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Monday, July 07, 2014

Another Day Without His Children

Another Day Without His Children / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on July 6, 2014

Today is the second Father's Day that two teenagers will spend without
their dad, like many; they will throw him a kiss through the bars of the
Lawton prison settlement, if the strict vigilance that the dictator
dedicated to Angel Santiesteban doesn't prevent it.

Three guards and some officials, just for him, watch him constantly.
This "common inmate" must be very important to make the Cuban people pay
for such "guarding." Every official costs more than a thousand pesos,
and there are three trios taking it in turn over 24 hours, generation a
cost of more than seven thousand pesos a month, plus the gasoline for
their transportation, and that of the bosses who come daily to check in
person how the guarding of Angel is going.

Also today, there are many dads who will miss the warm kiss of their
children, from the capricious vengeance of a dictator who violently
represses and imprisons all those who fight peacefully for freedom.

Ramón Muñoz, Alan Gross, Jorge Cervantes, just to mention some of the
many political prisoners of the Castro dictatorship, will, like Angel,
spend another day without their children and many of them will spend the
day without their parents.

The dictator brothers will celebrate — with their children and
grandchildren — gobbling and drinking with no limits everything
forbidden to Cubans, while pretending to the world to be everything they
aren't, laughing at the thousands of families separated by the distance
of exile for over half a century.

The mother of his child, along with the Political Police, managed to
imprison him on false charges, all of which accusations were not proven,
not the guilt of her ex-husband — she never proved that anything
happened — rather her own guilt was proved because a false accusation is
a crime and harms the reputation of another person. But the mother of
his son didn't manage to turn her son against his father; he is as
attached to him as ever. Angel will receive the kiss that his son blows
him from a distance, a kiss that will deservedly caress his heart,
because for Angel Father's Day is every day, and his children show how
incredibly proud they are of him.

I lost my father many years ago and the best way I can honor him is to
live the ethical teachings and principles he passed on to me. I know
that he — wherever he is — is proud that I am doing what I'm doing for
Angel.

The Editor

15 June 2014

Source: Another Day Without His Children / Angel Santiesteban |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/another-day-without-his-children-angel-santiesteban/

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