The year almost over saw many pivotal events in and related to Cuba, and people who shaped them, from the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo to the release of many — but far from all — of his fellow political prisoners.
Here is my attempt to recognize those Cubans who made a difference in 2010.
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6. Patsy Feliciano.
This one is personal for me.
Twice this past year in Tampa, I had the privilege of speaking about Cuban political prisoners and human rights within blocks of where José Martí in the late 1800s recruited support for the Cuban war of independence against Spain. (See here and here for details.)
It would be ridiculous to think I evoked Martí, but both speeches gave me a chance to extend to a new audience the message this blog has tried to send in the more than five years since I started writing about Cuba. And it gave me a chance to step away from the computer to share what I have learned.
For that I am grateful to the organizer of both events, Patsy Feliciano.
A leading Cuban American activist in Tampa, Patsy arrived in the United States in 1980, when she arrived in Florida as a teenager during the Mariel boatlift. (It's an incredible story.)
Patsy and her husband José are friends, but that's not enough to get a spot on this list.
An accomplished educator and administrator at the University of South Florida, Patsy has never forgotten her homeland, helping organize various events in Tampa this year designed to raise awareness of the reality of Cuba today — such as a street march and rally in support of Reina Luisa Tamayo (more about her later on this list) and a screening of "Oscar's Cuba."
Patsy's example, and that of others I have met because of my blogging, illustrate that the cause of Cuban freedom is alive and well in the United States — and not just in Miami and not just among the first-generation exiles who arrived here in the early 1960s.
My Cuba-related activities have been almost exclusively words as written on this blog. Hopefully, I have contributed something to the conversation.
Thanks to Patsy's leadership, I have been able to put some of that passion into action.
Patsy Feliciano
5. Fidel and Raúl Castro.
The dictators are on this list not because they did anything special this past year — except, in Fidel's case, to remind us he is still alive; and in Raúl's case, that he cares not for reform but to do whatever is neccessary to keep the family business in power.
Their presence on this list also reminds that the struggle for Cuban freedom has a ways to go to achieve success.
The dictators.
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Read about others on the list, here.
Stay tuned for the rest of the list in coming days. I welcome your ideas on who should — or shouldn't — be on the list. Leave the comments here, on Twitter @marcmasferrer or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UncommonSenseCuba.
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