Cuba and the Struggle for Freedom: A Book Talk with David Hoffman and Rosa María Payá

Please join the Americas Society/Council of the Americas for a book discussion with Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporter David E. Hoffman, author of Give Me Liberty, and Rosa María Payá, Cuban human rights and democracy activist and the daughter of Oswaldo Payá. 

Hoffman and Payá discuss Oswaldo's life and legacy as a dissident who dared to defy Fidel Castro, and how his actions have inspired a new generation of Cubans to claim their rights under the constitution.

Tune in on to this webpage at 12 pm ET on February 23, 2023 to watch the discussion.

About the book:

Give Me Liberty is a biography of opposition leader Oswaldo Payá and a history of the struggle for democracy in Cuba. A devoted Catholic, Payá, who was born in Havana in 1952, was sent to Fidel Castro's forced labor camps as a young man. Later, he founded the Christian Liberation Movement to fight for democracy. He championed a simple, bedrock belief that rights are bestowed by God—not the state. His most daring challenge to Castro was the Varela Project, a one-page citizen petition demanding free speech, a free press, freedom of association, freedom of belief, private enterprise, free elections, and freedom for political prisoners. More than 35,000 people signed the Varela Project, an extraordinary outpouring of protest—with nothing more than pen and paper—against Castro’s oppression. The regime responded by ignoring the petition, arresting dozens of Payá’s followers and sending them to prison for many years.

After receiving multiple death threats, Payá was killed in a suspicious car wreck on a remote country road in 2012. Give Me Liberty is a portrait of an individual who had the courage, faith, and persistence to struggle for democracy against an unforgiving dictator, and a sweeping account of Cuba’s tragic and continuing struggle for its freedom.

Please join us for what promises to be a timely and inspiring discussion on the legacy of Oswaldo Payá and the ongoing struggle for freedom in Cuba.      

Speakers:

• David Hoffman, Author and Contributing Editor, Member of the Editorial Board ofThe Washington Post
• Rosa María Payá, Cuban human rights and democracy activist 
• Eric Farnsworth, Vice President, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (interviewer)