It makes no sense for me to return to Cuba in body, but not in soul. It serves no purpose for them to allow me in, but not my books, for example. I am what I write; what I think; what I do. I am also the rights that I claim. I cannot return peacefully if all those things can't accompany me. In Cuba, I was imprisoned for writing what I think, then I was stripped of my civil rights and pushed into exile. I was thrown out because neither I, nor my dreams, fit under that system. I had to renounce them and, in order to defend them, I was exiled. It makes no sense for me to abandon them now, to betray them (and myself), in exchange for a stroll down the Malecon.
-- Juan Manuel Cao, renowned Cuban author and journalist,
El Nuevo Herald, 7/23/15
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