An Appeal for Humanity
I write this from the perspective as a Cuban American, a woman, a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a friend. I write as someone whose heart has never stopped beating for the island where her roots are from. Part of me lives here in the United States, and part of me lives in Cuba.
Every day, I carry the pain of watching the people I love suffer from a distance. I carry the pain of the mothers who skip meals so their children can eat. The grandmothers are waiting for medicine that never arrives. The fathers work endlessly to provide for their families despite impossible obstacles. The young people who dream of a better future and refuse to surrender their hope.
For the women of Cuba who carry entire families on their shoulders, already exhausted from decades of sacrifice due to the Blockade, I ask the world:
How many more children must suffer before their pain matters? How many more tears must be shed before the world listens?
Washington calls the “blockade” a policy intended to bring about political change and “democracy” in Cuba. For more than sixty years, this policy has failed to achieve its stated goals. Yet despite its failure, the policy not only remains in place, but has increased sanctions and the intensity inflicting even more suffering on ordinary people who have committed no crime other than being born on an island that refuses to submit to outside pressure.
The economic blockade against Cuba is not simply ineffective, it is cruel, illegal and immoral. This Blockade is a form of collective punishment imposed on an entire nation. It is a policy that has been condemned year after year by most of the international community because it violates the principles of sovereignty, self-determination, and respect for human dignity.
The blockade punishes families, It punishes the mother searching for medicine for her child, it punishes the cancer patient waiting for treatment, it punishes the elderly person who cannot access essential medical supplies, It punishes the farmer trying to grow and distribute food, it punishes the student trying to build a future.
Its suffering arrives quietly: One missing medicine at a time, One empty shelf at a time, One delayed medical treatment at a time, One power outage at a time, One hungry child at a time.
It is a slow pain, a slow exhaustion, a slow assault on the human spirit. And because it happens slowly, much of the world has learned to look away.
But we cannot look away…. We see the pharmacy shelves, we see the hospital corridors, we see families forced to make impossible choices, we see infants whose lives depend on equipment affected by shortages and energy crises.
Behind every statistic is a human being: a father, a mother, a grandmother, a child, a family, a life. Every one of them is loved by someone. Every one of them is irreplaceable. Every one of them deserving of the same dignity and compassion afforded to any human being anywhere on Earth.
A Cuban child deserves life, a Cuban newborn deserves life, a Cuban mother deserves life, a Cuban grandfather deserves life. Their lives are not worth less because of the flag under which they were born. Their suffering is not less real. Their tears are not less painful. Their dreams are not less valuable.
What makes this policy even more tragic is that after more than six decades, it has proven beyond any doubt that it does not work: It has not/will not break the Cuban people, it has not/will not extinguished their identity, it has not/will not erase their culture, it has not crush their dignity. Because the Cuban people are a different, they/we are resilient and proud. They have endured invasions, sabotage, terrorism, economic warfare, and endless attempts to dictate their future from abroad. And yet they remain standing and even stronger!
And for those who continue to advocate for more sanctions, more pressure, and more suffering fundamentally misunderstand the Cuban people. They believe that by increasing hardship they can force Cubans to abandon the social achievements, their independence, their sovereignty, and their national dignity that generations have fought to defend. THEY ARE MISTAKEN!
The future of Cuba belongs to Cubans on the island—not to politicians in Washington, not to special interests, and especially not to the small Cuban groups in Miami that continue to demand policies that have brought nothing but suffering to millions of innocent people while making a profit off of these policies.
No foreign government has the right to determine Cuba’s destiny. No nation should be starved into submission. No people should be forced to choose between their sovereignty and their survival.
Today I ask every person in the world:
If it were your family living through this, would you remain silent?
THEN DO NOT REMAIN SILENT FOR CUBA.
The people of Cuba are not asking for charity, they are not asking for pity, they are not asking anyone to fight their battles, they are asking for something far more basic:
The Cuban people are asking for the right to live.
The right to heal, the right to feed their children, the right to care for their elderly, the right to develop their nation in peace, the right to determine their own future free from coercion and foreign interference, the right to wake up in the morning without wondering what new hardship an unjust policy will bring.
Cuba does not ask the world to love her. Cuba asks the world to respect her. To respect her sovereignty. To respect her right to self-determination. To recognize the humanity of her mothers, her children, her workers, her elderly, and her families.
Because behind every U.S. policy toward Cuba there is a grandmother waiting for medicine, a child waiting for treatment, a family struggling to survive, a mother hoping that tomorrow will be better than today. From one mother to another, from one daughter to another, from one woman to another.
I beg the world: Look at us. Hear us. See us.
Choose humanity, choose compassion, choose justice, and choose peace!
END THE ECONOMIC BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA!
Reject collective punishment! Reject any military intervention! Reject any policies of suffering!
Let Cubans decide their own future. Hands Off Cuba!
LET CUBA LIVE!
