{"id":2145,"date":"2023-03-19T19:40:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T00:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2023-03-19T19:45:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T00:45:35","slug":"plantadas-the-brave-defiant-women-who-have-been-held-as-political-prisoners-in-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/plantadas-the-brave-defiant-women-who-have-been-held-as-political-prisoners-in-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Plantadas: The brave, defiant women who have been held as political prisoners in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Throughout its six decades of terror, the communist Castro dictatorship has been an equal opportunity oppressor, imprisoning women just as easily as men. The film\u00a0Plantadas<\/em>\u00a0tells the story of these brave and defiant women.<\/p>\n

Via the\u00a0Center for a FREE Cuba<\/strong>:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Reflection on the film Plantadas, and the Defiant ones still in Cuba\u2019s prisons today<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Over the past sixty four years the Castro dictatorship has systematically violated the human rights of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Cuba. Between 1959 and 1988 no international organizations were allowed to visit prisons in Cuba. This included the International Committee of the Red Cross. Lilo Vilaplana\u2019s film Plantadas, screened on Sunday at the Miami Film Festival, highlights this chapter of Cuban history, and offers viewers the opportunity to revisit some important works to accompany this important movie.<\/p>\n

In 1995 Ana Rodriguez with the assistance of Glenn Garvin wrote her memoir DIARY OF A SURVIVOR: Nineteen Years in a Cuban Women\u2019s Prison. Ana Rodriguez, a medical student who first conspired against the Batista dictatorship, first welcoming the arrival of Fidel Castro to power she soon became disillusioned and turned against the emerging communist dictatorship. Captured, Ana was sentenced to a 30 year prison sentence for her non-violent dissent in the anti-Castro underground. Over the 19 years she spent in prison, Ana \u201cconsistently defied the authorities\u2019 brutal and at times comically inept efforts to break her will.\u201d She is an example of a plantada, and she was not alone.<\/p>\n

Sadly, there were many others like Ana Rodriguez, Gloria Argud\u00edn and Luisa P\u00e9rez.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The testimony of Luisa P\u00e9rez, another former plantada ( defiant) political prisoner about Cuban prisons in \u201cNobody listened\u201d (1987), a documentary by N\u00e9stor Almendros and Jorge Ulla, is consistent with the testimony of Dora Delgado \u201cJap\u00f3n\u201d on pages. 175-176 of the 2007 book Todo Lo Dieron Por Cuba (They Gave Everything For Cuba) by Mignon Medrano:<\/p>\n

\u2026 Mother\u2019s Day falls on the 14th again. It was a month full of fights with the militia, of beatings, it was a terrible month. On the 6th they came to galley 1 with a list and called Caridad Roque, me and others. As they called, the others said, \u201cHey, save me a good bed, and if there are mangoes, pick one for me,\u201d because we thought we were going to the farm. But when they noticed that they were taking five from here, two from there and four from another place, and they heard the names, they said, \u201cThis smells rotten to us\u2026 that the first transfer to the farm is with these people? \u2026 listen, girls, whatever happens, shout!\u201d \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, at the end of the long and dark corridor, Ramiro Vald\u00e9s himself was waiting for us in front of about 600 men. I could not shout and alert because the galleys were open and they would have launched into a certain massacre. I kept walking, behind me came Pola and noticing my reaction she also hid it. That helped the others do the same. But when those who stayed behind found out that we had been taken to Guanajay with the general prison population, they began to break everything that was within their reach and clang metal objects against the iron bars of the cells that was so loud that it became famous in the history of the prison\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 I would like to add to the story of the escape from Guanabacoa that when the verdeolivos caught us and they dragged us to the galley, they had some long weapons that looked like old muskets, which we began to make fun of. We didn\u2019t know they were gas launchers. They fired them at point-blank range and with the flashes they burned her face, shattered the face of Luisa P\u00e9rez\u2026 It was a tremendous fight, blows come and go\u2026 They burned all of us with flashes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Without giving us medical attention, they threw us into the cells like pigs and several days later they separated us in different places\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 1987 the documentary \u201cNobody Listened\u201d captured Cuba\u2019s human rights reality combining interviews with former political prisoners, including some Plantadas, archival footage of firing squads and other instances of repression. Former prisoners described show trials, extajudicial executions, and cruel and unusual punishment that rose to the level of torture. This is the perfect documentary to accompany the new film, Plantadas and provides historical context to the new movie, and is available online and for purchase on Amazon.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Throughout its six decades of terror, the communist Castro dictatorship has been an equal opportunity oppressor, imprisoning women just as easily as men. The film\u00a0Plantadas\u00a0tells the story of these brave and defiant women. Via the\u00a0Center for a FREE Cuba: Reflection on the film Plantadas, and the Defiant ones still in Cuba\u2019s prisons today Over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-prensa","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2149,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vilaplanafilms.com\/plantadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}