Judit Dénes

* 1946

  • Even today, I just say that only this (family togetherness) makes sense. Even though there were many question marks at that time, about how to proceed. He was young, and I was young enough, too, to stay that way for the rest of our lives. We haven't set foot in Cuba since. Neither should our children. When my son Dani went to the United States, they didn't let him go for a day because he was born in Cuba. Time stood still in Cuba. If we take it that way, he would have to enroll to military service there.

  • They asked to return his diploma, as if it invalidated his qualifications, and they said he was an ideologically misguided person. I can't translate it any other way. It was his crime that he was ideologically misguided. Previously, he belonged to Fidel Castro's circle of advisers. This was in the period when somehow very weak reform attempts were started in the economic field and since he (Carlos, Judit's husband) studied in Hungary - these are assumptions, no one has ever said - and here was a much more relaxed dictatorship? in quotation marks?, that is why they were included in this circle. From where he left very quickly, so he was there for a very short time, between half a year and a year... Because he pushed for some kind of market economy and gave advice in this regard.

  • They allowed us - I don't know how many more people were there from the authorities - to say goodbye to each other there, in front of this large plenum, being almost in a state of shock, and that's all, it lasted a few minutes. It was a terrible state of nerves. And then it was over, I didn't see him again, they took me home because I had a crying fit, but I was given an injection to calm down. And the torture that lasted for five years began the next day.

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    Budapest, 10.01.2023

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“He was declared as being ideologically misguided”

Judit Dénes in 2023, during an interview
Judit Dénes in 2023, during an interview
photo: István Kollai

Judit Dénes was born on August 28, 1946. When Judit Dénes attended secondary school in Budapest, she met the Cuban guest student Carlos de la Torre, who studied in Hungary. After launching a common life, their children were born in Cuba; but after a while, they decided to move to Hungary. However it succeeded technically, but they had to face administrative obstacles, turning into a nightmare: Carlos was taken back to Cuba by the immigration police of the Castro regime, and was not allowed to join his family until 1989. Family reunification was finally achieved only at the time of the regime change. Since then, they have been living in Hungary and have two children. Judit founded her own company, Carlos taught at the University of Economics until his retirement.