The Cuban décima poet Irán Caballero, based in Miami, published a décima dedicated to the influencer Anna Bensi (Ana Sofía Benítez Silvente), 21 years old, a day after the People's Municipal Tribunal of Havana del Este condemned her and her mother to two years of restricted freedom.
Caballero clarified that he had written the décima earlier, but that day "deserves to be published." The poem portrays the young woman as a symbol of resistance and compares her to Mariana Grajales, a heroine of Cuban independence known as "Mother of the Homeland," by writing: “As if there were a Mariana / Without a homeland, but without a master / Reincarnating in her call / For Cuban freedom”.
The poetic composition describes her as “a girl with steel ovaries / Who has the anthill / Stirred up against tyranny / An example of bravery / And of human dignity”. The reference to Mariana Grajales Coello —born on July 12, 1815, in Santiago de Cuba and mother of Antonio Maceo— gives the composition a historical and patriotic dimension that the Cuban exile community has been able to read clearly.
The décima by Caballero joins that published on Friday by the poet and improviser Juan Carlos García Guridi, who also dedicated a poem to the case with the verse: "Dignity cannot / fall into a gray lethargy". García Guridi had previously written the poem "Sin más partido" in September, in defense of the political prisoner José Gabriel Barrenechea, reflecting a chain of poetic responses from both exile and the island in reaction to the regime's repression.
The case that prompted both statements originated in March of this year, when the MININT officer Yoel Leodán Rabaza Ramos visited the home of Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente Laffita, in Alamar to deliver a summons from State Security. Mother and daughter recorded the encounter and shared the footage on social media. The agent reportedly demanded, according to Anna Bensi herself, "a public apology video to restore his honor."
After being charged on March 25 and placed under house arrest, the case was closed and then reopened in July following a complaint filed by the officer himself.
The trial on October 1 was presided over by Judge Zamira Marrero Morgado —criticized by activists for having served on courts that judged the demonstrators of July 11, 2021— and concluded with a conviction under article 393 of the Penal Code, which categorizes "acts against personal and family privacy."
The organization Cubalex warned that this regulation protects the private lives of individuals, not the official actions of state agents.
Upon hearing the verdict, Anna Bensi stated at the courthouse doors: "My mother and I were declared guilty of the alleged crime we were charged with." She added, "None of us are criminals."
Only one defense witness was allowed to enter the trial; the evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora and activist David Espinosa Martínez were detained while trying to attend.
The sentencing sparked a broad wave of international solidarity. Cuban-American congress members Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar, and Carlos A. Giménez demanded the unconditional release of both. Salazar described the process as "a desperate act by a dying dictatorship that seeks to intimidate and silence the Cuban people."
The U.S. Embassy in Havana summarized its position with the phrase “Thinking differently is not a crime,” while the Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Juan Pablo Segura, tweeted that “the cowardice of the Cuban regime knows no bounds.”
The décima —a poetic form consisting of 10 octosyllabic verses deeply rooted in Cuban popular culture— thus becomes a tool for protest that the exile community uses to keep alive the memory of those whom the regime seeks to silence.
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