Rally urges a free Cuba

Rally urges a free Cuba
Armed with Cuban flags, supporters of democracy take to the streets in
Orlando.

Sandra Pedicini | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 7, 2006

Although relatively small, the crowd was boisterous and colorful.

Marchers wore and waved the red, white and blue of the American and
Cuban flags.

They chanted "Libertad" and "Cuba si, Castro no." They carried signs
with slogans such as "Castro no mas!" and "Beginning of the end." Some
wore Cuban flags over their shoulders. Karina Gonzalez, 6, wore a shirt
that proclaimed, "I love You Cuba."

There were children in strollers, and women under umbrellas to shield
them from the blazing sun.

A blue SUV with a banner that read "Viva Cuba Libre" and a driver who
repeatedly honked its horn led the marchers from near Orlando City Hall
to Lake Eola Park, where the crowd listened to musicians and speakers.
Some people stood and danced onstage holding Cuban flags. A man gave out
bumper stickers saying, "Democracy for Cuba."

"We want to say from Orlando, Florida, we are with the people in Cuba,"
said Rene Plasencia, who organized the march. Plasencia, 64, escaped
from Cuba more than 40 years ago.

"We hope one day to be liberated, and it will be a free country."

Some of the marchers grew up in Cuba. Others were babies when their
parents fled, or hadn't been born yet.

And some were not of Cuban descent, such as Latino Leadership's
president Marytza Sanz.

"I think it was my obligation," she said. "We are all here as a family,
different nations."

Many people expected that the island will move toward democracy, though
they disagreed about the speed with which that will happen.

Fidel Castro, 79, temporarily handed power to his brother, Raul, a week
ago while he reportedly underwent urgent treatment for intestinal bleeding.

"We'll free our own country," said Margaret Alexandra Davis, 54, who was
born in Cuba but left as a child. "It will be like Berlin -- the wall
will come down."

Dolores Echegoyen's parents left Cuba in 1960, before she was born. Now,
"my Dad is all happy, jumping up and down," said Echegoyen of Altamonte
Springs.

Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or
407-322-7669.

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