letter of december to Obama.

Mister President Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington DC 20500

Mr President,

Here is a nice Christmas tale for the last letter of this year 2011.

Once upon a time, in Cuba, there was a children’s theater company called “La Colmenita”.

Once upon a time, in France, there was the Brownstone Foundation that supports and helps out social and humanitarian activities promoting culture and education.

Thanks to the Brownstone Foundation, and of course to friends of the Cuban Five who organized all this, the Colmenita was able to give performances in the United States during the month of October 2011. It was a high-quality show, presented with passion, freshness, spontaneity, joy, solemnity and talent.

One of the plays, named Abracadabra, put on by these 22 young Cubans, who are from five to fifteen years of age, tells the story of the five Cubans - Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, and René González.

René Gonzalez was released on the 7th of last October, being however under the obligation to stay in the United States for three years, but as for his four companions, they are still imprisoned in your country, and have been for more than thirteen years now!

The director and founder of the theater company, Carlos Alberto Cremata, had more than one reason to give homage to the Cuban Five through his play Abracadabra. His father was killed in the terrorist attack carried out by Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch against Cubana Airlines flight 455, in 1976 – he was the pilot of that plane. `

I’ll bet that, through the Colmenita, a number of your fellow citizens heard for the first time the story of these five Cuban anti-terrorists. To see the multicolored bus dedicated to the Cuban Five driving around, filled with kids, their eyes wide open in amazement, going through the streets of Washington, New York and San Francisco, must have surprised a number of people!

For this theater group, their stay, and their play in the United States was a big hit. They found themselves receiving unexpected and… unintended publicity, that of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a conferee. This woman had the scare of her life when, in a conference room at the Capitol, she found herself face to face with these young Cubans wearing Colmenia sweaters! Thanks to her having demanded how it could be that the children of this theatre group had been granted a visa by your administration, the United States news media related their theatre tour! It’s true that she dared to write, “(…) funding educational and cultural exchange programs with the Cuban regime that undermine U.S. foreign policy priorities and national security interests (…)"

When these young Cubans came to visit, they experienced unforgettable encounters. The day that they spent at the international grade school in Maryland, in the Oxom Hill facilities, left indelible memories. A Spanish professor at this school declared that:
“I am more than forty years old and, of all the emotions I’ve ever experienced, this was one of the most intense.”

The welcome that these young actors received in Brooklyn, in Harlem and in Manhattan, with the seats sold out, people shouting “Vive Cuba!”, ”Liberty for the Cuban Five!”, was most stirring.

Another grand moment was when the youngsters were present at the U.N. headquarters on October 25th, during a vote concerning the blockade against Cuba. They had put on their play before the members of the U.N. the day before. They recount

– “(…) People were dancing as if they were at the Tropical Lounge, they were first and foremost fraternizing with each other, they were smiling, rubbing shoulders, and I can tell you that nobody was stony-faced… Above all, there were U.N. officials, diplomats and many members of their families (even a delegation of North-American graduates of ELAM and Preachers for Peace)… The theater was jam-packed, more than 500 people, and all went off with joy and love… As Marti would say, “What happened last night was quite simply the “Antechamber of the Concord”.

This wonderful example of peace and friendship does not surprise us – in 2007, the Colmenita was the first theater group in the world to have received the title of “Goodwill Ambassador” from the UNICEF.

These youngsters were proud when they saw every country in the world, exactly 186 of them, demanding that the economic sanctions against their country, be lifted. Only your country, Mister President, and Israel, voted for the continuation of sanctions, and three countries abstained.

The members of the Colmenita felt strong emotions when they received a phone call from each one of the Cuban Five. It would take too long to elaborate on all five phone calls; let’s just cite what little Ana Laura Escalona said after Fernando’s call
– “What a lesson in humbleness! In fact it is us who should be thanking them, who are suffering in prison, for saving the lives of Cubans while we are free, doing the things we like to do.”

The children of the Colmenita, just as all the children in Cuba, just as everyone who is enamored with peace and justice all over the world, are waiting for the Cuban Five to be liberated. All five of them, because one cannot say that René is totally free, and he’s still far away from his family.

At the end of their last performance, these youngsters asked the public a question – "Y ahora, qué otra cosa podemos hacer?" (“And now, what more can we do?").

A Christmas tale is supposed to have a happy ending; we are hoping that you will find it in you to intervene so as to render these five Cubans the freedom that they deserve. In doing this, you will open the door to new relations between Cuba and the United States, which is what everyone is wishing for.

Please receive, Mr. President, the expression of my most sincere humanitarian sentiments.
Jacqueline Roussie

Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano; to Mr. Harry Reid, Eric Holder, John F. Kerry, Pete Rouse, Donald Verrilli, , Rick Scott and Charles Rivkin, United States Ambassador in France.

Translated by William Peterson