Despite having been born in a splendid city full of magic like HavanaI only know its streets through the experiences of others, through photographs and books about their stories and traditions. Another achievement of the revolution. For those of us who were born there and came as children, we are left with some images, including smells that fade over time due to absence. The children of Cubans who were born outside the enchanted island, not even that. Fidel Castrowhich produced prisoners, executed people and exiles in industrial quantities, made sure that this was the case.
I live fascinated by the poetic names of streets such as Amargura, Desamparados, Lamparilla, alleys honoring conquerors, squares in honor of saints evoking their spirituality, avenues with musical names, but it was not until 1999 that I discovered Tamarindo Street.
The tamarind seed, legend says, is the story of a slave sentenced to death on the island of Barbados. The sentence dictated that he should be hanged from a tamarind tree. To show his innocence, I swear that it would be the tree that would vindicate him. After his death, the seeds of the tree would have the shape of his face. At least that’s what legend says, showing that there are absolutes, like good and evil.
An insignificant street in Havana demonstrated this to Fidel Castro. On June 7, 1999, a fast began in a humble home located at number 34 Tamarindo Street between 10 de Octubre and Rabí. Under the motto of “Life and Freedom for all political prisoners” a noble woman, declared opposition, known as Migdalia Rosado, opened the doors to anyone who wanted, for 40 days, to fast in favor of such a noble cause. She did it without asking for money to fix her home, she did it without guarantees that she would not go to prison, she did it out of the firm conviction of choosing good over evil.
When we asked him from here what he needed, he only said packets of broth to keep those who were fasting fed. At the press conference that took place to announce that the fast would last 40 days, for the then 40 years of suffering and human rights violations to which the Cuban people were subjected, Dr. Oscar. Elías Biscet, one of the organizers added: “It will be a symbolic fast so that God grants the requests of our hearts.”
Incredibly, brave opponents, opportunists, security agents began to join and even Francisco Aruca, spokesperson for the regime in the heart of the exile with a radio program paid for with the profits from the granting of charter flights to the island, received instructions to travel and be present, to try to discredit, before the foreign press, the fasting people.
Fidel Castro’s indignation was such that he even counted the calories ingested and added invented delicacies as part of the fasting diet. His reasons were obvious, that year, in November, the IX Ibero-American Summit would be held in Havana and the host of the summit of the very white skunks did not want anything to spoil his party.
What would normally have ended with a raid by special troops was allowed to conclude after 40 days with a press conference on July 16. The fast had transcended the walls of Tamarindo 34 and had spread throughout the island. Miami showed solidarity and Washington knew about it through congressmen Iliana Ros Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz Balart before the plenary session of the Lower House, where they urged other members of congress to show their solidarity.
We managed to enter Cuba with the recently published book of my authorship on the political thought of Jorge Mas Canosa and in that small pocket of temporary freedom the words of Jorge Mas Canosa were heard in the voice of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet. The now missing Cuban, undisputed leader of the exile, was present on that island for which he had perpetual love and was never able to see freedom.
Such was the obsession of Fidel Castro, that he had his agents infiltrated among the 100 or more participants inform him to stammer for hours in detail the details: “At 9:00 p.m. they took broth of substance”, “another day: they remained drinking vitaminized milk, yogurt, concentrated chicken broth, soda and spirulina juice.” He reported who reported who entered and left Migdalia Rosado’s home with the precision of one of the thousand battles in which he never took part. “Migdalia Rosado and Rolando Muñoz Yyobre stayed at the house at the end of the fast. Interesting data, right? In those 40 days, 54 correspondents from 21 foreign agencies visited the fasting people, some more than once, and five members of the United States Interests Bureau.” The dementia that was already visible in the commander led him to proclaim the nutritional list that he himself invented when he said: “One thing is missing: Calories ingested by fasting people: 4,017 per person, more than weight lifters, proteins, 262.27 grams , fats 111.82 grams, carbohydrates 597.93 grams.” This is how altered the dictator’s mind was by the fast that a simple and simple woman named Migdalia Rosado achieved by opening the doors of her home on Tamarindo Street.
25 years have passed since that historic milestone that showed the value of the participants and the protection that press coverage can give to victims. Nothing has changed on the private estate of the Castros and their hitmen. If we counted the calories ingested according to the size of their respective bellies, it would be 100 times more than what Fidel Castro accused the fasting people of Tamarindo 34.
Migdalia Rosado has just died in Miami, the result of cancer that had already invaded her body. When I went with her great friend Iliana Curra to visit her a few days before she died, she showed no pain or anguish, just her happy and genuine smile, I imagine the same one with which she opened the doors of Tamarindo 34. “I love you always” she told us. Thus she ended her life at the age of 81, this heroine who faced a fierce dictatorship with the conviction of the slave who wanted to show her innocence. She did it simply because there is a conscience in those who have it. The one that makes you discern between good and evil.
