Alicia Alonso and Oscar López. Autor: ACN Publicado: 20/11/2017 | 09:49 am
Independence activist Oscar Lopez Rivera spoke on Friday in Havana with the prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso with an encounter in which both shined with mutual admiration and solidarity between Cuba and Puerto Rico.
“Comrade, you are a Hero, a Hero of Puerto Rico! Thank you because you have helped us all!”, were the words of Alicia Alonso. Oscar Lopez Rivera responded while embracing the Director of the Cuban National Ballet Company: “I have no idea why”.
Alicia spoke about her love for Puerto Rico and commented that many artists from the small Caribbean island have joined the Cuban National Ballet.
The Puerto Rican leader gave Alicia a beautiful floral arrangement of white roses and during the encounter; Oscar held the prima ballerina’s hand as a demonstration of admiration.
The prima ballerina assoluta and Director of the Ballet troupe highlighted how small countries are full of heroism, while Oscar expressed “as long as there is a struggle it must be a struggle for love”.
Regarding the Puerto Rican people, whose land has been colonized for the last 119 years, Alicia said: the pride of knowing that the island is yours, slowly you will move forward.
Lopez Rivera said that they will never stop struggling for Puerto Rico’s independence. “We are still a colony but we will continue struggling until our last breath,” he ratified.
Present in the meeting between Oscar Lopez and Alicia Alonso was Fernando Gonzalez, President of the Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) who shared the cell with the Puerto Rican activist in a US prison.
On Friday morning, the independence leader who was unjustly imprisoned for almost 36 years paid tribute to heroes and martyrs of the Cuban Revolution at the Revolutionary Armed Forces Pantheon in Havana’s Cristobal Colon Cemetery and later at the same site to Puerto Rican Juan Rius Rivera and Lola Rodriguez de Tio.
He also placed a floral wreath to the plaque of Filiberto Ojeda and other independence patriots at the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribunal and before the statue of Emeterio Betances, Father of Puerto Rico at Fraternidad Park. Oscar Lopez Rivera will continue his visit to Cuba until the 26th.
