Interviews with Horacio Julio Piña Borrego

We looked up to [Mahatma Mohandas] Gandhi a lot. The peaceful struggle, which has always been quite peaceful. I am not at all violent, in temperament or anything. We looked to Gandhi and we tried to convey that to the activists who were at the time under my direction because of all that I have already shared, all of the provocation we received. And even with all of that we still had to keep our arms down [meaning to engage in nonviolent civil resistance], as did Gandhi. [Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948) led India to independence from Great Britain and was a pioneer of nonviolent civil disobedience.]

We had to face them [authorities] in that manner because otherwise the fight would be more difficult as we would be sent to prison. That is why we followed Gandhi’s example.

Also [Martin] Luther King [Jr.], but mostly Gandhi. I had the most access to literature about him. [Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968) was an American clergyman and civil rights leader. King used nonviolent civil disobedience to press for civil rights for African-Americans.]

Horacio Julio Piña Borrego, the son of an ardent communist, was born in Las Martinas, Cuba in 1966. Horacio first became active in the democratic opposition as a member of the Cuban Pro-Human Rights Party Affiliated with the Sakharov Foundation; in 1999, he became a provincial delegate for the organization in his hometown of Pinar del Rio. Through his activism, he also collected signatures for the Varela Project, an initiative that petitioned the regime to hold open elections and expand civil liberties.

In March 2003, Horacio was detained along with 74 other nonviolent dissidents in a massive government crackdown known as the Black Spring. He received a summary trial in which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Horacio was placed in solitary confinement until August 2004, and was subjected to physical and psychological torture throughout his time in prison. In October 2010, the Catholic Church and the Spanish government negotiated the release of the 75 and Horacio went into exile with his family. He lived in Spain as a political refugee until 2011, before settling in the United States.

Horacio is active in the fight for Cuban freedom and democracy; he serves as the Managing Director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press in Florida.