Priest Alberto Reyes: "Don’t we all have the same right to participate in the way we build our history?"

The priest Alberto Reyes recalled that on Sunday all Cubans, whether living inside or outside the Island, will celebrate the Virgin of Charity, because she is a symbol of unity for Cubans despite their differences.

Father Reyes, from the diocese of Camagüey, commented on Facebook about how ideologies use the logical differences that exist between human beings to justify inequalities and generate division in the hearts of individuals and communities.

Known for his criticisms of the regime, the priest pointed out that Marxist ideology in Cuba has served the groups that control power to prevent the rights of those who think differently, and he quoted phrases from communist propaganda such as 'the streets belong to the revolutionaries,' 'socialism or death,' or 'if you don't like it, you can leave.'

"The problem is not the difference, it is the inequality, it is the establishment of a division between first-class citizens and second-class citizens, it is the creation of a caste system where, either you are one of us and you submit unconditionally, or you will have no future on this island, or the best thing you can do is leave," he concluded.

Next, CiberCuba shares the full text of the publication.

"I have been thinking... (LXXXIII) by Alberto Reyes Pías"

I have been thinking about the Virgin of Charity as a symbol of unity for Cubans.

Communities need symbols; they need landmarks to look to when building their history. For Cubans, the Virgin of Charity has been, for centuries, a reference of unity. Before the Virgin, we are all children, brothers, Cubans.

Among human beings, there will always be differences; that is inevitable. However, these differences can be used to justify inequalities, and inequalities generate division in the hearts of people and in communities. Among the sources that create division are ideologies.

Ideologies are a rigid thinking framework and an attempt to explain and transform reality from fixed and unquestionable concepts. That is why they often promote the mentality of 'us and them', 'them against us'. Men against women, rich against poor, whites against blacks, revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries... it’s the same mechanism.

The difference is not the problem. The problem lies in the stances that generate inequality. The issue is not that there are different sexes, or people with better or worse economic situations, or that there are different races, or that there are different political beliefs. The problem is that, by using those differences, the groups that control power limit or prevent the legitimate rights and opportunities of those who are different or think differently.

Marxist ideology, which took root on our island, is particularly exclusive. 'The streets belong to the revolutionaries,' 'the university is for the revolutionaries,' 'socialism or death,' 'those who don't like it can leave'... those who think differently are 'worms,' they are 'scum.'

Why? Aren't we all Cubans? Haven't we all been born on the same land? Don't we all have the same rights to intervene in how we want life to unfold on this island? Don't we all have the same right to participate in how to build our history?

Why are your political criteria considered more valid than mine? Why do you, who control the power, not give me the opportunity to express myself, to organize into alternative groups, to compete in the polls, which reflect the desire of the majority?

The problem is not the difference, it is the inequality, it is the establishment of a division between first-class citizens and second-class citizens, it is the creation of a caste system where either you are one of us and submit unconditionally, or you will have no future on this island, or the best thing you can do is leave.

On September 8, all Cubans, both those of us living on the island and those living abroad, will celebrate for the one who came for everyone, the one who intercedes for all, the one who asks her Son for blessings for everyone. The one who is simply Mother and who looks at us as children, as siblings.

"Not in vain do we sing to you, asking: ‘that we be brothers’. And that is the longing: a homeland where we treat each other as brothers, without exclusive divisions, without inequalities. A homeland where we all have the same opportunities: in education, in health, in the economy... but also in the decisions about the present and future of our land."