 next up we are going to have a reading and it right okay we're gonna sorry we're gonna have a reading by a young woman here in Los Angeles and I will introduce who the reading is by and also who is reading it so the reading is from Alicia Drapko she is co-editor of resumen Latino Americano the US Bureau and co-chair of the National Network on Cuba and she coordinated the committee to free the Cuban 5 and they were freed so amen to that and our reader will be Brenda Lopez and she is a Chicana 25 years old from Inglewood, California she works as a graphic designer at Random Links News but is also an artist and activist and lead youth organizer for the LA Cuba Solidarity Coalition. Thank you for reading. Thank you for having me Rachel and thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences even though it might not be such an easy thing to do. Today I'll be rating Alicia's testimony and I'll start quote this March 24th will mark the 45th anniversary of the bloody military coup in Argentina that killed thousands particularly young people. The coup was a response to people struggling for a better world nothing different of what we are witnessing today. Right before and after the coup I lost some of my best and closest friends. I was studying journalism at the time and the School of Information Science in Cordova, Argentina. There were years of change, effervescence, optimism, joy, possibility and the time for young people to share their dreams. It was this growing movement that posed a threat to the power establishment and they responded with a military coup and everything changed to a period of terror. I still remember to this day those moments of sadness and pain. People disappeared in the middle of the night and were never heard from again. Cars with no license plates would drive around at night and stop people in the street or in buses and disappear them. It was a time of generalized fear where nobody felt safe. In the city of Cordova there was a big Catholic church in the downtown area and next to it was a police station where people were tortured before being sent to concentration camps. We always wondered how the Catholic authorities were capable of remaining silent before such an atrocity taking place right under their noses. At the journalism school, I was part of a student group with four other people. Two sisters, Maria Esther and Mabel, Jose Alberto, who was also Maria Esther's boyfriend and another woman who was afraid and left a group. We became an inseparable group of friends who shared a common political view, but also we had a good time playing guitars, singing songs, going camping, etc. We were far from imagining what was about to come. On May 11th, 1976, Mabel and Jose Alberto were kidnapped in the middle of the night by a police gang and never heard from them again. Along with them were 30,000 people. Then came the exile, the loss of family connection and cultural values, the uprooting and the guilt feeling for what I left behind. Time went by. My three children carry their memory in middle names after Mabel, Jose Alberto and Emma, who was not from the same school but affiliated to a revolutionary organization. I was one of the lucky ones that managed to stay alive to tell the story. What happened during the military dictatorship was nothing more than a barbaric crimes against humanity and changed our lives forever. But the memory of these young people and their example is always with me. To them, I dedicated my life and all the struggles I have been a part of from the moment I left my homeland. Living in the United States, I joined different struggles for peace and justice. I learned that no matter where one lives, the important thing is to engage and change to feel helpful and useful. In the early 90s, I traveled to Cuba with Passers for Peace, caravan challenging the US blockade on Cuba. Lucia's Walker, the leader of Passers for Peace, was an extraordinary human being. I learned a lot from him. The trip to Cuba helped me to visualize what solidarity was all about. It made me realize that Cuba is an example for a better world, so I gladly put a lot of time and energy in working in solidarity with Cuba. Then came the struggle for the return of Elián González to Cuba, a young boy who was rescued at sea after his mother and others trying to come to the US. I saw for the first time Fidel and the entire Cuban people in action demanding the return of Elián. He did return, and it was without doubt the struggle in Cuba and public opinion in the US that made it possible. From 2001 to 2017, I was involved in the struggle to free the Cuban five political prisoners in the US. There were five unarmed agents of the Cuban government who infiltrated and monitored terrorist organizations to protect Cuba against terrorist attacks. Along with my partner, I was able to visit Gerardo Hernandez in US prisons from 2002 until they returned as heroes to Cuba. It has been a long road full of learning experiences since the first time I left my homeland of Argentina. On March 24th, 45 years after the military coup of Argentina, I will always remember those who gave their lives for a better world, and their memory will accompany me forever. Nothing is gained without struggle, and that includes loss. On March 24th, we will join people in Argentina, the mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and people around the world to say never again, we will never forget, but we will never forget either. We continue forward in their honor. End quote, Elisa Characo. Thank you so much, Brenda, and I know, Brenda, that Alicia knows of you from all your work on the NNOC. And this is a good friendship between the two of you. I want to show you, Alicia, I don't know if you are listening, but there is Alicia just victorious after the last of the Cuban five were released and back in Cuba. What a glorious, glorious mistake that Obama made. He had no idea what he was doing, but I'm glad he did it. So thank you so much and