Former political prisoner Gregorio Ariosa talks about prison

Former political prisoner Gregorio Ariosa talks about where he is from in Villa Clara and how he spent nearly 10 years in prison. He speaks about pre-revolutionary Cuba, and the events that led to his desenchantment with the new government.

"My name is Gregorio Ariosa, and I am from a small town called Zulueta, in the Cuban province that used to be called Las Villas, today known as Villa Clara. I am also an ex-political prisoner. I was arrested at the beginning of the decade of the sixties, and spent almost ten years in prison. I consider the Cuban political process is part of history.
First you asked me about pre-revolutionary Cuba. I think that the Batista coup was the event that brought on the Cuban tragedy."

"Batista's coup happened in March 1952, close to an electoral process (elections) and his government de facto gave a motive to Fidel Castro and his 26th of July army to take over. And I think the 26th of July movement was structured as a fascist organization. The fact is that Batista was was responsible for that assassin's takeover. But the Batista govt. did not meddle so much into the citizens' family lives. One could live, even if It was a dictatorship."

"But I was in agreement with the thesis of Marquez Sterling, to look for a solution, which was not to allow Fidel Castro and his army to come down from the Sierra (Maestra) but Marquez Sterling was not able to accomplish that. Fidel Castro was allowed to take power and that revolution was not against the dictatorship of Batista, but against the nation of Cuba, against its institutions, against the family, and it finished with everything. One was forced to join it."

"And that was what gave me a motive to conspire against that system. Do you understand? Their system monopolized everything, it meddled in everyone's lives, repressed everyone.... the executions, the prisons, the discrimination against Cuban citizens. The only ones who were of value were those who submitted to the designs of that dictatorship; those who could lower their heads; those who would accept what was going on there."

Interviewer: "Specifically, which was the first experience that you disliked about that system?"

"The first thing I disliked was their exclusivism, that is, if you were a revolutionary, if you submitted, then you could find a good job, you could study. If not, you were isolated for religious reasons, or because you did not accept them. That was the first thing I disliked. Then, I also disliked the repression, the trials, that is to say, there were trials that condemned people to execution."

"Condemned people without judicial order, without defense lawyers. I was against that rancor and that hate that no one in Cuba knows where it came from. That offended me. I said to myself, there is something bad here. Then, came the confiscations. Because I come from a small town, and saw people working there in their bodegas, in their maize meal factories, and they confiscated them, son. They took their businesses away. Businesses that belonged to families for generations."

"As in the case of a family from the Canary Islands, the Medina family, who worked for generations in their maize meal factory. The government confiscated it, they stole it, they seized it. There was no life there, unless you submitted."
(End)

Translation by hopeforamerika.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• preso político
• tortura
• prisión
• Gregorio
• Ariosa

[GrimmMylene]

Communism/Socialism at it's best. Every AMerIcan should WAKE-UP NOW! Redistrubite the wealth of someone's hard work, to give to someone else???

[lesber2004]

great,digno Cubano.

[EAGLESOAR55]

Mi padre lucho y trabajo muy duro para poder tener su pequeno negocio ..llego los Castros y se apoderaron de todo.

[hopeforamerika]

"As in the case of a family from the Canary Islands, the Medina family, who worked for generations in their maize meal factory. The government confiscated it, they stole it, they seized it. There was no life there, unless you submitted."

(End)

[hopeforamerika]

"Condemned people without judicial order, without defense lawyers. I was against that rancor and that hate that no one in Cuba knows where it came from. That offended me. I said to myself, there is something bad here. Then, came the confiscations. Because I come from a small town, and saw people working there in their bodegas, in their maize meal factories, and they confiscated them, son. They took their businesses away. Businesses that belonged to families for generations."

[hopeforamerika]

Interviewer: "Specifically, which was the first experience that you disliked about that system?"

"The first thing I disliked was their exclusivism, that is, if you were a revolutionary, if you submitted, then you could find a good job, you could study. If not, you were isolated for religious reasons, or because you did not accept them. That was the first thing I disliked. Then, I also disliked the repression, the trials, that is to say, there were trials that condemned people to execution."

[hopeforamerika]

"And that was what gave me a motive to conspire against that system. Do you understand? Their system monopolized everything, it meddled in everyone's lives, repressed everyone.... the executions, the prisons, the discrimination against Cuban citizens.

The only ones who were of value were those who submitted to the designs of that dictatorship; those who could lower their heads; those who would accept what was going on there."

[hopeforamerika]

"But I was in agreement with the thesis of Marquez Sterling, to look for a solution, which was not to allow Fidel Castro and his army to come down from the Sierra (Maestra) but Marquez Sterling was not able to accomplish that. Fidel Castro was allowed to take power and that revolution was not against the dictatorship of Batista, but against the nation of Cuba, against its institutions, against the family, and it finished with everything. One was forced to join it."

[hopeforamerika]

"Batista's coup happened in March 1952, close to an electoral process (elections) and his government de facto gave a motive to Fidel Castro and his 26th of July army to take over. And I think the 26th of July movement was structured as a fascist organization. The fact is that Batista was was responsible for that assassin's takeover. But the Batista govt. did not meddle so much into the citizens' family lives. One could live, even if It was a dictatorship."

[hopeforamerika]

"My name is Gregorio Ariosa, and I am from a small town called Zulueta, in the Cuban province that used to be called Las Villas, today known as Villa Clara. I am also an ex-political prisoner. I was arrested at the beginning of the decade of the sixties, and spent almost ten years in prison. I consider the Cuban political process is part of history.

First you asked me about pre-revolutionary Cuba. I think that the Batista coup was the event that brought on the Cuban tragedy."