The Cuban activist and journalist Iliana Hernández recalled one of the most distressing moments she experienced during the hunger strike of the San Isidro Movement in November 2020: when, having gone without food for five to six days, she had to climb to the rooftop of the movement's headquarters to record what was happening outside, and she felt as if her heart was about to burst from her chest.
Hernández recounted it in an interview with Tania Costa, describing the episode that illustrates the physical risk he faced.
"When I climbed those stairs, my heart was like this: thump-thump-thump, from all the excitement. I thought my heart was going to jump out, that I was going to have a fit," she told CiberCuba.
At that moment, she recalled having to stop, sit down, and wait before being able to continue. "I hadn't eaten for five days, only drinking water. And I just couldn't muster that strength anymore," she explained.
That moment, he recognized, was one of the biggest scares of the entire protest. “That was the moment when I was really frightened, because I thought something was going to happen to me.”
The strike, which began on November 18, 2020, at the movement's headquarters at Damas 955, Old Havana, was not planned from the outset. According to Hernández, the trigger was the theft of the money and food that were being sent from abroad for the 16 people present at the location.
"We still don't know what was thrown at us there. And no, we didn't go there with the intention of going on a hunger strike or anything like that," he stated.
It was Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara who proposed the extreme measure. "Luisma said: I will go on a hunger strike, thirst and silence. We begged him: please, Luisma, not silence, we need you to speak," Hernández recalled.
On the third day, Otero agreed to speak. That same day, nine people joined the hunger strike, including Hernández herself.
According to what she explained to CiberCuba, nine people joined the San Isidro strike (out of 16). Iliana Hernández was the only woman who participated. "Luisma is suffering from hunger, thirst, and silence; Maykel is suffering from hunger and thirst, and the others from hunger," she clarified.
To survive mentally during the fast, the activist developed a self-convincing routine from the third day. "I told myself: well, breakfast is water, snacks are water, lunch is water. I would see the kids eating in front of me, and I just didn’t feel like eating," she recounted.
Her colleagues, who were not participating in the strike, would hide to eat or turn their backs to avoid making her feel bad. She claims that by that point, she no longer felt any desire to eat.
Hernández also explained why, even during his previous detentions, he never accepted what the authorities offered him. "I didn't dare to take the water or the food that those people provide because they could put anything in it. They are murderers."
The San Isidro strike was dismantled by State Security on the night of November 26, 2020, under the pretext of violations of COVID-19 health protocols. The regime also cut off access to social media across the country to prevent live broadcasts during the operation.
The San Isidro barracks is considered a direct precursor to the protests of July 11, 2021, the largest popular demonstrations recorded in Cuba in decades. Otero Alcántara was arrested that same day and sentenced to five years in prison; in March 2026, he began a new hunger strike from the Guanajay prison in protest against death threats from State Security officials, which he ended eight days later.
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