Vol. 79/No. 16      May 4, 2015

Antonio Guerrero is one of five Cuban revolutionaries who spent some 16 years in U.S. prisons after being framed up by Washington. Since December all five have been back in Cuba after the victory of an international campaign to free them.

The April 11 opening was chaired by César Sánchez of the July 26 Coalition, a Cuba solidarity group that helped organize the event.

Jan Hanvik, executive director of the Clemente, welcomed the more than 70 participants, saying he was “inspired by Guerrero’s paintings.” The center offers a space for art and culture “not often found in other galleries,” he said.

Miguel Trelles, a resident artist and member of the center’s board, spoke about Clemente Soto, a poet and Puerto Rican nationalist in the 1930s and ’40s, himself framed up and jailed for several years. Trelles noted the ties between the fight for independence for Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, and for Cuban sovereignty.

Pointing to the “transformative power of art and the need to communicate,” Trelles said it’s remarkable “that a nonartist in a prison cell — an environment that has become very commonplace for people of color, a sad reality of this democracy of ours — could produce art in regular daily life.”

Cuba’s socialist revolution

“These paintings are not about the past but about today,” he said. He noted the ongoing work by Guerrero and his four comrades — Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González — to advance Cuba’s socialist revolution.

That includes the fight to end the brutal U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, Koppel said. “And that’s our fight too — right here in the United States.”

Alejandro Molina spoke about the campaign to free Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican independence fighter jailed in the U.S. for 34 years. “Oscar would be present at a gathering like this if he were free,” Molina said.

Fernando González of the Cuban Five shared a prison cell with López for four years. A display at the exhibit includes López’s painting of González and his wife Rosa Aurora Freijanes.

For half a century López has fought to change “the situation of Puerto Ricans in the U.S and the colonial status of Puerto Rico,” Molina said, urging everyone to join a May 30 march in New York to demand his freedom.

Ben Jones, a well-known artist from New Jersey, read parts of comments by Guerrero after he was freed, hailing “the victory that the Five are back in Cuba still doing revolutionary work.”

“There is nothing like a self-taught artist,” he said. They “create consciousness that penetrates the veil of reality we live in under a commodified, corporate-controlled society. The artist’s purpose is to get at the truth.”

Kathleen Paolo from the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals also spoke.

A message from Alicia Jrapko, a leader of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5, thanked the Clemente. “As long as the official policy here [in the U.S.] is one of regime change,” she said, “our work is not done.”

Speaking live from Cuba, María Eugenia Guerrero said her brother’s watercolors were “a necessary means of resistance to let the world understand who the Cuban Five are.”

With help from fellow inmates, Tony taught himself to paint, she said. Through his paintings he showed what happened at the trial and how the Five “were defending the Cuban people against terrorism” by counterrevolutionary groups in the U.S. The paintings helped win the jury of millions that paved the way for their freedom. Tony worked with other prisoners to organize art shows by them as well, she said.

As soon as María Eugenia stopped speaking, Iris Baez, one of three leaders of Parents against Police Brutality in the audience whose sons were killed by cops, leapt to her feet to say “how glad we are the Five are back with the families. It was a victory.” She was joined by Hawa Bah and Juanita Young.

“We’d like to meet you in Cuba,” added Young, standing beside Baez. María Eugenia replied, “We’re waiting for you here with open arms.”

Along with Mirta Rodríguez, Antonio’s mother, she also responded to comments by others, including Mary-Alice Waters, editor of Absolved by Solidarity who had recently been with them in Cuba to launch the catalog, and Nelli Moctezuma from Caravan 43, which is fighting for justice for 43 students disappeared by the Mexican police.

Also taking part in the opening was Ike Nahem of the July 26 Coalition; leaders of Casa de las Américas; People’s Organization for Progress; health care workers from SEIU1199; and United Day Laborers of Woodside.

The exhibit at the Clemente is open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. through May 2.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home