“I wake up for many days, miss my mother and cry”, this is the reality of Lysandra Lima three years after escaping the tyranny of the regime. communist Cuban. As an elite athlete, he was able to plan his escape and leave the repression of the dictatorship behind. But for Cubans freedom has a price: 8 years at least without returning to their country or meeting with family. Condemnation will grow if from here he attacks the principles of the revolution or the government of Diaz Canel.
Thanks to new technologies, Lysandra can communicate with her loved ones, learn about them. But without touching or hugging them. “It’s complicated”, admits during the interview LD… And she thinks the separation process was a little easier for her because at the age of 17 she left her city of Pinar del Rio and moved to Havana to advance her sports career. In any way, I was very aware of what would come next decisions to stay in Spain.
“I knew, I knew … This is one of the things that they repeat to you every day, every time we went to a competition and a colleague stayed. The first thing they told you: now 8 years will pass without participation Cuba“, – he says. It was a way to suppress his desire for freedom. “They psychologically worked for you.”, Add.
In the case of Lysandre they couldn’t iron it out… He understood very clearly what he wanted to do. He just needed a chance to come to take advantage of it. When he introduced himself, he didn’t hesitate. It was in XVIII Absolute World Championship in Basque Pelotewhere the city was located Barcelona in September 2018
Perfect escape
Lysandre thought of everything. Even legalized their titles “secretly”, months before escape. “Nobody knew what he was doing,” he says. “My mom did it through a lawyer.” She “made a decision” since March and prepared everything to make the perfect escape during her participation in the World Cup.
For the athlete, all the stars coincided. Usually, when they go to play outside the country, their passport is taken away upon arrival at the airport, as soon as they pass customs, and never returned. And vice versa, on the way back. But after the World Cup they played in Barcelona, there was a hit of “luck”…
“Three days later my partner and I (played in pairs) were going to play tournament in Tenerife… The rest of the delegation will return to Cuba, ”he explains. – On the way back (after the tournament) it was necessary to make several stops along the way: Tenerife-Barcelona, Barcelona-Madrid, Madrid-Havana. “Arriving in Barcelona, their coach told them that they would have to wait four or five hours at the airport until the next flight, and that”it was stupid to take their passport and pass it on to him later. ” Then he saw the light. “It was my chance,” he says.
Two comrades have already managed to escape in the same competition, ”she says excitedly. “They entered the coach’s room and took his passport.” It was not difficult to obtain the key. They told the front desk that they had lost it and, since they were part of the same delegation, handed it over to them. According to him, they were “in the same suit.”
She couldn’t be less. He didn’t know when equal opportunity could again be given. So, without further ado, once you’ve lost sight of your coach, left the airport and got into a taxi… “The first thing that happened,” he insists. Once inside, “I looked into Google hotel in which there were places to spend the night there. ” But maybe it’s curious that he doesn’t remember the first thing he thought about at that moment. Until three days later, he was not assimilated. that he had achieved his goal. “You know what you are doing, but you are not fully aware,” he says.
Cuban tale
Lysandra began to dream of “another life”shortly after breaking the twenty barrier. Although he admits that his childhood was good, when he started “traveling for sports,” he realized what they were “putting into his brain”: a lie. “You start to see things and your eyes start to open,” he says. “You understand that something is wrong.”
The blindfold fell on his first trip… “I had a conversation with a colleague, a man who came here from Spain,” he explains. “I told him that in Cuba health care is free, schools are also free and all that … And he told me: but I don’t know what you are talking about, where I also live.”
She couldn’t believe it. The film was told to her in a different way, from childhood. So, from the moment he went abroad to compete, he took the opportunity to inquire and search on the Internet. “The story you are told at school starts to fall apart.”, Mint. And over the years, he became more and more disappointed.
When he was in his late thirties, he also realized that his sports life was short and he needed to think about Plan B. tired of lack of freedomthe fear of speaking, the hypocrisy that volunteering was actually compulsory, and have no problems based on silence… In short, about the lives of those who stayed in Cuba.
A reflection of this is that even today, when she speaks to her mother on the phone, she says to her, “Oh midja (my daughter), please … I need you to stay away from everythingthat you don’t say anything, that you don’t say anything, that at the end I cry for the consequences“.” They scared, “the verdict.
Free Cuba
“Let him be free” is Lysandra’s greatest wish for Cuba. “Let go of the dictatorship, let him change rulers… Listen, I don’t care what it is even worse“she says excitedly. The Cuban people can’t stand it anymore.
In his opinion, there must be “a change of regime to change the situation in Cuba, the fear that exists.” “They do not come out of fear of reprisals what they are seeing now, since July 11, “he warns. He can’t help but remember the 18 and 19-year-olds who took part in the protests.” They ask them. 30 years in jail as if they were murderers“.
Lysandre dreams of the day “The city is full of courage” and “claim your rights”. She knows that there will be those who think “from here (Spain) it is easy to speak” and that we must respect those who are still afraid to speak up. “I don’t criticize them for not wanting to go out, because at that time I decided to stay and not go out into the streets of Cuba,” he says. But he understands that there is no other way to freedom.
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