Misael Espinosa

* 1957

  • "For me, the Cuban revolution was above all the greatest disappointment in this entire world because it was hardly a revolution, rather an enslavement of the people. Today people realize they have become slaves. Therefore, if the officials opened the borders now, almost the entire Cuban nation would leave Cuba. I would then require the UN to count the Cubans living in industrialized and developed countries to see how many citizens remained in Raúl Castro's Cuba. I estimate there would be very few left - lame, one-eyed, disabled, the people who can't work."

  • "We did not have a lot of resources, yet the education we got then was more stable, more practical, the children learned more, they knew more. Today education has been quite average for a while. I do not say that lightly, nowaday children in the eighth, ninth, tenth grade, even graduated doctors, do not know basic mathematical operations or multiples. A lot of fourth- or fifth-grade children often can't properly read nor correctly write.”

  • "Fidel is a traitor. The only counterrevolutionary who ever existed is Fidel [Castro]. It wasn't Huber Matos or anyone else, just Fidel. The rebel army was built on ideals which he completely betrayed. The fact that hundreds of members of the rebel troops withdrew from the army his betrayal validates. Some officials left the country, others were imprisoned, and the rest were murdered by Fidel."

  • "My father warned people that this upstart [Fidel Castro] is a bold Foul Mouth, just like his father was, and Cuba can only expect communism from him. He proclaimed these phrases fearlessly. Therefore he was always persecuted, they even arrested him once and wanted to convict him, but in the end, they had to let him go. He had never inclined to the regime. He always repelled it for numerous reasons. The first time, because of the intervention ordered by Fidel [Castro]. The second time when Castro announced that people could no longer eat beef. And the third reason was the imposition of ration coupons, due to which people did not have enough supplies for one single month."

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    Cuba, 27.04.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:51:06
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memoria de la Nación Cubana / Memory of the Cuban Nation
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I do not fight for the money, nor am I interested in the salary. I fight for political pluralism and democracy in Cuba.

Misael Espinosa
Misael Espinosa
zdroj: Post Bellum

Misael Espinosa Puebla was born on May 17, 1957, although his identity card mentions 1959, in the Matías, Arroyón - then in the jurisdiction of the Tercer Frente Oriental. Today it is a part of the Santiago de Cuba province in Cuba. He grew up in a poor peasant family with an anti-communist mindset. His childhood was fortunate. He attended Víctor Ramos Elementary School in Las Bocas, Santiago de Cuba. He graduated from the University of Caney de las Mercedes in 1971 with a degree in teaching. He then completed an internationalist mission to Nicaragua together with a Cuban teacher named Águedo Morales Reina, who was during the mission assassinated. In 1986, Misael demanded his dismissal from the Ministry of Education due to his disagreement with the government policy. Today is a member of several opposition political movements, for instance, the Cuban Patriotic Union [Unión Patriótica de Cuba, UNPACU]. He did not cover a fine, so he was imprisoned by the regime for seven months and 15 days. At the time of the interview in 2021, he lived in the province of Granma in Cuba.