgive those who have always feared when they use
force subjugate and impose themselves on the people. And let us hope
this won't be the case, if what we really want is to see our motherland
feel proud to have us.

My enemies are fabricated by themselves, because I have no prejudices
nor intolerance. I am among those who believe that the struggle has much
more sense if done from the core rather than from the distance. I am not
concerned about my fate, because I know it will be for the good what I
do and I shall not cease in my doing.

That I am a bit stressed? It's true. That I am somewhat tired? It is
also true. That I have problems? Well, in one way or another everyone
has them. This country is actually full of them! But my being, my ideas
and principles are and will remain intact, even if a whole world and all
its problems are against me. I do not have the support of my father on
policy issues, but at least I have learned to demand his respect and
tolerance. No matter what happens to me in the street (despite having
more support than rejection), with my family I have everything and
everyone, and that only God can take away.

Asking me to change my mind? Never. They have not given nor will ever
give me reasons. I know Cuba and know what it is going through, without
even having to leave it or know other systems and other societies. Cuba
is Van Van, Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes, Los Aldeanos, Compay
Segundo, Buena Fe and many others. But it is also Celia Cruz, Andy
Garcia, Willy Chirino, Arturo Sandoval, Bebo Valdes, the Estefans and
many more. It's music, singing, dancing and it is passion. It is
culture, cigars, art and son. It is struggle, grief, peace and religion.

Cast out your selfishness, your bigotry and your foolish pride. The
country does not just need us -you and me- it needs all of us. I have
enough reasons to believe that the Cuban people are more revolutionary
than socialist, although have not known how to be sufficiently so to
demean some of their stolen rights.

Desist from everything that ties you and makes you a slave. Stop
shielding yourself under a "patriotism," in order to defend the despots
with their ideologies, which do not need to be imposed on everyone just
because it is their whim, or for nationalized doctrine or hypocritical
commitment. You can be patriotic and perhaps even revolutionary, without
being Marxist or Leninist, without being a communist or socialist.

Marti taught us that patriotism is a sacred duty, when one strives for
bringing the homeland up to the condition in which men and women may
live in happier, and it is reprehensible when invoked to prevent
friendship among all people of good faith in the universe.

That's why I say it is necessary to see and demand the state as a
protector, the country as home, and the nation as a large family with
room for the many and the few, the good and the bad, the poor and the
rich, the unhappy and honest. With room for: state, citizenship,
government, opposition, political parties, people, socialists,
dissidents. That is democracy. That is independence. That's what I want
Cuba to be. That's what I demand from you and will demand, and what many
others in thousands of different ways demand from you and will demand as
well. I do not try to make you think like me, but do not then try to
make me think like you do. I do not believe in opportunists or
dictators, I do not believe in "national socialists" as Juan Carlos
Cremata expressed, nor in corrupt planners. I do believe in individual
freedom, in the opportunities democracy provides and what is done with
the soul and the heart.

Now I ask you. What do you believe in?

Translated by: Y. Rodriguez

Source: A Message From my Faith to the State Security Authority / Somos+
| Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/a-message-from-my-faith-to-the-state-security-authority-somos/