PAYÁ VIVE: Tribute to the life and legacy of Oswaldo Payá. On the 70th anniversary of his birth, Oswaldo Payá will be honored with the screening of the short documentary "The Truth about the Murder of Oswaldo Payá", with a special performance by Eliecer Márquez Duany (El Funky de Cuba), this Tuesday, March 1st at 6:30pm-8:00pm at the 'Cubaocho Museum & Performing Arts Center' located at 1465 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33135.
'11J': A turning point in the repression of evangelicals in Cuba (1). On 11 July 2021 in Cuba, thousands of people of all kinds took to the streets with various demands. It was, so far, the greatest display of the power of civil society in this totalitarian country, where the Socialist State tries to control its citizens as much as possible.
It is impossible to know who exactly the demonstrators were, but some of them are part of the growing community of evangelical or Protestant Christians, who, according to a 2015 survey, represent around 7 percent of the population.
It was the case of Carlos Macías, who lived that day of large anti-system demonstrations in Cuba between two dilemmas. The first was related to his vocation: "to be a pastor of a historic denomination like the Methodist Church, under the stigma that Christians do not participate in politics, and at the same time to want to exercise my civil rights and freedoms as a citizen", he said in an interview. The other dilemma was "between the need to express myself and make use of freedom of thought" and "the fear of the consequences that this could have on a personal level". In another time, as so many Cubans have always done, the pastor might have opted for self-censorship, for staying at home. But that 11 July 2021, known as '11J', something seemed to change.
Cubans Prevented from Protesting in Vatican. Hundreds of Cubans gathered at the Vatican this Sunday to denounce to the Pope the situation that the people of the island are experiencing and get him to pronounce on the matter.
Upon arriving at the gates of the Holy See, Alexander Otaola – who called the demonstration – along with hundreds of Cubans, received the news from the Vatican guard that all could not enter. Several media indicated that the refusal was due to an alleged attack, but the presenter declared to the independent media ADN Cuba that “there was no threat of anything.”