2009-03-10
A colorful and multicultural celebration, took place in an Elementary School Auditorium in the city of Richmond with the participation of more than 250 people, most of them women.
The commemoration of this important event linked struggles that are taking place at the local level with these from other areas. For example, there is the case of the struggle in favor of the rights of family visits for the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States.
During the event, the audience watched a section of the new video made by Sally O’Brien and Jennifer Wager “Against the Silence” where the family members of the Cuban Five speak out. In the clip watched by the large audience, Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene González, described the denial of visas from U.S. authorities to herself and to Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, to visit their husbands in US prisons. During the round tables discussions, members of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five talked about the case and distributed valuable information including hundreds of the new postcards to be sent to President Barack Obama and other members of the new administration demanding the freedom of the Cuban Five.
After welcomed the participants, the Mayor of Richmond, Gayle McLaughlin, set the tone when she read a quote from the book of the Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah, The Eloquence of the Scribes, reflecting on the 1961 murder of democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in the Congo: “Lumumba’s murder produced in me a bottomless sadness, followed by a quiet awareness that the present world order was a continuation of the same liberal order responsible for the Atlantic slave raids, the colonial partition of Africa, and the dehumanization of our people. Seeing the world that accurately, I knew thenceforth that I would not spend my life working for, fitting into, and promoting the world order the slavers made. Instead, I would spend my energies looking for ways of helping to create an entirely different world.”
Signs demanding visas for Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva were placed around the spacious room. The day was marked by cultural presentations and a series of round tables representing local and international struggles of which women are the main subject.
The audience enjoyed Aztec and Quechuas dancers, Afro-Puerto Rican music and drummers as well as the speeches of women activists from diverse background and age groups. The keynote speaker was Elaine Brown, a writer and long time activist who was one of the leaders of the Black Panthers Party. She spoke about the roots of exploitation that women in the United States have to endure, and invited these who were in the event to reflect upon the real causes to unite with one another in a common struggle.
Yury Kochiyama, the renowned long time U.S. activist for civil rights was at the event and was recognized by many people throughout the day.
