“It hurts me to feel that we are imprisoned on an island that many have forgotten”

During my childhood, born in a Catholic home, my grandmother of Irish origin instilled in me a love of God and prayer, while at school we were politically indoctrinated with the blind veneration of Fidel Castro and communism through hatred and contempt for the Catholic religion.

attend the church of The mercy on Sundays and weekdays, preparing for communion by learning the catechism was an affront difficult for a girl to understand. My grandmother and I resisted the rain of stones and insults when going in and out of The mercywe must have moved several times to the church of the Holy Spirit.

Next to Sister Hopeto brother Raulto the Lady Miriamand to Father Angel Gaztelu, poet of the Orígenes Generation, I learned the Holy Gospel, I took communion and confirmation. I completed four years of catechism, wishing to become a catechist, to give back what I had learned. It was not possible, the persecution of Catholics became more acute. They took us away from the church by force, I also walked away for fear of losing the right to study; over time, disappointed in myself, my cowardice and that of so many around me, even within the church itself, I pushed the helmsman heading to another destination. Yet I never strayed from Godof the virgin maryof Jesus Christof a love greater than wherever I have been has accompanied me and saved me.

In Cuba, new men and women of faith have started a deep conversation with the Cuban people, with their brave sons and daughters. Those priests and nuns have reinstated a firm belief that only from deep values ​​and spirituality will it be possible to move something very deep in the soul of Cubans. It is to be thankful. One of them, Sister NadieskaShe has never abandoned, nor has she been forgotten by those who remember her from exile, she is very loved from within by those who benefit from her wonderful work in the daily ardor of the island: joining forces so that the future of freedom be closer every day. If I would like to hug someone first if I ever return to my country, it would be her.

–I have read several of your writings and I notice in them a great sense of responsibility about the reality in Cuba, and about justice, at the same time I sense a claim through spirituality. Do we Cubans need to observe and measure the situation in which they live, inside or in exile, also find refuge in spirituality?

–For me praying with reality is key, I do not write anything if it is not under the gaze of God and it is from that praying experience that helps me discern what I should ask for, claim, defend.

I would not call it a refuge, I am convinced that it is there where we find, or at least I find, the strength and humble wisdom so that neither impotence nor absolute hopelessness takes over, much less the violence that is generated in the face of so much injustice. I know that God has the last word and he will give us the necessary grace and courage for what each moment brings.

–For a few years I have observed a beautiful conjunction between the religious of the country and its people, this could be verified on July 11 and 12, 2021. I think it has to do with a different way in which both priests and nuns have communicated. with the Cubans. Could you give me your point of view?

– This question surprises me and at the same time allows me to respectfully express what I have been thinking for a long time: Each age has its own and it would be an injustice if I do not recognize what other religious men and women, priests, bishops have also done in defense of our people. However, times also change and this moment of ours also carries a high share of closeness, risk, respect for a people that has never been plunged into so much desolation.

I believe that the experience of those who have preceded us and are now older, and want to protect us -that is valid-, but I prefer that they accompany me and us, support us and together with us raise their experimentally prophetic voice and even expected and heard.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that now there is more information due to the use of social networks and this makes it possible for our voices to be heard and also judged or silenced.

–How do you see yourself, as one more Cuban, apart from being religious, with your encomienda before God, within a social-communist society, under a tyranny of more than 64 years?

–I want to rescue the first: One more Cuban, I am fascinated by knowing myself like this, I try to live like this, it is not always easy because one does not go unnoticed, and when they recognize you there are discreet gestures of closeness and affection.

It hurts me to feel that we are imprisoned on an island that many have forgotten

Like any other Cuban, I suffer impotence, fatigue and many times I cry with rage when I see, when I feel the life of the poorest or of those who are impoverished by the system, because it is no secret to anyone that in all societies the poor are always the more lacerated… I am not ashamed to say that many times I have neither the strength nor the courage to start the day, that many times I listen and remain silent because there is no answer for so much suffering, it hurts me to feel that we are imprisoned on an island from which many have forgotten and I do not judge, I am simply one of those who, as a Cuban, as one more, have made the option of accompanying my people, even gropingly, until they see them smile and I am with them.

–I will ask you a question that is perhaps frivolous because it is Almodovorian, it is a question that not only I ask myself, but that many Cubans ask themselves, what have we Cubans done to deserve this? I mean such inhuman punishment. What should we repent of?

