THE MUSTARD SEED.
What began at that scrawny Cuban Committee for Human Rights, that many
classified as quixotic, is at present a notable force due to their
courage, their determination and their moral authority. It is not a
massive movement, but it is the largest of those who have been in any of
the countries which were subjected to communist totalitarianism
throughout the world.
Also, it is very diverse, it includes in its ranks Cubans of all social
strata of the country, medical doctors like Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet,
engineers such as Oswaldo Paya, lawyers like Rene Gomez Manzano,
economists such as Marta Beatriz Roque, poets like Regis Iglesias,
educators such as Roberto de Miranda, philosophers like Jaime Legonier ,
ex-military such as Vladimiro Roca, peasants like Antonio Alonso, trade
unionists such as Carmelo Diaz , housewives like Berta Antunez, and
simple country people such as the brothers Sigler Amaya and many more.
Among them are whites, blacks and mulattoes, Catholics, Protestants and
Santeros, liberals, conservatives, christian democrats, socialists and
all other non-Communist political denominations. And they are from the
extreme western end of the island, as the Pro-Human Rights Party, in
Guane, to the extreme eastern end, as the Youth Movement for Democracy
in Baracoa.
In its shadow and with its momentum has been reborn in notable measure
the civil society of the nation: journalists, librarians, cooperatives,
professional associations, farmers, workers, artists, intellectuals and
independent disabled, among others.
They have achieved international recognition at very high levels, as
witnessed by major prizes for the promotion of human rights granted to
different activists by the European Union, non governmental
organizations and other institutions in different countries. What is
more important, every day they earn more respect among their fellow
citizens.
It should be noted, also, that in Cuba, as elsewhere, important semantic
differences that had importance in the past have been erased. Today, in
the Cuban context, opposition and dissident are synonymous, because
under the classification of "dissidents", "dissent" or "the human rights
people," as the general population calls them, it includes persons
such as Oswaldo Payá , for example, who never belonged to the ranks of
the regime, and others who believed for more or less time in the mirage
of the revolution.
We can say, therefore, that the current internal dissident movement is a
vivid display of the entire Cuban nation and that it is, today, the
most important agent of change within the island. In it is fulfilled the
parable of the mustard seed, thus from a tiny seed has emerged a
corpulent tree. It would not be prudent to exaggerate their importance
in terms of the correlation of forces with the dictatorship, but neither
would it be to ignore its potential as channeling the desire for
justice, now widespread at the popular level, that originated when those
desires were expressed by only a few.
The dissident movement does not have an effective articulation
throughout the Cuban territory, but I don't think it is an exaggeration
to say that it demonstrates already the ability, when the moment arrives
and with adequate support, power, together with other independent
bodies, religious and fraternal, that offer answers to peremptory
uncertainties, the instability and initial disorder that inevitably
accompany any significant change in a previously totalitarian society.
In summary, since the issue has arisen: if they ask me what the real
importance of the current internal dissident movement, I would say it is
the Cubans having revealed to themselves the possibility of banishing
violence from political struggles and the effectiveness of non-violent
methods in the pursuit of justice.
Cuba inherited old concepts which indicated that the only honorable way
to resolve grievances and disputes was through blood, however evident it
is today that to win by force means that it is the stronger or the
better armed then the other, but not that one necessarily is in
possession of reason or rights. The armed or physical confrontation
became erroneously, the only acceptable proof of courage and honor.
That mentality which ferociously pushed Spaniards and their Cuban sons
to confront each other when the latter justly demanded their
independence, continued to mark the Republic, and that is how we saw
patriots who won indisputable merits out in the fields confronted each
other afterward with the same violence because of political disparities
or ambitions of power, providing our nation’s history with very sad
pages like the death of Quintín Banderas in the times of Estrada
Palma, the racial and veterans confrontations during the government of
José Miguel Gómez and the excesses of the government and the
opposition during the Machado eras.
It is not wanting to judge by modern parameters, and in the light of
experiences they had, to people acting according to the culture of their
time and by what they had learned as good and honorable, and who, on
the other hand, well are indebted for much good that they did. This is
an attempt to dispassionately understand this harmful and
counterproductive tradition of violence that caused rivalries and
grievances passed from generation to generation, without the possibility
of solution. There was always a debt to settle, and it was paid off
with blood, the blood of brothers.
Along with this, we must clarify that none of this implies that one can
condemn a people at one time if he is forced to resort to violence in an
extreme situation, as sometimes one resorts to an amputation to avoid
death, especially where the obstinacy of the oppressors shuts out all
other attempted solution. Countries, like persons, have the right to
defend themselves against aggression. This resort to non-desired
violence, has, nevertheless to be imposed temporarily by circumstances,
and not be a favored option, much less a practice or method of
justifiable struggle.
