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Gentile History of a Prisoner
By Olga Connor

Published by El Nuevo Herald on September 6th, 2005.

It was a labor of persistence and determination, an act which twice had to be postponed, but which took place despite whatever consequences would come. It was the presentation in Miami of Regis Iglasias Ramirez work, Historias gentiles antes de la Resurrección (Old Blues & Tomorrow Songs). A poet, a prisoner of conscience, an activist which believed in tomorrow; this author was one of the ones who collected signatures for the Varela Project on the streets of Havana.

When the event had to be suspended in the University of Miami due to Hurricane Katrina, the Directorio Democratico Cubano, which maintains broad ties with the dissidents on the island, leant its offices in Southwest Miami to host the event. Those gathered there heard Janisset Rivero which is the organization’s adjunct National Secretary, José M. González Llorente, of the Biblioteca de la Libertad (Library of Liberty), William Navarrete, president of the Sociedad por la Tercera República (ATREC)(Society for the Third Republic) in París, which wrote the book’s Prolog, and the poet and journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, recently freed from Cuba’s political prisons.

González Llorente spoke of the labor of smuggling a manuscript through the prison gates and walls of Castro’s gulag, work carried out anonymously by a network of family members, friends and contacts abroad. He also lauded the courage of the 36 year old poet, which was imprisoned along with 74 other dissidents in the Cuban spring of 2003 – condemned to 18 years in prison.

Into Navarrete’s hands came the manuscript, and he took it upon himself to convert it into book form. Writing the prologue entitled Tras las rejas (Beyond the Gates) he sought the help of Ernesto Lozano to design the cover. Lozano, a Cuban painter residing in Mexico City who represents the ATREC there, was he himself the one who smuggled the manuscript out of Cuba.

“A long and winding road have these verses taken since their author, behind the gates of the Cuban jail Ariza – launched them like a message in a bottle liberating them from the cage to which they seemed confined. From Havana, to Mexico, to Paris, to Miami, from these four symbolic cities all the way to Cadiz, cradle of liberty, the poetry has worked its magic.” Stated Navarrete as he read his prologue to those gathered at the presentation.

Rivero recounted anecdotes of the imprisoned poet. “I’m a witness to his actions” she said, “we were the same age. In the 80’s he was a long haired punk rocker. Before Fr. Loredo left Cuba, he heard his testimony and this caused him to question the political reality surrounding him – he drew close to Osvaldo Paya of the Christian Movement Liberation… Today he is isolated, locked up, in protest he refuses to go out in the sun, even as his health deteriorates.

Vazquez Portal arrived at the gathering sick and running a fever, but he could not have stayed away “because Regis has been beaten more severely than I have” He pronounced him to be the real hope of Cubans. He read from Los ojos de mi padre, (The Eyes of my Father), a poem with many meanings, because the father of the prisoner is a journalist on Cuban TV. It is a beautiful work which should be widely distributed in Cuba and in Exile; it presents itself to us as one more link in the long chain of heartfelt pleas from the island.

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