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The “Ladies in White” have held various marches calling for the release of what Amnesty International called “prisoners of conscience.” And although the Cuban government has often tried to move the “Damas de Bianco,” the power of the Internet brought the latest incident a worldwide audience.
In response, Miami-based Cuban singer-songwriter Gloria Estefan ignited a protest that drew 100,000 people to Little Havana. Nationwide protests are expected to swell this weekend, thanks not only to online postings and messages but to the dignified, honorable display that she conducted.
“This is a big message to them that freedom is alive,” Estefan told the crowd, “and we care for them, and we love them.
“Viva Cuba libre!”
Estefan has opened the floodgates for Cuban-American descendants who came to the United States, studied, worked hard and planted firm roots here. It’s now time for them — a great many from Hudson County — to insist that oppression of their loved ones end.
It’s time to dream that the Berlin Wall of a 51-year-old dictatorship can — and should — come down.
The movement already has gathered steam in our own “Little Cuba,” Union City, and elsewhere throughout the country.
“Our community here in New Jersey wants to show solidarity with the jailed dissidents and the Ladies in White,” said Luis Israel Abreu, head of the Union City-based Union of Former Cuban Political Prisoners.
Besides the Saturday event, a Cuban-American youth group called Roots of Hope plans a silent march Sunday from the Museum of Modern Art to the statue of famed revolutionary Jose Marti in Central Park.
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