English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Still dazed and in shock I compose these words to Oswaldo. When I started to get the first messages about Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas’s death they were showing the film “War Horse,” and in one of the scenes a soldier leaves his foxhole to save his charger and before the imminence of his death he is … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá: The Act of Serving / Luis Felipe Rojas”
It was the summer or autumn of 1984. Father Juan de Dios — who is now a bishop and yesterday celebrated the first funeral mass for Oswaldo Payá — chose several people to prepare a document that summarized what was said by Havana Catholics over the previous months in hundreds of meetings preparatory to the Cuban … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá: the nights of San Juan de Letrán / Jorge Ignacio Domínguez”
Ofelia Acevedo Maura speaks about the death of her husband Oswaldo Payá. Transcript/summary from PenultimosDias.com. I have nothing in writing, only brief information given verbally by an official from Criminal Affairs. Briefly, he told me that the car went out of control because of excessive speed and had hit a tree, and this caused the … Continue reading ““I do not believe the version of the government nor of its spokesmen.” Ofelia Acevedo Maura speaks of the death of her husband, Oswaldo Payá”
This video is just over 2 minutes long.
A few years ago I accompanied a friend from the Basque Country to the home of Oswaldo Payá. I left him nearby so as not to call attention to ourselves, because Payá’s house was always under heavy surveillance. The Basque wanted to do an interview with him and had already arranged the appointment. It was … Continue reading “A Visit to Oswaldo Payá / Ángel Santiesteban”
Yesterday, around for in the afternoon, the coffin with the body of Oswaldo Payá arrived at the Chapel of the Savior of the World Parish, on Peñón street in the municipality of Cerro, after having completed the formalities of forensic medicine. The old 19th century church, recently restores, was literally packed. Some of those attending … Continue reading “Requiem for Oswaldo Payá / Rebeca Monzo”
Executives and members of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front, raise their voices to condemn the cowardly assassination of prominent opposition leaders Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founder of the Varela Projects and founding president of the Christian Liberation Movement. This Coalition of Coalitions shares in the grief of this Christian family, at a time … Continue reading “Message from the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front on the Death of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”
Notes from National Democratic Institute Public Affairs: In September 2002, Oswaldo Payá received NDI’s 15th Annual W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award for his courageous efforts in promoting peaceful democratic change in Cuba. NDI also created a documentary about the Varela Project, entitled “Dissident: Oswaldo Payá and the Varela Project,” which has premiered in several film … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá Talking About the Varela Project / Oswaldo Payá”
From YouTube notes: The events occured around 9:30 in the morning this Tuesday in Peñón Street in the municipality of Cerro, near San Salvador Parish where the wake for Payá was being held. “The police began to beat a group of opponents and forced them into a bus,” according to Calixto Ramón Martínez Áreas, a … Continue reading “Beating and Detaining Opponents at Oswaldo Payá’s Funeral / Hablemos Press”
Oswaldo Payá has died and left us, this man who with his “Varela Project” taught my generation and Cuba that freedom is possible. We were very young then and our idea was to shout liberty through literary works, which, from our naivete, we thought was the most direct path to democracy, and that this was … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá on the Altar of the Nation / Ángel Santiesteban”
About five hundred people accompanied the body of Oswaldo Payá to his final resting place in the Colon Cemetery. Family members, activists, Ladies in White, foreign correspondents and diplomats based on the island gathered at eleven in the morning. Dozens of dissidents traveled from the central and eastern provinces to the capital in Havana to … Continue reading “Rosa María Payá Honors Her Father Oswaldo Payá: “We do not seek revenge, but we thirst for the truth” / Yoani Sánchez”
Yesterday, Sunday the 22nd of July, through a telephone call from a friend, I learned of the tragic death of the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in a traffic accident that occurred in Granma province. The versions about what happened are dissimilar and will surely vary. What will not change is … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá, a Part of Our History / Dimas Castellano”
No one should die before reaching their dreams of freedom. With the death of Oswaldo Payá (1952 – 2012), Cuba has suffered a dramatic loss for its present and an irreplaceable loss for its future. It was not just an exemplary man, a loving father and a fervent Catholic who stop breathing yesterday, Sunday, but … Continue reading “Oswaldo Payá, Rest in Freedom / Yoani Sánchez”
At five in the afternoon on July 22, the death of opposition leader and founder of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) Oswaldo Payá was confirmed. The news started as a rumor that spread during the early hours of Sunday afternoon. Known nationally and internationally for organizing and carrying out the Varela Project, his death at … Continue reading “Cuban Opposition Leader Oswaldo Payá Dies in Car Crash / Yoani Sánchez”
