Billed “As an evening with
Jimmy Santiago Baca,” the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five held
an extremely successful fundraiser in San Francisco Dec. 11. The event raised
funds for the Cuban Five’s freedom campaign and spread the word of their unjust
political imprisonment in the United States for stopping Miami-based organizations
that have carried out multiple terrorist attacks against the Cuba.
 Jimmy Santiago Baca Photo: Steve Patt |
Since the Cuban Revolution
over 50 years ago, right-wing anti-Castro organizations, with CIA backing, have
financed and trained terrorist cells, murdering and maiming over 3,400 Cubans
and blowing up a Cubana Airlines passenger plane. The Cuban Five’s mission was
to monitor these terrorist cells and warn Cuba of impending attacks. With their brave
sacrifice, they saved two civilian planes from suffering a similar fate as
Cubana flight 455, which was blown up on October 6, 1976. Seventy-three people
died.
The terrorists Luis Posada
Carriles and Orlando Bosch were the architects of that attack. Yet, due to a
deliberate U.S. government refusal to extradite Carriles to Venezuela, where he
plotted the plane bombing, he and Bosch walk the streets of Miami freely, while
the Cuban Five heroes languish in U.S. prisons.
The Cuban Five were
arrested by the FBI, falsely indicted with espionage-conspiracy and related
charges, and tried in Miami, where a fair trial was impossible. After their
2001 convictions, they were unjustly sentenced from 19 years to two consecutive
life terms, exposing the hypocrisy of the U.S. justice system. Recently through
appeal, three of the five were re-sentenced; however, they are still required
to serve long sentences—17 years and 9 months for Fernando González, 21 years
and 10 months for Antonio Guerrero, and 30 years for Ramón Labañino.
Baca, a world-renowned,
Chicano poet and author, learned about the Five recently and has thrown his
support to their cause, spreading the word about their unfair convictions and
imprisonment. Since learning of their case, Baca has headlined two events to
raise awareness and support—one in Colorado Springs and the most recent at the
Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco.
 Photo: Bill Hackwell |
The Friday night event drew
an enthusiastic crowd of almost 200 people to hear Baca and learn of the
struggle of the Cuban Five. The renowned poet shared his passion about freeing
the Five, reading poetry by Antonio Guerrero and Gerardo Hernández, and
selected poems and excerpts from his new novel “A Glass of Water,” which is a
beautiful and moving story about an immigrant Mexican family living in the
United States.
Jack Hirschman, a San
Francisco Bay Area celebrity and former San Francisco Poet Laureate (2008),
read poems written by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five who has become an
amazing poet and artist while incarcerated, and shared his own work as well.
The attendees were also treated to the musical stylings of Ronald Rosario, a
revolutionary musician involved in the Puerto Rican independence movement.
Baca and Hirschman were
featured on an hour-long live Flashpoints program of KPFA Pacifica radio in the
Bay Area, the same evening of the cultural event, reaching tens of thousands of
listeners.
This has been an important
year for the fight to free the Cuban Five. As word of their imprisonment and
fight for justice continues, well-known personalities like Baca truly help the
cause to win their release. Baca is one of many such personalities who have
dedicated their time and talent to get the word out and put pressure on the
U.S. justice system to release the brave anti-terrorist heroes. Others include
Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Martin Sheen, Desmond Tutu, hundreds of Mexican,
British, Canadian, European Parliamentary members and many, many other
organizations and individuals.
