The first of many extraordinary moments in this pivotal year in the history of the struggle for Cuban liberty occurred in January, when the Castro dictatorship granted a furlough to political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya so he could attend the wake for his mother, the inestimable Gloria Amaya González.
We had read and heard reports about the poor health suffered by Sigler and other political prisoners, but from that sad and solemn event came some of the first photographic proof what many of them were suffering right then in the Castro gulag. The images were horrifying.
In the more than seven months since, and in the six weeks since his release from prison on a "medical parole," Sigler's condition has stayed the same, if not worsened. Which is why today he found himself receiving a hero's welcome at Miami International Airport, before being admitted to a hospital to receive the care he so desperately needs.
More images of a very sick man have emerged, and everyone should see them — even if they make you cry. But the photo that best captures today's events is the picture above.
Sigler is a very sick man, paralyzed by the malnutrition that is epidemic in the Castro gulag, and recovery is not certain. The beating he received last week from Cuban police as he and his family demanded an exit visa to leave the island did not help.
Yet today he found it in himself, and in the support and love of those who greeted him at MIA, the power to smile.
At that moment, I am certain, he was feeling the cure-all that is the elixir of the freedom that defines his new — but hopefully only temporary — home.
But he also is very sad, and not just because of the physical pain he might be feeling.
"I feel a mix of happiness and hurt," Sigler said at the airport. "Happiness because this is a free country. A country where in reality human rights are respected. Happiness because this beautiful country has taken me in to try to re-establish my health.
"And hurt because in reality I am a patriot."
Still, Sigler, a former heavyweight boxer, remains in the fight.
"Down with the dictatorship. Down with the Castro tyranny. Down with the assassins Castro," he yelled as the crowd echoed him.
Through our own anger, sadness and shock at seeing his current condition, Sigler's resolves gives all of us reason to smile, too.
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For information on how you can contribute to the Ariel Sigler Humanitarian Fund, to help defray his medical and other expenses, go here or here.
And for photos of Sigler and his extraordinary family in action in the struggle for Cuban liberty, go here.
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