Bloggers and Twitterers at Paya / Mario Barroso #Cuba

In addition to the traditional groups and opposition personalities was very emotional for me at Paya’s funerals to interact with new trends in the opposition which are the bloggers and twitterers who are independent, non-partisan and who are not directed by others, whom I met spontaneously while paying honors to Paya.

I will never forget the gesture Yoani Sanchez herself on meeting me that strange night in the parish, as she did with many other pilgrims, motioning me to come the nearby park where there was an active group of collaborators who offered me water, coffee and a T-shirt with an excellent picture Payá in which the Cuban flag was also illustrated next to a picture of Varela, which I keep as a relic and still hope to wear at relevant times to come.

From that moment I was part of a large group of participants wearing the garment which became one of the most eloquent tributes paid during those historic hours of tribute to he who was the coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement.

Our army of technologists with a vocation of humanity narrated tweet by tweet every scene of this historic farewell that cost Cuba one of its best sons. And it was not only those of us who were present, the privileged who could get there. Countless colleagues worldwide constantly called up and helped to recharge our mobile phones, without which we would not have been able to send so many tweets into cyberspace.

Some of us “opened” our cellphones so distant friends could hear live such important moments as the mass officiated by the cardinal in the morning before the burial, and even the radio stations took advantage of our contruibution to broadcast it live, no matter the quality or the interference, because the information was must more valuable than any problem with the effectiveness of the transmissions or the channels.

Following the instantaneous character of Twitter, surviving the still not exhausted posts of many who were present, or of those who followed in from a distance, whatever could be done, all the issues relating to this man who shines so brightly in his absence as he shone in his presence.

November 6 2012