Dignity, courage of Cuban 5 inspired fellow prisoners

Below is an excerpt from an interview with Roddy Rodríguez in Voices From Prison, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. Rodríguez served time in prison alongside Cuban revolutionary René González in Florida. He describes how he was transformed through his relationship with René. González and Gerardo Hernández, Rámon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González were known as the Cuban Five. Framed up by the FBI in 1998 for monitoring counterrevolutionary Cuban groups in Florida to prevent violent attacks on Cuba, they received harsh sentences. René González was released in 2011 and the last three were freed and returned to Cuba in 2014. The dignity, courage and discipline of the Five in prison, along with the struggle mounted by the people of Cuba, their revolutionary government and the solidarity of millions worldwide, made this possible. Copyright © 2014 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

INTERVIEWER EDMUNDO GARCÍA: Roddy [Rodríguez] was in the same prison with the Cuban antiterrorist fighter and Hero of the Republic of Cuba, René González. For several years, between 2004 and René’s release in September 2011, Roddy got to know René, and this left an imprint on his life.

How did you meet René?

RODRÍGUEZ: I arrived at the Marianna prison in 2002. In 2004 a hurricane destroyed the place and the National Guard took us out. After two months, I was part of the first group that went back. The next day a group was brought in from another prison, and René González was among them.

I was introduced to him by a fellow Cuban who said, “Hey, man, let me introduce you to the spy.” Everyone there called them “spies” — that’s the way it was and they accepted that. It’s what they were accused of, even though they were never involved in espionage.

That’s how I met René, and I can truly tell you it has been one of the friendships that changed my life the most.

I was raised in a home where there was a lot of hostility toward the government of our country. Today I thank God that my thinking is completely different.

I believe in God, and in prison I was seen as the one who brought in religion. I have to tell you that so you’ll understand what follows.

When I first met René, right off the bat I told him that I believe in God. I expected René to take me on, to start arguing with me.

What happened? He replied, “That’s great. I don’t. But I believe that a true Christian will want the best for humanity, and if my friendship with you helps you become a better Christian, I’ll be very happy.” That had a tremendous impact on me.

So that’s how our friendship began. We lived two cells apart. We weren’t cellmates because we each had too many things —especially books — to fit in the same cell. We would see each other whenever the doors were opened, except when René went running. It wasn’t easy to keep up with him — he ran a lot.

It was my relationship with René that began changing the way I thought. I began to see things for myself, and eventually I was convinced.

In prison I met people from different countries — out of respect, I don’t want to mention which ones — and it pained me to notice that some couldn’t read or write. Then I thought about the Cuban people — even those who are here — and I told myself, “Wow, there’s not a single one who doesn’t know how to read! I come from a country that’s been blessed.”

Now I understand all the positive sides of Cuba that I didn’t see before. And all that I began to understand thanks to René.

René is a man of principles, like all of the Five. He would tell me, “Principles have no price, because whoever has them won’t sell them, and whoever sells himself doesn’t have principles.” I believe their principles have helped make them popular and respected in the prisons they’ve been in.

I’ll never forget the time René got me a book of Bible stories from the library. He asked me, “Would you like to read this book together?” It was in English — I can read English but he reads it well — and he began to translate it into Spanish. We read the whole book — the story of Abraham, everything.

Things like that made me realize René was not some fanatic, that he was true to his principles. He lives up to what he says. You can tell him what you think, without upsetting him. He respects your ideas. “You have the right to say what you think,” he’d always say. “Just as I have the right to think as I do.”

GARCÍA: Did other prisoners have the same respect for him?

RODRÍGUEZ: I think everyone did. I’ll never forget this young Black guy, his cellmate, who composed a rap song with a political theme about the US and sang it for everyone in the yard where we held events on special occasions like July 4 or Christmas Eve. I can’t tell you exactly what his political ideas were, but I think perhaps he was inspired by his relationship with René, by coming to understand the cause of the Five. Many people didn’t know what was happening around the Five and when they learned they were surprised. We even had a T-shirt made with the symbol of the Five and the star from the Cuban flag. …

GARCÍA: Were some of the Cubans in Marianna hostile to René?

RODRÍGUEZ: You might say they weren’t so much hostile to René as they were to themselves, because they said things in his presence that could hurt, or shock. For example, someone, I don’t remember who, said one day, “My mother went to Havana for cataract surgery and she had to bring her own towel and sheets.”

Well, like Peter in the Bible, who marched forward sword in hand, I always spoke first. “Really,” I said. “And how much did she have to pay for the operation?”

“She had to bring her own sheets. It would have been an outrage if they had charged her,” he replied.

“You’re right,” I said. “When we took my father to the Beraja Medical Institute in Miami for cataract surgery, we didn’t have to take towels or sheets. But they charged him $1,200 for each eye. I don’t know how many boxes of sheets you could buy with that. Would you rather bring sheets or pay $2,400?”

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