The syndrome of violence that marked our Republic and to which I
referred to earlier, has had its most cruel expression in the present
regime. We can never forget the executed by firing squads, the tortured,
the fallen in combat, those murdered while trying to escape the island.
We can not nor should we forget the experience of living in fear, the
heroic Calvary of political imprisonment, nor the horror of the acts of
repudiation. It is precisely out of respect and gratitude to the fallen
and what we have all suffered that we have to fight for their
grandchildren and the grandchildren of all Cubans of the present, can
live a different Cuba to the one we had to live in both them and us. A
Cuba where the problems are resolved "among Cubans" in harmony and
civility, not by some imposing it on others. A Cuba, finally, "where the
first law of the Republic is the respect of each Cuban for the full
dignity of man."
The conduct and methods that sunk Cuba and keep it under to the present,
are not the ones that are going to save it. To assume the thankless
task of trying to break the burdensome legacy of violence is the
greatest merit of the dissident movement, because, if achieved it would
be an inestimable good for Cuba, not only for today and for us, but also
for the future, for those who are still to come.
More concretely, I would say that the greatest importance of the
internal dissident movement in Cuba today, is that it has proven that
political action can be consistent with what conscience knows and that
is that the force of reason is, and should be more powerful than the
reason of force.
***
"If what we do for Cuba, we do not do for love, better not do it." - Bishop Agustín Román
CONCLUSIONS.
Everyone knows that there are none so blind as those who will not see. I
believe that only those may try to deny the importance of the current
dissidents in Cuba, but, if one needs a convincing testimony about it, I
think none better than the dictatorship itself: if those opponents did
not represent a real challenge to the regime, then why do they repress
them with such virulence? ... Why jail them? ... Why try to discredit
them constantly?
The skeptics should be reminded that although the end result sought by
the Cuban people has not yet been obtained by dissidents or anyone else,
they have shown that non-violent civic resistance can jeopardize
totalitarianism, as it happened with "
Concilio Cubano" in 1996, in 2001 with the
Varela Project and in 2003 with the ferment opposition that caused the "
Black Spring" of that year, all of which shows that in these methods the potential to trigger the definitive change.
And at this point, it is clear that it would be logical that all Cubans,
both on the island as in exile, ask ourselves what can we do to help
the dissidents? ... We the exiles should ask ourselves what to do,
between them and us, imparting all the possible effectiveness of the
legitimate struggle for the liberation of the common homeland.
I could not offer policy prescriptions nor strategies for action,
because I am not a politician or a strategist. I am a Cuban priest, a
simple shepherd of souls, and as such, could only refer to what I
learned in the light of the Gospel, remember what some of our great
thinkers have suggested and recommend that we not forget the proven
wisdom of our peasants, that which today is called common sense.
I said at the beginning of the urgency to reflect on these issues as we
did today, because of the special circumstances that the Cuban nation is
living at this moment. That same sense of urgency we should have with
regards to the steps we must take. It is not for me to say what are
those steps, but, whatever they will be will move us forward, and not
backwards only if we take them through paths of virtue. ¨No homeland
without virtue," said to us the first who taught us to think and it
occurs to me that I could suggest some of the virtues necessary for our
steps to lead us to the goals of the common good, that we want for Cuba:
1 - Firmness of principle and clarity of the objectives. We must be
aware of what we want for Cuba: true sovereignty, rule of law and
respect for human rights. This sums up all the other just demands such
as, for example, the release of political prisoners, democracy, free
elections, just proceedings, and so on. We should put forward, in
addition, our non-acceptance of formulas that attempt to impede or
obstruct the right of Cubans to freely choose their destination or
promote continuity of this system or something similar, under the
appearance of democracy, openness and reforms.
2 - Equilibrium. Humans are very susceptible to the passion that makes
them lose clarity in their vision of things. Cubans are no exception to
this rule, on the contrary, therefore, we must remember the wise words
of the well named prophet of exile, our unforgettable
Bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal.
He told us about this, I quote: "The equilibrium is not to dance the
tightrope, but it is to adopt a clear and defined attitude that asks
nothing borrowed from anyone, but is born of good doctrinal training and
a dispassionate and objective study of reality "End of quote.
3 - Unity. Unity in diversity, which is as it should be, but firm unity,
because if we have always needed it, it is essential to us today. You
do not have to explain it to any Cuban how much damage disunity has done
us. It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Do not forget what
the Lord Jesus himself tells us in
chapter 12 of St. Matthew: "Every kingdom divided against itself will become desolate. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand."