–I think we must make it clear that what we are suffering is not something we deserve, it is something imposed by a system that only seeks to crush the human being, which for decades flaunts and abuses an entire nation under a power that emerged from its roots. beginnings with lies and intimidation.

No people deserve to be subjected to suffering that seems to have no end.

In my view, we would have to repent of having allowed fear to take over us and because of that fear we are far from God, not God far from us; we have inverted the values ​​and that irresponsibility is taking its toll on us.

We would have to repent of our lack of courage, courage and unity, if we thought together, if together we looked for alternatives, if we stopped thinking about what could happen to us, our family, and we really dared to claim, to think, express and all this without violence with decorum and dignity, without exclusions, then our society would have the desired freedom that will not come without effort and from within.

The fight to survive is greater than our desire to be free

We would have to regret not believing in our own strength, because I believe that our resilience would make us stand up and on our feet, but the fight to survive is greater than our desire to be free.

-Some relatively young Cubans, installed in that generational comfort that Castroism has inoculated them with, believe that the future solution would be a new socialism for Cuba, because according to them socialism has not truly been built on the island, and now they brand Castroism of a conservative regime… I don’t see it that way, but I would like to know your opinion as a woman, as a Cuban, as a Catholic.

-There are many installed in that way of life, with their obvious earnings in a system that for convenience allows them luxuries that do not even remotely reach the majority of the people.

Socialism is a failed system, they know perfectly well that they live and the rest of us breathe

They know that socialism is a failed system, they know perfectly well that they live and the rest of us breathe.

I think they do not want to recognize that they are not the ones who are going to generate a change, they have not learned from the many mistakes, and even worse, those younger generations do not even know if they really believe in what they say or are simple puppets.

I think that Cuba it needs a system that frees it from having lost thinking for itself, a system that generates values, a system of possibilities for all, without paternalism, where we recover social independence, the desire to work and see our needs compensated with our own effort.

– Do you see any hope in the short term for Cuban society?

–I wish, but I don’t see it, what makes me happy and gives me some hope is that little by little we have been recovering our voice; The social outbreak of 11J 2021 marked the history of Cuba and in the midst of fears, protests and claims continue.

I also believe that, by becoming aware of civic society, it implies that our rights are respected, that no one has to tell us what we have or can do, it is something that had been lost and that we are slowly recovering.

There are lay people who by choice are forming themselves and others inside and outside Cuba so that we think about a possible change and its imminent response.

–Finally, Mother, who is Sister Nadieska, without having to refer to the tell me about your life of normal interviews? Who are you from spirituality, from Cubanness, and from the truth and beauty of God?

–I am a Consecrated, member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.

I am a happy woman, I feel fulfilled as a woman, and having received the vocation has been one of the greatest blessings of my life.

As a Cuban, I deeply suffer everything that my people experience, however, I know that God has given me the power to look with hope and that is what I try to share over and over again.

I am one of those who want to be in my homeland until the end of my existence, I cannot conceive of myself outside of it, I love this island from the depths of my guts and I enjoy my flag as if it were the only one that existed.

I continue to find beauty in the faces from the happiest to the most suffering and every morning I ask for the grace to opt for the good and above all to be a timely gesture and word of God for everyone.

I am also fragile like every human being and I remind myself of it over and over again so that I do not forget that this fragility unites me with each person, that it does not make me better or worse than anyone, I simply like to place myself within the normal, because religious people run the risk of being idealized and that does damage, a lot of damage, I just have a different vocation, but the clay is the same.

My real name is Nadeslida Almeida Miguelalthough they know me by nadieskaAs a teenager, military life caught my attention because of the rectitude that I believed existed within it, by the grace of God and painfully family life turned around and God had another plan for me.

I studied an average Chemistry technician and I was already outlining my life option; at the age of 18 I joined the company of the HC, I have been almost 31 years of consecrated life. Within the Congregation I studied nursing, a difficult but beautiful challenge, I still have friends from that time who were not ashamed of having a nun friend… Together we grew up learning to respect our limits. I am fascinated by being a nurse, it is a personal vocation, which identifies me a lot with the Congregational Charism.

The company has prepared me from the earliest stages and I have served as a Formator, Servant Sister (superior of local communities), Councilor and Provincial Assistant.

I also served three and a half years as president of the Cuban Conference of Religious (CONCUR) that was an immense gift, because it allowed me to accompany the Consecrated life and enrich my spiritual life with the knowledge of the charisms so diverse and so much of the Spirit.

– Thank you very much, Mother.

–Thank you from the bottom of my heart.