The Cuban director, Lilo Vilaplana, recently announced that he had finished shooting the film “Plantada”, a more than necessary historical document, which will do justice to the thousands of Cuban women who have been and are in prison for their fight for freedom and democracy on the Island.
Vilaplana, made a fundamental contribution to the historiography of Cuba when he filmed the epic film “Plantados”, which reflects the cruelty of the Castro prison system and the insanity of the jailers who apply the rules of insular totalitarianism, a work that shows in turn, the patriotism of political prisoners.
This film promises to be at least as valuable as the previous one, because it will collect the experiences of women who have faced the dictatorship and who, due to their actions, ended up in totalitarianism, suffering a systematic violation of their rights, including that of life. .
The Cuban female Political Prison has been, without a doubt, the most numerous and extensive in years that the American hemisphere has suffered. It began in 1959 and is not over yet, as journalist Yolanda Huerga reflects in a job posted on the Radio Martí website in which a young political prisoner, Rosa Jany Murillo, in response to blackmail from her jailers, says, “I don’t I have nothing to punish. I have a single ideal, a single principle, a single concept: I want communism to fall, for there to be democratic parties, for my people to be able to be defended and cared for by a government. You don’t, so I have nothing to regret.”
The courage of this young Cuban woman has been known by the bars of women’s prisons since the dawn of the Revolution. In front of those same bars, in different dungeons, thousands of ladies from different generations have demonstrated their commitment to freedom, as did Cary Roque, Ana Lazara Rodríguez, Gloria Lasalle, Isabel Tejera, María Amalia Fernández del Cueto, Nelly Rojas, Maritza Lugo, Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, an endless list of heroines that we will be able to meet when Vilaplana and her team deliver “Plantadas”.
Trying to synthesize the heroism of Cuban women in prison in these 63 years is almost an odyssey. There are many events to review, executions of companions in the cause, escapes, torture, beatings, hunger strikes, deaths, separation from the family, not having children to comply with the Homeland, lack of the most essential resources for life , an infinite list of sorrows that honors the deeds of these women who always demonstrated a worthy stoicism.
The Master of all Cubans with decorum, José Martí, wrote Honrar Honra, and for this reason it is fair and appropriate to mention the person who, in my humble opinion, has promoted the filming of “Plantadas” like no other, Reynol Rodríguez , an activist in favor of democracy and the freedom of Cubans who has dedicated his life to the fight against dictatorships.
Rodríguez is one of those people who understand that the fight has many facets without denying any. He is a man of proven heroism, he has participated in armed incursions against the dictatorship and fervently supported personalities such as the unforgettable Vicente Méndez, who fell in combat a few days after arriving on Cuban shores.
This freedom fighter has worked month after month organizing activities with the aim of raising funds for this historic document on Cuban women, he formed an organized committee that has fully fulfilled its objective, in which I must highlight two members in particular, Pedro Remón, another courageous compatriot who never says No, and the son of Osvaldo Ramírez, a glorious martyr in the fight against Castroism who was the second leader of the insurgents of the Escambray mountains in the early 1960s, also named Osvaldo Ramírez, another compatriot who joins all efforts for democracy.
The exiled filmography dedicated to directly collecting the struggle for freedom, has several filmmakers who, like Vilaplana, have shown a commitment to Cuban art and reality, the pioneer Eduardo Palmer, Iván Acosta, Luis Guardia, Daniel Urdanivia and Wenceslao Cruz , we owe all of them, for their quiet efforts, deep respect.
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