New Breed of Cuban Dissident Finds Changed Miami

New Breed of Cuban Dissident Finds Changed Miami
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: March 31, 2013

MIAMI — Yoani Sánchez, the Cuban dissident whose trenchant blog and
Twitter posts have made her a cause célèbre for democracy on the island,
lingered on the edge of the sea wall at La Ermita de la Caridad, Miami's
shrine for Cuban exiles, and looked toward home.

"Me siento como en Cuba pero libre," said Ms. Sánchez, summing up her
first day in Miami last week. "I feel like I'm in Cuba but free."

With that, Ms. Sánchez officially cemented her bond with the old guard,
the city's Cuban exiles.

On Monday, despite her anticipated return to Cuba and her opposition to
the economic embargo, Ms. Sanchez will take the stage at the Freedom
Tower downtown — a haven where hundreds of thousands of Cubans in the
1960s and 1970s were first processed as refugees and handed slabs of
industrial cheese and Spam. Among those expected to greet her will be
veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion — standard-bearers of
the dwindling hard-line generation — and the newest Cubans, those who
see increased contact with the island as a path to progress.

It was not too long ago that Cuban-Americans here rolled out the red
carpet only to defectors who disavowed their homeland and stayed in
America. But Ms. Sanchez, a journalist who will return to Cuba to join
her husband and son, has offered up an alternative narrative for both
the disenchanted in Cuba and the hopeful in Miami, one forged over the
Internet.

"This is transcendent," said Eduardo J. Padrón, the president of Miami
Dade College, which is sponsoring the event, recalling his own arrival
at the Freedom Tower as a 15-year-old. "There is incredible agreement
here that she symbolizes the voice of a free Cuba. Her visit has proved
that all of us can agree, regardless of the means, on the ultimate goal."

Ms. Sanchez said in an interview Friday that the warmth of the welcome
she has received here has exceeded her expectations. "I am finding Cuba
outside of Cuba," she said, in Spanish. "I was raised in Cuba and
indoctrinated that the exiles were the enemy, that they had betrayed the
country. And here I am, seeing Cubans preserving Cuba, preserving the
culture, the history, the music."

Working from her Havana apartment, Ms. Sanchez, 37, has spent years
writing dispatches on the island's stifling contradictions, the
absurdities of everyday life under the Communist system and the lack of
freedom and human rights. The Internet and the USB drives that Cubans
use to share information have been her chief ally.

She named her blog Generación Y, a nod to Cubans her age who were given
names beginning with Y at a time when the Soviet Union held greater sway
over the island. The blog receives millions of hits a month, the vast
majority from people outside the island because Cuba restricts Internet
access. She also has 459,000 Twitter followers.

Ms. Sanchez has been arrested, detained, beaten and harassed for
speaking out against prohibitions on freedom of expression and freedom
of the press. She is fond of saying that the rights of citizens are not
gifts from the government but, as the phrase makes clear, "rights" that
are inherent.

For five years, Ms. Sanchez tried to obtain permission to travel outside
of Cuba but was denied until now. President Raúl Castro recently
eliminated travel restrictions for many Cubans and the government chose
to grant her permission to travel, too. Her 80-day tour has brought her
to three continents, where she has given speeches and received a string
of awards and recognitions.

Rosa de la Cruz, one of Miami's most prominent art collectors, said that
two years ago she dedicated a room in the museum-like building that
houses the de la Cruz Collection to videos of Ms. Sanchez. The
collection also hands out copies of Ms. Sanchez's book, "Havana Real."

"She is a positive person, not a negative one," said Mrs. de la Cruz,
who supports the economic embargo but also views the push for human
rights in Cuba as paramount. "And it's important to be positive. It has
been very difficult for her to do this in Cuba. And she has said if she
had to do it again, she would do it again."

Natalia Martinez, the communications director for Roots of Hope, a
network of 4,000 young professionals who work to help young people in
Cuba, said Ms. Sanchez spoke often about the need for a diversity of
opinion and emphasized the importance of empowering Cubans on the island.

Technology is one way to punch a hole, Ms. Sanchez says often. So she
asks for a flood of cellphones and USB sticks and other devices.

"She addresses the fact that there is a lot of hurt, a lot of pain,
associated with the Cuba issue, and she doesn't dismiss it," Ms.
Martinez said. But, she said: "Cuban-Americans have more opportunities
to be involved in Cuba now than they had before, and Yoani has come to
symbolize some kind of joint agency between them. That resonates here."

Ms. Martinez added, "She is focused on building a narrative about the
future."

Over the weekend, though, Ms. Sanchez grappled with a far less ambitious
agenda: She spent time in Miami with her sister, her brother-in-law and
niece. It has been two years since her sister left Cuba for Miami.

"For two years I haven't been able to hug them," she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/us/yoani-sanchez-cuban-dissident-welcomed-in-miami.html?_r=0