4 - Prudence and energy. The Servant of God and architect of Cubanness,
Father Varela, recommended to the Cubans of his time in his "Moral and
Social Maxims" not to mistake weakness with caution, noting that it
"tells the man what he should choose, practice and omit in every
circumstance." I would emphasize this valerian maxim, remembering that
the first that prudence indicates is to think before acting. Varela also
noted in "El Habanero", something which seems written for our day. I
quote: "It is not time to entertain ourselves with particular
accusations, or useless regrets. It is only to operate with energy to be
free." End of quote.
5 - Justice, truth, forgiveness and reconciliation. I said earlier that
the cause of the internal dissident movement, the cause of all of us in
the end, is the continued pursuit of justice for the Cuban people. Cuba
cries out to heaven for justice, justice is essential. The truth is the
complement of justice and should be the first condition of our work and
firm foundation of the society. Every Cuban will recognize the truth of
their responsibilities and errors if we want to enter the new Cuba with
the cleanness that we want. At the same time, the country equally
needs of forgiveness and reconciliation in order to have possibilities
of a future. A society that remains with its wounds permanently open
condemns itself to a continuation of its conflicts and eliminates its
possibilities to live in peace. Justice, truth, forgiveness and
reconciliation are not mutually exclusive or contradictory terms. Our
very remembered
Pope John Paul II said with respect to the following, in his
message for World Day of Peace on 1 January 1997.
I quote: "Forgiveness, far from excluding the search for truth, demands
it. The wrong must be recognized and, where possible, repaired ...
Another essential requisite for forgiveness and reconciliation, is
justice, which finds its justification in the law of God ... In effect -
the Pontiff added - forgiveness does not eliminate or decreases the
demand for reparation, which belongs to justice, but seeks to
reintegrate equally individuals and groups into society. "End of quote.
6 - Faith, hope and charity. The most important I have left for last,
because it's what surrounds and makes everything else possible. Faith in
God because without Him every effort will be useless: "Unless the Lord
builds the house, its builders labor in vain,"
affirms Scripture. Hope in God, because through Him comes us all that is good: "
Blessed are they who have placed their trust in the Lord,"
proclaims St. Matthew in his gospel. Charity, that is love of God and
of our brothers, because we have already seen too much the fruits of
hate in our people. Because charity is what God wanted for us, sent to
us over the sea the image of the Mother of his beloved Son under the
inspiring nickname: the Mother of Charity, Mother Love, Mother of the
country. If what we do for Cuba, we do not do for love, better not do
it.
If all of us who want the good of the nation, of the important internal
dissident movement and the persevering of exile arm ourselves with these
virtues, we will be effective. If we are committed to not let
personalism, or the passions dilute them, we will have won. If we keep
them and transmit them to all our people, we will have secured for Cuba a
happy future.
I end with an expression of loyalty, affection and paternal recognition
to the work of the Catholic Church in Cuba during this difficult stage
in our history. On February 3, 1959
the first joint pastoral of the Cuban Bishops
saw the light, which focused on the topic of education, those shepherds
launched demands and questions applying to all of the deceptive
revolutionary project that began then. Earlier, only two days after the
triumph of the revolution, the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba,
Monsignor Enrique Pérez Serantes,
reminded the new government and the entire people why they had fought,
saying: "We want and expect a purely democratic Republic , in which all
citizens can fully enjoy the richness of human rights "End of quote.
Since then, the facts,
well documented also show us the suffering Church,
harassed sometimes
more covertly than others, but always harassed, on the side of the
people of Cuba. This was, perhaps, its most eloquent point with the
pastoral "
Love hopes all things",
of 1993, but there is also a long and rich history, which one day will
be known in all its details, of the generous, brave and quiet labor of
the Church in favor of the legitimate interests and needs of the Cuban
people in these times. It's not for nothing that the loudest cries of
"Freedom!" Heard in Cuba in recent times took place in public places
during the visit of John Paul II in 1998.
I also equally affirm my personal appreciation and respect for the
internal dissident movement in Cuba and I do it from the heart of a
Cuban naturally proud to be exiled, of belonging to this exile committed
to the national destiny, full of men and women of faith and action,
whose merits and virtues are not always fairly valued.
When a happy end could be brought to the prison riots in Atlanta and Oakdale in 1987,
I remember the excitement made me exclaim that day that if I were not
Cuban, I would pay to be. Without a trace of arrogance, with great
respect for all peoples of the world, I repeat it today: I would pay to
be a dissident, I would pay to be an exile, because both are the same:
Cubans, good Cubans trying to be better.
I should apologize for having forgotten the time limit, but I thought
that the important choices we have before us Cubans right now, asked for
these considerations that I wanted to share with you, taking advantage
of the invitation of Father Felix Varela Foundation, which again I want
to thank. Maybe I failed to add one of the virtues we need, is to say
more in less time. But you, who are so generous, will understand,
because you are Cubans like me.
Thank you very much everyone.
Bishop Agustín A. Román
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus
Miami, December 16, 2006
