00:00I lost communication with my family.
00:02I stayed in the part where they were all in the closet.
00:07I felt the children screaming in the closet.
00:09And one of the girls told me,
00:11we're going to die.
00:12Every time I feel powerless,
00:15I say to myself, Dias Nurka, get up.
00:17Because there are political prisoners who are in a cell
00:20and can't even have that phone call that I can access.
00:24Because the communists have a total abandonment with our country.
00:30The exiled activists and political prisoners
00:38were often the main livelihood of their families,
00:43who are now in a state of vulnerability
00:46due to the forced and arbitrary absence of their loved ones.
00:50The activist Dias Nurka Salcedo,
00:52exiled in the United States,
00:54shared on social media the images
00:56of how her farm was destroyed in Alquizar,
00:59province of Artemisa,
01:01after the hurricane Rafael.
01:03She also described the despair she felt
01:06when she heard on the phone
01:08the frightened voices of her children and her mother
01:11unable to do anything.
01:13Today we talk to Dias Nurka about this experience.
01:17Yes, it is something that is very difficult to describe
01:21because it has been too strong.
01:23Number one, because you feel that your family is in danger.
01:26I was in contact while I was allowed to communicate
01:32because there was a moment,
01:34and at the right moment, when everything was stronger,
01:37I lost communication with my family.
01:39I stayed in the part where they were all in the closet,
01:43protecting themselves,
01:45while everything outside was taking all the roofs
01:48of half the house.
01:51I felt the children screaming in the closet.
01:54And one of the girls told me,
01:56we are going to die.
01:58That is something too strong for a family.
02:01And after that impact,
02:03then the hours of anguish
02:05of not being able to communicate,
02:07of not being able to know how everything is,
02:09is something that is really too hard.
02:12I would say that in my case,
02:14they made me leave Cuba,
02:16but Cuba is still in me and will continue
02:19because it is something that is too difficult to face,
02:22the truth.
02:23You were, in some way,
02:25the emotional and economic support for them, right?
02:29How can they, at this moment,
02:31assume such a critical situation
02:34without you being there,
02:36who is like the head of the family,
02:38and your husband, right?
02:40Yes, it is something very difficult
02:42because when I left Cuba,
02:44my family and I have suffered many changes,
02:47especially my children,
02:49who do not understand many things.
02:51It is something that is difficult to explain
02:53to some innocent people
02:55who still cannot understand
02:57that we live in a system of diabolical communists
02:59and that I had to leave
03:01because I thought differently.
03:03So it has been a very abrupt change
03:05because, for example,
03:07my mother has had to assume my responsibilities,
03:10the care of those children
03:12who already had a way of life with me,
03:15she has tried to follow the things
03:18as I did,
03:20but she is too strong
03:22because she is an older person,
03:24she lives alone with the children,
03:26and all this is very difficult
03:29because it changes.
03:33And it changes what sustenance is,
03:36what things are, responsibilities.
03:38My mother cannot work
03:40because she is completely dedicated to taking care of them.
03:43And it is up to us,
03:45from here, from exile,
03:47to try to appease the situation a little bit.
03:50And now, for example,
03:52it relieved me a lot
03:54that my mother lived on a farm
03:56or lives on a farm,
03:58which is destroyed,
04:00and that, for example,
04:02there were fruit trees,
04:04there were vineyards,
04:06and on the subject of food,
04:08in the economic part,
04:10she used to make a juice for the children,
04:12a mamey,
04:14because there were fruit varieties.
04:16That right now cannot happen
04:18because the farm is totally devastated,
04:20there is nothing,
04:22and we all know that
04:24a fruit tree,
04:26at least 10 years,
04:28for it to reproduce and develop as it is.
04:30I have been all the time
04:32telling my mother,
04:34everything is going to be fine,
04:36those are material things that recover,
04:38and she, with the encouragement that I feel good,
04:40tells me, yes, everything is going to be fine,
04:42and yesterday, in a short call,
04:44because it has been six days without electricity,
04:46in a call,
04:48she tells me,
04:50everything is going to be fine,
04:52and when I heard her, I was crying,
04:54because she couldn't take it anymore.
04:56So that's what I do,
04:58I try to transmit the strength,
05:00everything is going to be fine,
05:02we have to move forward.
05:04Yesterday I was giving her little ideas,
05:06I told her to look for trees
05:08that are injected,
05:10that take less time to reproduce,
05:12but it is too strong, the truth.
