“We were trying for the government to change in Cuba. That, and making our society a democratic one, was the goal. Perhaps, we could’ve used a different word than Revolutionary, but we were, in fact, trying for a radical change. It was a change of the whole communist Cuban government. Today, I would probably name it differently, but this is how it happened and I’m still very proud of this Cuban tradition of the Revolutionary Directorate.”
“When we found out that he [Anastas Mikoyan] was going to put a wreath of flowers formed into the hammer and sickle on the Martí’s statue in the Central Park of Havana, we had to act. We called a group of students; we found a wreath formed into the Cuban flag and we brought it there. They knew we were going to be there, so they waited on us in the Central Park. When we arrived, the police were already there, they attacked us, beat us, there were gunshots, even though not one of them was in danger or wounded. Fernando Tres Palacios got hurt there. Then they took one group to the first station. I was taken into the police car.”
“Look, I personally knew a Romanian priest that came to Cuba. I do remember knowing his surname before, it’s just that now I can’t recall it anymore. He had published a book about Marxism, an elaborate one. I read it when I was like 16, that’s why I had this negative feeling against the communism, like almost everybody else. Everyone knew that the communism was going to be against the freedom and against the religion and that it was a totally atheistic movement. That’s what made us oppose it. So that’s why we fought so much to bring the topic of communism to universities, so we could form a strong opposition there and I think we did achieve that.”
“Fidel and Raúl tried to get in; so, they got into the university, and they tried to stop these elections. The others wanted to only have one candidate there and no one else. But the students, they wanted the elections, and they made them happen, so eventually they could be won by Rolando Cubela. Seriously, for us, that was a victory because our goal was to make the elections happen. Castro didn’t want any elections. Their plan was to have no more elections, no more democracy and to be the representation of the regimen, of the government and of everything. That’s why that was a victory for us, that we managed to at least make those elections happen.”
Juan Manuel Salvat Roque was born on March 27th, in 1940 in Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara, the Republic of Cuba. He spent his teen years helping his father doing all kinds of jobs in his little winery in the center of the village. During his studies at the La Salle University, he was already taking part in many activities against Batista’s dictatorship. After the Triumph of the Revolution, many priests and religious organizations, men and women, had to leave Cuba. For that reason, he was forced to move and started studying at the University of Havana. There, he actively took part in the fight against the new government, which came to power on the January 1st of 1959. Over the next years, Cuba was constantly visited by Anastas Mikoyan, a statesman of the old Soviet Union. Many students, including Salvat, didn’t like that and therefore organized a manifestation against the official. This led to Salvat’s expulsion from the university. He emigrated to the USA, but not for too long. He came back again with a fake ID to fight against the Castro’s government. After that he returned to the USA through the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. There he lives until today.
