March echoes a cry out of Cuba

Posted on Mon, Sep. 04, 2006

MIAMI
March echoes a cry out of Cuba
One local social justice group dons white to garner attention for
political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba.
BY BREANNE GILPATRICK
bgilpatrick@MiamiHerald.com

They gathered on the steps of La Ermita de la Caridad shrine and began
to walk in silence. They wore white from head to toe. In one hand they
carried white gladiolas. In the other, umbrellas.

About 10 women from Women for Human Rights International wanted their
one-mile walk to Bayshore Drive to resemble the weekly walks of Las
Damas de Blanco. Every Sunday, since 2003, Las Damas de Blanco have
attended Mass at the Santa Rita church in Havana's Miramar neighborhood.
After the service they walk peacefully through the streets, flowers in
hand, displaying photos of loved ones languishing in Cuban prisons for
dissenting with the country's totalitarian regime.

During Sunday's ''Walk for Dignity & Freedom,'' in Coconut Grove, Women
For Human Rights International joined Las Damas de Blanco, or The Ladies
in White, in calling for provisional Cuban President Raúl Castro's
unconditional release of the country's political prisoners. On July 31,
Raúl's brother Fidel temporarily ceded power to Raúl while he recovers
from surgery.

Women For Human Rights International was founded in Miami in 1988 to
fight for social justice around the world.

Like Las Damas de Blanco, the group hopes national and international
communities will urge the Cuban government to grant amnesty to political
prisoners. Organizers hope Sunday's walk will be the first of many
solidarity walks to be held at least once a month, said Mariví Prado,
president of Women for Human Rights International. The next walk will
begin in downtown Miami, at a date yet to be announced, said Prado, who
also is a founding member of the group.

''We just want to show them that in respect to solidarity we want to do
the same act they're doing on Sunday,'' she said. ``We may not be able
to do it every Sunday, but we want to do it at least once a month.

The timing of the walk ties in with the recent leadership change in
Cuba. And the group wants the focus of the walk to be on the women in
Cuba as much as on the political prisoners they're walking for, said Ana
Maria Ferradaz.

''In a way we are marching for them as well,'' said Ferradaz, 25. ``Not
only for their dissident husbands, but for their own rights.''

And Prado explained that the purpose of Sunday's walk wasn't limited to
solidarity and the release of political prisoners. It also was intended
to draw attention to a broader feminist agenda in Cuba.

''We want to attract attention with this solidarity walk to the risks
and danger that these women are facing,'' Prado said. ``But then going
beyond Las Damas de Blanco. . . we seek to tell the world the truth
about the lack of a feminist agenda in Cuba.''

Sunday's steady rain could not deter some walkers.

''Those women are very brave to be doing what they do,'' said
33-year-old Babelyn González, wearing a white sundress. ``And if there's
anything we can do to show our support, we're going to do it, even if it
means walking in the rain.''

The group feels it's important to highlight the work of Las Damas de
Blanco as a way to publicize their efforts, Prado said.

''They're under a lot of harassment and threats and yet they seem to be
invincible,'' she said.

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