Interview with Claudia Cadelo (part 2)

After my first interview with Cuban blogger Claudia Cadelo was published on Ashin-Mettacara.com she was gracious enough to grant me a follow up interview.

I like this one even better than the first one, with much help from two very good friends, I feel that we have captured her exact words even better than the first one. I also feel that this interview, while containing only 7 questions, really hits home and really shows us what these bloggers go through on a daily basis.

***envíeme por correo electrónico si usted quiere la versión española original: muchachoenfermo (at) gmail (dot) com***

Click Here for the full interview.

Here's the first question in the interview.... just to give you all a little taste and hopefully encourage you to read the rest of it:

Muchacho Enfermo: Your first post was written on Yoani Sanchez’s blog (Generacion Y) it was called From Paranoia to a Scream), can you describe what you felt that day, when you made your decision to publish your name, your picture and your opinions?

Claudia Cadelo: The night before Gorki’s trial we decided to go to ask for support at the Tribuna Antimperialista where Pablo Milanés and a few guest musicians were holding a concert. We had a banner that simply read GORKI, so that the paranoids wouldn’t alert security. But they are paranoid by nature so they simply started to hit us and abducted Ciro (Guitar player of Porno Para Ricardo and La Babosa Azul) and a friend of mine.

The following day Gorki’s trial was to take place and we were all very tired and surrounded by security agents at the entrance of the court house; we had barely slept, Ciro was exhausted. At six o'clock in the afternoon they began the trial; it was supposed to be at 9 on the dot that morning but instead we spent the whole day there, outside the court house.

But the support that I felt around us was bigger than our exhaustion, after four days of sending emails and running around Havana there were, along with us, a few lads from the university, many friends, a lot of foreign press and even diplomats, so we were excited.

When they set Gorki free, I felt something so big that I could no longer stay quiet, I wanted to share my happiness and I asked Yoani Sánchez to publish a text of mine on her blog. She accepted; and this is the way it all happened.

Muchacho Enfermo