Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón

"Let's go to the year 1995. It was the 27th of September 1995 and I was working on the railroad when State Security agents turned up there. They took me and transported me to prison in Cienfuegos. They did that simply for the pleasure of it. If I had been involved in anything, I would peacefully tell you about it. There they kept me for about a week. And do you know what? I will tell you about it straight out. I shat myself... They tossed me into solitary, it was full of mosquitoes, I got such a portion of food, and they told me I would stay there for thirty years and I do not know what all. Just like that. After a week, it suddenly ended. Do you know why that happened? Because my brother-in-law signed up for a program for people who had been persecuted because of their political opinions. Apart from himself, he also listed me on that form as a political prisoner. Afterwards, he sent it to the Embassy of the United States in Havana, but State Security read those letters of course. When they saw my name there, they arrested me. 'That's how it is when you cooperate with your brother-in-law.' And I asked: 'And that's some kind of crime?' – 'And what else should it be?' Bárbaro Morales responded to me like that… there were several of them there… Sergio Súarez here from Aguada de Pasajeros, an officer who now works for the Interior Ministry. They interrogated me and said: 'So, Padrón wants to flee the country. That's treason!' And I admit that I shat myself. Finally they told me that I have to sign some declaration that I would not get involved in any counter-revolutionary activities. As I said, I was afraid. So, I signed it. And it was the year 1995 at the time, and I was not involved in anything. The whole thing was about my brother-in-law listening too loudly to Radio Martí. But that was his problem. I listened also, but quietly. So, as I said, back then, I simply shat myself because of them.“

"My father gave up his planned participation in an uprising against the dictatorship and got married to my mother after just a few months. But what was behind that? Mother's family was firmly connected with the revolutionary 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro. Both my grandfather and uncle belonged to it, too. So, my father saw it as an opportunity to get out of the sights of the revolutionary authorities. It is worth noting that my father's father, i.e., my grandfather Aureliano... I managed to meet him before he died, was able to get false papers for my father and change his name. My father's real name was Afortunado Almarales Arévalo. So, grandfather changed his name at the office of some lawyer or notary. It was at the time of the victory of the Cuban Revolution and father became Bernardo Arévalo Ginard, which is the name by which the locals know him. And for that reason, my name is also Bernardo. But in reality I should be Almarales and the Almarales family are anti-communists." ["Why did your grandfather decided to change your father's name?"] "He feared persecution. My father had taken part in the fight against the dictatorship. He was directly involved in some battles. I am telling this now because father is already dead and they cannot take anything from him in this case. Still, before the revolution, he managed to detain one young man... and this is something I am telling on camera for the very first time, I have never really spoken of it. So, my father detained a young man who looked suspicioius. He was wearing a cloth hat while father was on watch with three other government soldiers. They were moving around a farmstead near to Bayamo. They drove through in a jeep belonging to Army General Fulgencio Batista, stopped that guy, searched him, but did not find anything. As the guy was walking away, my father told him: 'Take off your hat!' And he responded: 'And why?' So he lifted the hat with the tip of his rifle. Nu, and it turned out that below the cloth hat, he was hiding a beret of the 26th of July Movement. They automatically arrested him and took him off to the farmstead. Nu, and that guy... father told me all of this... I will tell it like it is... two days later, he did not wake up alive. So, when Fulgencio Batista's government fell... and at the time nobody knew that precisely my father had arrested the guy... so his father, my grandfather changed his name and told him to pack up and leave, which is what happened. It was the 1st of January 1959 and all of my grandfather's sons were on the run from the province of Oriente. My father did not return there himself for another thirty years."