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Four
years since Ramón has seen his three little girls
“HE’s
always good to everyone else, even though the pain is killing
him,” affirms Holmes Labañino, Ramón’s father. One of
the five Cubans arrested in Miami for infiltrating terrorist
organizations in order to advise Cuba of activities planned
against the island, Ramón was given a life term plus
additional years in the United States.
Studious,
hard working, the eldest of four brothers and with a Golden
Diploma in Economics, Ramón told his father, aged 63, to take
good care of himself so that they could celebrate his return
together.
Holmes
Labañino was born in the easternmost part of the island, in
the beautiful city of Baracoa. Even in the capital he has
maintained his attachment to the rural labors of his
birthplace, by converting gardens into works of art in Havana.
Holmes
never knew about the real nature of Ramón’s work in Miami,
as he confirmed in an interview with the National News
Agency, published in the Cuban daily Juventúd Rebelde.
“He
never spoke to me of such things, and I never asked. Since he
was a kid he knew what to do and always did the right
thing.”
Holmes
is convinced that Ramón inherited his artistic inclinations
from his mother, Nereida. Ramón was captured in Miami just a
few months aft his mother’s death. “Those were two tough
blows. Nevertheless, Ramón never lost his equanimity.
That’s another of his virtues.”
In
her youth, Ramón’s mother collaborated with the Rebel Army.
She washed their uniforms, taking them to the mountains by
herself and defying all kinds of danger,” commented Holmes.
“That’s the way she was her whole life, a fighter, until
her death four years ago.”
Holmes
affirmed that his son never complains, but must be dying to
see his wife Elizabeth, and his three daughters. The youngest
is now four, the same number of years since he has seen them.
“They’re his passion.”
He
is convinced that the trial and sentences handed down to his
son and the other four comrades are the product of the
counterrevolutionary frustrations of Miami Cuban-Americans,
given the impossibility of reversing the Cuban revolutionary
process.
Ramón
is well aware that they have done everything to destroy them,
having recourse to the most barbaric and inhumane methods. The
five are in separate facilities spread throughout various
states, in order to increase a distance that cannot be
measured in kilometers. But although they are physically
distanced, their shared ideal cannot be broken.
And
so Ramón sits in a Beaumont prison, wearing his prison
uniform with the same honor and pride as a soldier wears his
most precious decorations, as he reaffirmed in his sentencing
trial statement. |