05:14And on top of that, I have also seen
05:16that the harassment of state security,
05:18even if you are here,
05:20has continued on your family in Cuba.
05:22Has that been maintained
05:24even in these critical conditions
05:26in which they are?
05:28Exactly, and even so, I tell you that
05:30this week,
05:32as I always say,
05:34I was in the municipality of Alquizar,
05:36seeing what interested her,
05:38because it was directly
05:40to tobacco,
05:42which is what matters to her, the dollars,
05:44and my mother was all the time
05:46under surveillance,
05:48and to communicate with me,
05:50she had to do it through another phone,
05:52because my mother's lines were totally dead.
05:54So it's something inaudible.
05:56I even posted it,
05:58I said, I'm a few miles away,
06:00and still,
06:02they watch me.
06:04My mother is a woman with children, it's incredible.
06:06How old is your mother,
06:08and how old are the children?
06:10Well, there are several ages,
06:12they are about 6 years old,
06:145 and 7.
06:16My mother is 66 years old.
06:18And she is the only one
06:20who is with them there.
06:22And there is a girl
06:24who is like,
06:26as I say, my right hand,
06:28who is the one who helps me with everything,
06:30the one who goes out,
06:32because my mother practically does not go out.
06:34There was a person who helped us
06:36in a bus and taxi to look for food,
06:38and they fined him,
06:40because supposedly he had to have
06:42a license for that bus and taxi,
06:44and that he was only going to look for food
06:46in the village, because we lived far from the village,
06:48on a farm, and it's very difficult.
06:50Also to say that now there are people,
06:52many neighbors,
06:54who have come to help my mother,
06:56people who call me
06:58and send me messages,
07:00don't get discouraged,
07:02we are going to be helping,
07:04because my mother could not go out,
07:06because everything was devastated,
07:08in the courtyard, the trees were huge,
07:10and really too strong.
07:12Do you think that this situation
07:14that you are experiencing,
07:16is also being experienced, for example,
07:18by political prisoners,
07:20who cannot be with their families,
07:22and their children, and their mothers,
07:24in these moments,
07:26like the hurricane,
07:28is it a situation that
07:30is replicated in other people you know?
07:32Of course,
07:34but with all responsibility,
07:36I would say,
07:38I was in prison for 18 months,
07:40and I can assure you that it is even worse
07:42than what I am experiencing,
07:44and that is where my strength is.
07:46Every time I feel
07:48powerless, I say to myself,
07:50Diaz Nurka, get up, because there are political prisoners
07:52who are in a cell,
07:54and they can not even have that phone call
07:56that I can access,
07:58to be able to talk to my family,
08:00every time I can, and every time the internet,
08:02and that the communications allow me.
08:04Of course, one of those people
08:06are the political prisoners.
08:08Diaz Nurka, although you are here,
08:10I have seen that you continue in activism,
08:12that you continue to denounce,
08:14that you even continue to help,
08:16receiving donations to send
08:18to the people of Cuba.
08:20How do you feed yourself of this vocation
08:22to help, even being so far
08:24from Cuba?
08:26I have always been one of those activists,
08:28I have been going for 15 years in political activism,
08:3015 years dealing
08:32with this evil,
08:34and I have always said that
08:36this is something
08:38that is already in me.
08:40Fighting for Cuba, fighting
08:42for the people who need me, is something
08:44that I can not stop doing.
08:46Believe me, it is difficult to even deal
08:48with the different criteria
08:50that exist, because you have to deal
08:52with that. I will not
08:54deny that it is easy,
08:56it is a difficult task,
08:58but it is something that is not impossible,
09:00and it is something that I do with the love of the world,
09:02and I believe that this is also my strength,
09:04and the power,
09:06calm the head in the pillow,
09:08to say, I am doing something
09:10for my country, I am doing something
09:12for the people who truly need me,
09:14and it is not a question
09:16that they thank me, I do not do it
09:18so that they thank me,
09:20I do it because I want to be fine with me,
09:22because I think it is what I feel
09:24that is the right thing, because
09:26otherwise I would be acting
09:28in the same way as the communists,
09:30because the communists have a total
09:32abandonment with our
09:34country, and we as political
09:36activists must
09:38show that people who are
09:40so humiliated, who are so
09:42threatened, that we do care.
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