The Cuban-American community is speaking out in North Texas and holding a demonstration for the island nation in Fort Worth.
Cuba is facing the worst economic crisis in decades, with residents facing food and drug shortages.
Unruly Cubans took to the streets over the weekend to demand freedom and an end to 62 years of the communist regime.
The pictures brought hope and sorrow to Cubans in Dallas-Fort Worth.
“The only feeling I can think of is helpless,” said Tatiana Alvarez, who leads the Cubanos and Cubanitas DFW Cuban American Meetup group. “Why now? It’s because Cubans are dying. There is no food. There is no health care. There is no medicine.”
Liliam Morin and her husband own Lola’s Cuban Food Truck in Fort Worth.
She said she fled Cuba in 2014 and said there were chronic food shortages, power and internet outages made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protests have also become violent.
“They’re being shot at and beaten up. They’re disappearing, ”said Morin.
Alvarez added that people are desperate and feel like they have nothing to lose.
“The time has come now that they will die anyway,” she said. “So they go out on the street and say, ‘When I die, I’ll give what I can to try and see something good.'”
The two women said they were particularly concerned about loved ones who are still on the island.
Morin said she hadn’t heard from family members.
She said that people in Cuba face several obstacles, including the need to have a paid cell phone and download an app that is not always accessible.
“I’ve only heard from one,” Alvarez said of a cousin who managed to post messages on Facebook. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, they’re shooting in the street right now.'”
Both were cautiously optimistic that the weekend riot could be the turning point for the ailing nation.
However, Morin fears that desperate Cubans could risk their lives by fleeing the country by water.
“The government will likely encourage this, but we don’t think this is a solution. That can’t happen, ”she said. “They have to stay there because the world has to know what they are suffering.”
The two hope to raise awareness of #SOSCuba on social media, where reports are shared from across the ground in the United States
The Tuesday screening will be from 5-7pm at Lola’s Cuban Food Truck on the corner of Henderson Street and Weatherford Street in Fort Worth.
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