Delia Sava

Read this article in the Arlington Connection

Asked when he left Cuba to come to the United States, Frank Calzon smiled and said, “I never left Cuba, everywhere I go Cuba goes with me.” The executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, Calzon, 66, is not being glib. He has devoted his life’s work to the country he left more than 50 years ago.
”Frank is the most dedicated person I’ve ever met — his whole life has been dedicated to Cuba,” said James Cason, president of the board of directors for the Arlington-based nonprofit. Cason, a career diplomat, served as the Chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana, Cuba from September 2002 to September 2005.
Because of the long- standing embargo against Cuba, the Interests Section is maintained in lieu of an embassy.
During his tenure in Cuba, Cason worked closely with Calzon and gives him high marks: “The Center was the group that was the most responsive.”
The now retired Cason, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay from 2006 to 2008, brings considerable expertise on Cuba and Latin America to the work at the Center. Founded in 1997, the Center is an independent, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to promote human rights and a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. The majority of the funding comes from private donations; the Center maintains a modest fund for humanitarian assistance to help families of political prisoners and other victims of repression in Cuba.
SINCE 1959 when Fidel Castro came to power by overthrowing the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban government, a one-party socialist republic has had a strained relationship with the U.S.
After the Bay of Pigs, a failed attempt by U.S. trained Cuban exiles to overthrow the government in April of 1961, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviet Union.
In 1962 the United States imposed the embargo against Cuba because the government took control of U.S. corporations’ property. Many Cubans fled the country as Castro imposed more restrictions on civil liberties.
Calzon’s family sent him to live with his godparents in the States after an incident with a policeman who came to their apartment to conduct a search. When the teenaged Calzon objected to the unwarranted search by citing reasons “according to the law,” the policeman responded by pushing him out of the way. He arrived in Miami the day after President Kennedy was elected in November of 1960. Calzon who was just 16, made his way to New York City and eventually to White Plains where he was helped “by wonderful people who took pity on me” and gave him work as a busboy and a room in a boarding house. On Christmas Eve of 1961, Calzon took a bus (the ticket was purchased with money collected from his fellow busboys) for Miami to reunite with his parents and two sisters, who had managed to leave Cuba.
[cid:image005.gif@01CB25B7.3AD65900]”In early October of 1962, I signed up for the U.S. Army,” said Calzon. After his military service, Calzon would go on to receive a bachelor’s degree in political science from Rutgers University and a master’s in government from Georgetown University. His interest in what was happening in Cuba never waned; he organized Cuban student groups while he was a student. Then for many years he worked at Freedom House, the D.C.- based independent watchdog organization that advocates for democracy and human rights.

THE COLLAPSE of the USSR in 1990 created even greater economic hardship for Cuba, which had relied heavily on Soviet aid. Cason explained that the Center provides critically needed items, like non-perishable food and medicine “to people who have nothing.” He added, “Families of imprisoned dissidents really suffer … they don’t let them work and they make their lives miserable.”

When Castro became ill in July of 2006, he turned over the presidency, temporarily, then permanently to his younger brother, Raul, 79. The elder Castro maintains his position as the First Secretary of the Communist Party. The government continues with an extensive censorship system and according to Human Rights Watch, the human rights abuses, include torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extra judicial executions.

Calzon noted with pride that according to the University of Toronto, the Center’s Web site is one of 10 sites blocked by the Cuban government. “That shows a measure of our effectiveness,” he said.

In addition to the information outreach to the Cuban people, the Center also publishes and prepares reports about Cuba for the international community, members of Congress, the media and human rights organizations, like Amnesty International. Publicizing the plight of political prisoners is one of the strategies employed by Calzon “because that helps to protect their lives.”

Basilio Guzman knows all too well the importance of the work of the organization: he spent 22 years in different Cuban prisons. The Arlington resident who owns a home remodeling business is with Calzon in the Center’s offices on a Saturday morning, doing volunteer work. “I’ve been helping Frank since he has the knowledge and the political contacts to publicize what’s happening in Cuba.”

Calzon and Cason are currently calling on the international community to pressure the Cuban regime to release Alan Gross, an American imprisoned in December of 2009 for giving a laptop and a cell phone to Cubans.

Endorsements from former Polish President Lech Walesa and the former Czech President Vaclav Havel give Calzon hope that Cuba’s story will have a similar outcome. Office walls at the Center are lined with photographs of Calzon with U.S. presidents, members of Congress and world leaders; photographs of faces not recognized are political prisoners and their families.

”No children, no ex-wives,” joked Calzon when asked about his marital status. He works six days a week and is currently not receiving a salary. Promoting worldwide solidarity with the Cuban people seems more of a calling for Calzon than a job.

”He’s a pit-bull for Cuba,” said Cason, describing Calzon’s commitment, adding, with a smile, “He puts his teeth in and never lets go.”

[Thursday, July 15, 2010]

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