‘I will die the way I lived’

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15 prison paintings for 15 years 
by Antonio Guerrero
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"All these images have one thing in common: they recall the unjust, cruel treatment given to us since the very first day of our detention.” 

These 15 watercolours capture the early days in 1998 when the Cuban Five - five political prisoners unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. - were locked up in the “hole.”

Guerrero, serving a sentence of 21 years and 10 months, is currently in a medium security prison in Florida. He taught himself to draw and paint in prison, with the help of books and tuition from other inmates. The title he chose for the collection, “I will die the way I lived,” is from a song by Silvio Rodríguez about remaining steadfast in support of Cuba’s socialist revolution.

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and René González were arrested in 1998, convicted on frame- up charges, and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 15 years to double life. René González was released last year and Fernando González this February. Both received a hero's welcome on their return to Cuba.

In fact, the five were guilty of no crime at all. What they were doing was collecting information on murderous counter-revolutionary Cuban  American paramilitary organisations, which operate with impunity from bases in the US. These groups have a fifty-year history of organising bombings, assassinations, and other assaults on Cubans and other supporters of the Cuban revolution within the US, in Cuba itself, and other countries.

 More Information 
Cuba Friendship Society ~ Auckland :
 E-mail:inashina@clear.net.nz Phone Ina 303-1755 or Malcolm 021-151-7887

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