Oraisa Estrada, an Afro-descendant Cuban activist residing in Valencia, Spain, revealed in an interview with CiberCuba details of her experience on Tuesday, April 14, when the official delegation of the Cuban regime attempted to silence her during her speech at the V Permanent Forum of the United Nations on People of African Descent, held in Geneva.
The video of that moment went viral on social media and moved thousands of Cubans abroad, who witnessed how the regime attempted to cut off Estrada's intervention. Despite the interruption citing formal reasons, the activist completed her denunciation before a hall with a capacity for 3,000 people, packed with representatives from across the African continent.
In the interview granted this Thursday to CiberCuba, Estrada described the tension that had built up throughout the day, knowing that the Cuban delegation —"quite large and well-placed" in the institution— could try to stop her at any moment.
When she was interrupted, her reaction was instinctive: I said it like any Cuban would have said it. "You're going to speak again, you’re going to speak again, but run your race, run your race and don’t stop, don’t breathe, but finish it, finish it, you have to finish it."
In the interview, Oraisa Estrada defended the role that Afro-Cuban descendants should play in the end of the Cuban regime and denounced the instrumentalization and discrimination experienced by Black and mixed-race Cubans on the Island. She also highlighted figures such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, Afro-descendant political prisoners in Cuba.
During the interview with CiberCuba, Estrada also shared that there was a very emotional moment when the African mother queen, present at the forum, approached her after her speech and conveyed a message that the activist carries with her: "Keep speaking beautifully to the world and shout at power. Tell your truth to power."
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