Fernando Ginarte Mora

“We are going to the park center to discuss, to lead a dialogue, do you understand? We try to explain even to the young people, who listen to us, who are around us, to explain them, why we disagree with the regime and what we want. Even when the same police officers come looking for us, we just tell them: ‘I fight for you, for your family, for your rights.’ Because those thieves from the Government stole our country, they have stolen our initiative, they have taken everything from us. They have stolen our lives. I will be 52 years old soon, these people stole our lives. So, we explain it to them. In fact, policeman does not have to be corrupted. He does not have to commit as they say. He could live honestly. But in a certain way, things must be done. Then, some recognize that we are as they say - the first step, the opportunity to change the system, into democratic system, where a policeman does not have to mess with people, but rather be a policeman that ensures the tranquility of the people and does not irritate them.”

“And if I remember correctly, when the meeting began, they said that this meeting and those people who were gathered there, well that it was dedicated only for the revolutionaries and that, if among the participants presented at the meeting, someone belonged to an independent association, like ‘Patriotic Union of Cuba’ [Unión Patriótica de Cuba] in this case, that I was a member at that time; or was a dissident, or so called ‘Varelista’ [signatory of Varela Project], he had to leave. So, I preferred leave. I simply asked a permission, firstly, to declare: ‘The author and the creator of this group is me. The one who brought handcrafting to this town, the wood carving, is me, because I was the one who laid the first brick, and I was also the one who brought that kind of work to this town. But in order not to cause problems to other artisans, and if my presence bothers or is a reason for State Security to attack the group, I will leave.’ I wanted to avoid being a cause of attacks, that the other artisans saw me as an enemy, so I just retired. That is what I said. I did not confront them, nothing like that, I left, so they would not boycott my group, and the same craftsmen would not guilt me.”

“In the fifth grade I refused to participate in act of repudiation [acto de repudio] of some Cubans who were leaving the country through the embassy [Embassy of the Republic of Peru in Cuba] in 1980, it was in 1980 when also Exodus Mariel happened. I refused, I did not even go, and I criticized the guys who went there. Because they went to throw eggs at some family. I was living at that time in the Royal Mine, where the Cantinas campsite is currently located. I lived there because my mom divorced my dad, so we lived there. They summoned my classmates, well they did not summon them - they forced them, so they brought some egg cartons, to abash those people.”