BY ERNIE MAILHOT
MIAMI - Walfrido Moreno, president of the Alliance of Workers
in the Cuban Community (ATC), a Miami-based Cuban-American
group, died in Havana late in the evening January 31. Moreno,
83, was well known in South Florida and in Cuba as a tireless
defender of the Cuban revolution and its leadership. Only days
before his death from heart problems, Moreno had hosted a
meeting at the southwest Miami offices of the ATC celebrating
the 20th anniversary of the organization and the 40th
anniversary of the Cuban revolution.
José Ramón Balaguer, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Sergio Corrieri, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, were among those attending his funeral February 2. Andrés Gomez of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Miami-based organization of Cuban-Americans who support the revolution, and Rev. Raúl Suárez of the Martin Luther King Center in Havana spoke honoring Moreno's life and contributions.
Moreno moved to the United States from Cuba in the 1940s. During the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s, he was a founder in New York City of the July 26 Movement - the organization headed by Fidel Castro that led the revolutionary struggle in Cuba. Moreno participated in the preparations in Mexico for the Granma expedition.
In November 1956, Castro and 81 other fighters of the July 26 Movement left Mexico aboard the yacht Granma to initiate the revolutionary war in Cuba. By New Year's Day 1959, Batista's forces had been defeated by the columns of the Rebel Army. A government of workers and farmers came to power in Cuba, opening the door to the first socialist revolution in the Americas.
The ATC and the Antonio Maceo Brigade issued a press release about Moreno that pointed to the important role of the ATC under his leadership "in the crucial effort by the progressive sector of Cuban émigre's in the United States in defense of liberty, independence, and the revolutionary process of the Cuban people; for the unconditional lifting of the blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States; for the formulation and development of new and positive relations between Cuban emigrants in the United States and those in Cuba; and for the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. During his years as president, the ATC has maintained a close and fruitful working alliance with the Antonio Maceo Brigade and with Casa de las Américas in New York."
In recent years Moreno was often one of the first to call for public demonstrations in Miami in answer to attacks and threats by rightist groups in the Miami Cuban-American community. This included picket lines in defense of the right of Cuban musicians to appear in Miami and press conferences and rallies for the right to travel to Cuba and against Washington's economic war against Cuba.
A meeting to celebrate the life of Walfrido Moreno is being planned in Miami.
Ernie Mailhot is a member of the International Association of Machinists Local 1126.