By Sue Byun, Assoc. News Editor -

On Tuesday, students from the Cuban-American Student Association (CASA) put on a demonstration in the academic quad to raise awareness about the human rights violations occurring in Cuba.

CASA is a student organization committed to working towards promoting a pluralistic and free Cuban society by generating awareness of the lack of basic human rights that is a reality to those living in Cuba.

Tuesday’s demonstration was one move embodying CASA’s vision for this year, spearheaded by Marlena Papavaritis, president of CASA and A&S ’11, who wanted to take a bolder approach than usual.

CASA wanted to bring together the political and cultural realms, realizing that in order to fully present Cuban culture, the club had to address the central political issues going on as well.

The creed for the awareness campaign was ‘Basta!’ which means ‘enough’ in Spanish. Acknowledging their common heritage, CASA believes that the Cuban American community must take some responsibility for what is happening in their homeland.

In addition to holding up posters, reading aloud their formal demands for human rights in Cuba, and handing out informational slips of paper, CASA set up a mock jail cell with a member held captive inside. This visual demonstration was impactful in getting CASA’s message across to people as they walked through the quad between classes.

When passersby would ask about the jail cell, CASA demonstrators took the opportunity to explain the prisoner-of-conscience issue, citing the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

A prisoner of conscience (POC) is a term coined by the human rights group Amnesty International that refers to someone who is persecuted or imprisoned for his or her beliefs, ethnicity, religion, or lifestyle. Tamayo was a Cuban political activist who was imprisoned and recognized as a POC by Amnesty International, and who died on February 23, 2010 after an 86-day hunger strike.

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent protest in which participants refuse food until a specific goal such as policy change is enacted. It aims to pressure an institution and attract publicity to the issue.

The mock jail cell was meant to illustrate how activists were being held physically captive, and also how often their only means of protest for better jail conditions or cooperation from the government was to starve themselves in order to send their message.

“We had a lot of people stop to comment or ask us about what we’re doing, so we’re happy,” said Dorian Barrero-Dominguez, A&S ’10. ”A lot of people didn’t know about the human rights issues going on.”

In protest of the death of fellow dissident Tamayo, Guillermo Farinas, a freelance opposition journalist, has declared a hunger strike as well, demanding the release of approximately 26 political prisoners said to be in poor health and jail conditions.

These recent incidents of hunger strikes, one fatal and the other ongoing, have been instrumental in highlighting the injustice of Cuba’s holding more than 200 political prisoners, as international pressure mounts to release them without delay.

In response to international media concern roused by the hunger strikes, the Cuban Communist Party’s daily newspaper Granma headlined, “Cuba will not accept pressure or blackmail.”

“Overall, I think as a club we all agree that we want to see the people in Cuba attain their human rights, not be thrown in jail for expressing their viewpoints,” said Barrero-Dominguez. “The first step is basic recognition of rights, and everything else, economic and social rights, hinges on that. We want to restore it back to its first world status, and to let the Cuban people decide for themselves what shape that government will look like.”

According to Barrero-Dominguez, the political and cultural arenas with respect to Cuba are very much intertwined. “For a while, we were ‘just’ a culture club, engaged in lighter, mostly cultural activities, but this year we decided we wanted to present it to the Boston College community, to paint a more complete picture of Cuba,” he said.