Courage behind bars: María Cristina Garrido

Original statement by María Cristina Garrido from prison.

Today, November 27, María Cristina Garrido turns 43 years old. She is the National Executive Director of the Republican Party of Cuba and has spent four years in prison for her commitment to freedom and justice. From behind bars, a message from her reaches us—filled with courage, dignity, and patriotism; a reminder that, even in chains, there are voices that cannot be silenced.

It is no coincidence that this message arrives on November 27, a date marked by one of the most painful episodes in our history: the execution of eight medical students in 1871, victims of hatred, arbitrariness, and colonial repression. Those innocent young men paid with their lives the price of thinking, of being suspected of freedom, of refusing to submit.

Today, a century and a half later, injustice still operates through the same mechanisms, with the same executioners and the same victims: more than ONE THOUSAND Cuban political prisoners who refuse to live on their knees.

María Cristina, from her cell, becomes the contemporary echo of those young men; living proof that repression changes centuries, but not its essence. Like them, she confronts a power that fears the truth. Like them, her struggle will transcend captivity.

This November 27, the memory of the executed students and the resistance of María Cristina Garrido intertwine: both stories remind us that Cuba still owes justice, and that its freedom is written with the names of those who do not surrender.