Interviews with Berta Soler

We, the Ladies in White, are women of principles and dignity that became aware. Without any experience, we advocate for our country’s freedom. We conduct ourselves in a very positive way and we are all women.

The outside world sees a bit more. They see our nonviolent activism and that the government reacts violently and negatively against us only because we participate in Masses and we advocate and march in our country’s streets.

Our inspiration is always based on Gandhi. It has always been a nonviolent struggle. We always say that as long as you have your principles and dignity, and truth and reason are by your side, you can take to the streets to demand from the Cuban government what they have taken from you in a peaceful way.

[Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948) led India to independence from Great Britain and was a pioneer of nonviolent civil disobedience.]

They took our men and one woman, Marta Beatriz [Roque Cabello], from our homes without cause. They were taken to prison only because they were men and women who thought, wrote, and expressed themselves. So that love for life, for family and for country was what got us out of our homes, without any experience, to become nonviolent activists for that which the Cuban government took from us. We expanded our [mission], and we work not only for the freedom of political prisoners, but on behalf of human rights.

Berta Soler Fernández was born in Cuba in 1963. She studied microbiology and became a hospital technician in Havana. In 1988, Berta married Angel Moya Acosta, an opposition activist who became one of 75 nonviolent dissidents arrested during the March 2003 crackdown known as the Black Spring.

Berta’s activism began after Cuban authorities imprisoned her husband in 2003. Joining with other spouses and family members of the Black Spring prisoners, she became a founding member of an organization called the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) that demanded the release of their loved ones and advocated for greater civil liberties in Cuba.

In October 2004, the Ladies in White staged protests in front of the Communist Party’s headquarters in Revolution Square, pressuring the government to allow Berta’s husband to undergo surgery for a herniated disc. The protest went on for two days until the regime permitted Angel’s operation.

Berta was a central figure in orchestrating the release of her husband and other Black Spring political prisoners. The Ladies in White lobbied Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the leading representative of the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba, and convinced him to negotiate for the release of the prisoners. By 2011, after years of protests, the Black Spring dissidents, including Berta’s husband, were released. While the majority of the prisoners went into exile, Berta and Angel chose to remain in Cuba.

In 2005, the European Parliament awarded the Ladies in White its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Berta, along with the other representatives of the organization, planned to receive the honor in person. However, the Cuban government denied them passports and they were unable to attend the ceremony. In 2013, after the regime had relaxed its repressive travel restrictions, Berta received permission to leave the island and led a delegation to accept the 2005 Sakharov Prize on behalf of the Ladies in White.

In 2011, Berta assumed the leadership of the Ladies in White following the death of the organization’s co-founder, Laura Pollan. She continues the struggle for a free and democratic Cuba.