EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 18 March 2023 — The documentary Dos patrias [Two Homelands], a work by Costa Rican filmmaker Hilda Hidalgo that addresses the violation of human rights in Cuba based on the testimonies of three Cuban activists, was presented on Friday, 17 March, at Florida International University (FIU), in Miami.
Hidalgo, 52, said in statements to EFE that the documentary is based on the testimonies of three Cuban activists “who have in common that they were accused of crimes they did not commit.”
The filmmaker, who knows the current situation of the Island well after studying in the 1990s at the International School of Film and Television in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, said that people who reside in countries with freedom “do not really know what it is to live in a dictatorship.”
“The three cases are emblematic, and I discovered them after an investigation,” she explained.
Sebastián Arcos, associate director of the FIU Institute of Cuban Research, told EFE that they have organized, together with the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, based in Washington, the presentation of the documentary in Miami.
The work of Hidalgo, director of the feature film Del amor y otros demonios [Love and Other Demons] (Costa Rica-Colombia, 2010), based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, presents the stories of three Cuban activists born on the Island who reveal their problems after confronting the Government of Havana.
The activists are Aymara Nieto Muñoz, currently imprisoned, Xiomara Cruz Miranda and Eduardo Cardet, a doctor who is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement. “This is a very topical issue,” Arcos said, after the Institute of Cuban Research joined for the human interest of the documentary, to be presented today at the FIU’s Graham Center.
Together with Cardet, the documentary collects the testimony of activist Aymara Nieto Múñoz, who in 2018 was sentenced to four years of deprivation of liberty for the crimes of “attack” and “property damage,” to which was added a new sentence of 5 years and 4 months for the charge of “public disorder” in prison.
The third person is the Lady in White Xiomara Cruz Miranda, who lives in the United States and is waiting for the approval of her permanent residence in this country.
The program coordinator for Latin America of the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, Johanna Villegas, said in an interview with Radio Martí, from Miami, that the documentary “is an effort to highlight the situation of prisoners deprived of political liberty in Cuba.”
Villegas said that Dos patrias is part of the organization’s initiative to reach different audiences and publicize the human rights violations that occur in Latin American countries.
The documentary was supported by Producciones La Tiorba of Costa Rica, where Hidalgo works as a director and screenwriter.
Hidalgo’s career includes the feature film Violeta al fin [Violeta at the End] (Costa Rica-Mexico, 2017), along with television series and documentaries on social, gender and sustainable development topics filmed in Costa Rica, France, Italy and Bhutan, among others.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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