Ileana Puig

* 1937

  • "I used to go to migration trying to find out about my departure, and I saw older people and how these people, let's say supposedly responsible people, would say to them: 'Old woman, old man, your children don't love you, look how they have abandoned you, why are you crying to me, don't cry'! But with a lack of humanity, and when you see...I can't want this for my country...and these young people don't know that this lack of humanity has consequences. They should learn that freedom has its price and that there are times when you have to put your life on the line. But to get my right to express myself freely, my right to have my own mentality, my right to choose for myself, my family, or to give them the choice of what they want, you have to put your foot forward and fight for it! Life is not a gift. Life is a struggle.”

  • "I always had, like everything in the beginning, because as a mum...and this is one thing, in the beginning, although they [her two daughters], I tell you again, went to all the visits with me. When I got some food, it was for the father and the visitor. What's more, in a shortage, because of something I just remembered, there were no eggs in Cuba, and when I got some, they would say to me: 'Can we eat an egg during the visit'? It was really something when they let us bring in food. But at the same time, the illusion of seeing their father. One time they both had, I think, it was Chinese or measles, and they couldn't go - the crying in the house, how they couldn't go to see their dad, and how I was going alone to see their dad. It was something I'll never forget.”

  • "Those were dark days. We went to the trial [in April 1959, of his brother-in-law Manuel Puig aka Ñongo] my mother, my father, myself, a sister of my husband and Ñongo, it started I think at 8, 9 o'clock in the morning, it finished at 12 o'clock at night, it was a circus. The court had their feet on the table, they threw pebbles at each other, little balls, they laughed, we were surrounded by militiamen with long guns, because even though it was still the last days of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The atmosphere was heated in a way where the hatred felt towards anything that was not in favour of the Revolution [The Cuban Revolution is the main result of the leftist Cuban revolutionary movement that brought about the fall of the regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista] and Fidel Castro was palpable.”

  • "In 1959, we moved back to Havana, and my husband was transferred by the company he worked for. And the rebellion against Fidel Castro's regime was already underway, even though he had not declared himself a socialist or communist. Still, the mass shootings were just beginning; the lack of freedom of expression was already starting, so my husband and his brother became 100% involved in the struggle against the regime. Both my sister and I shared that struggle, not only because we loved our husbands but also because we shared that desire for freedom. This eagerness, let's say not so much because the structure had not yet been broken, but because we saw how they took the life of a human being without due process of law. Also, we saw how what was green today was red tomorrow; we saw how those who were and had been pilots of Batista supporters and had been acquitted from the law. Suddenly, the dictator Fidel Castro said this was not right and decided they all had to be retried and condemned.”

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    Miami, USA, 08.06.2021

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Both my sister and I shared my husband’s and his brother’s struggle against the regime. Not only because we loved our husbands but also because we shared that desire for freedom.

Ileana Puig, 2021
Ileana Puig, 2021
photo: Post Bellum

Ileana Puig, maiden name Arango Cortina, was born into a politically active family on 12 November 1937, in Havana, Republic of Cuba. In 1956 she married Ramon Puig, involved in the struggle against the practices of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. When one of the consequences of the 1959 Cuban Revolution was the arbitrary executions and trials under the command of Fidel Castro, the entire family joined the opposition. Under different circumstances, Ileana’s brother, husband, and brother-in-law ended up in La Cabaña prison. Unfortunately, her brother-in-law, Manuel Puig, was sentenced and executed in April 1961, precisely when the American intervention in Giron Beach was culminating. Her sister emigrated with her four children to Miami, United States of America, where Ileana’s parents and young daughters joined them later. At the same time, she remained in Cuba because of her husband, a political prisoner. She never saw her parents again and was not reunited with her two daughters until 1973, after seven years. Fortunately, Ileana’s husband, Ramon Puig, was released after 15 years in prison and emigrated to Miami to reach his family. Today they reside in Miami. They do not regret any of their decisions and spread their family story full of pain and sadness, so that future generations will learn the value of freedom and be aware that everything has a consequence.