CAMAGÜEY.- Carlos Lazo is one of the Cubans who risks his life every day to change the history between Cuba and the United States. With a life made in that nation, he does not stop doing for his people here. He cycled 5,000 kilometers to demand an end to the cruel measures imposed by the Trump administration. Now his initiative Puentes de Amor seeks to lift the restrictions that still weigh on the Cuban family.

A real Cuban, as the popular singer Alexander Abreu says in the song Me dicen Cuba: of those who read Martí, Guillén's prose, he looks for a guayabera and a guano hat. He really knows what it is to feel you are a Cuban and he defines himself first of all as a father, husband, grandfather, Cuban and American.

“I lived half of my life in Cuba and the other I have spent in the United States. My identity, the person that I am, has been nurtured by the people with whom I have shared in both countries, and I love both of them as you love your mother and father. Every day I humbly encourage the creation of bridges between them. As the son of the two nations, I fight daily so that they get along better and shake hands,” he says via the Internet.

He, with a life made there, does not stop doing for his own here. He even traveled 5,000 kilometers by bicycle to demand an end to the cruel measures against the Cuban people imposed by the Trump administration. He sought the support of then-candidate Biden so that, upon becoming president, he would remove the restrictions that still weigh on the Cuban family.

“It has been incredible how people started joining this initiative. In Europe, for example, they are walking in favor of the Bridges of Love; they began to pedal, to give us strength. Seven people started in Miami and today there are many, and we support these Caravans of hundreds of Cuban Americans, of people of good will who, beyond ideologies, believe in love.

“For the bike ride of 28, it's not just here anymore. There will be in Panama City, in Granada and Barcelona in Spain. It is almost incredible that that spark of five crazy people touring the United States has given rise to so many bridges of love”.

The Spanish teacher in Seattle has provided high service to the Americans, even serving as a combat medic in Iraq.

“It is ironic that one advocates love and life and there are others threatening death. This battle is not only for the Cuban family, but also for the United States, for my people, for my both peoples. Because the blockade not only punishes Cubans, but those here, who cannot travel and learn about Cuban culture, and the world, because it prevents scientists and professionals from both countries of working together. How many things could be done, what message would it be for the world. Right now, a nation like Cuba, almost without resources, blocked in the middle of a pandemic, was able to develop vaccine candidates. Can you imagine if there had been cooperation between the two countries?

2004 was key for him. When he returned from Iraq, he wanted to come to see his children and came across Bush administration regulations limiting travel to once every three years.

“Then I began to protest, to speak in the media, I sent videos to the United States Congress talking about the unfairness of the restrictions, supported by the most conservative part of the Cuban representatives in Congress, and I ended up testifying in the Senate. Years later, Obama relaxed the measures to the point that as a teacher I visited with my students the schools here, we participated in cultural activities. Trump came and banned it. He started cutting off the channels to send aid to our families, he cut the reunification program. So, I had no choice but to do. The options are to sit idly by or put your soul and your heart in working for your people and your family, for your peoples”.

Lazo's message to Cubans who live abroad is clear: “that they continue to join, that they think that the family is the root, origin, the source of everything. They may continue to be aware that beyond differences, we are united in love for the land that gave us birth. In this way we show love for our essences, for the little friend with whom we played as children, for the grandmother who gave us a bowl of soup, for the memories. The nation transcends problems, ideological differences, the nation is forever. We must find a way that we do not live under these conditions of permanent blockade. In recent years, steps have been taken in Cuba to strengthen ties with emigration and I hope they will be the first of many to come. "

With immense faith, they have a petition to President Biden that upon taking the presidency, he reopen the Embassy in Havana, restore the family reunification program, allow flights to the provinces and the unlimited sending of remittances to our relatives, especially in times of pandemic; so that North Americans can travel to Cuba without restrictions, so that they build bridges of love and establish cultural and scientific relations, so that the two states work together for a better world.

“Many Cubans on the island and the world have already signed it, it has been in a popular voice, explaining to the people what it is about, because we do not have resources to promote our platform, so it would be great and nice for people to join.

“So what can you do, sister and brother, visit www.puentesdeamor.com and sign our petition. You only have to put first name, last name and email. We already have more than 20,000 but hopefully there will be 100,000”.

Carlos Lazo is convinced that Joe Biden can take many of those decisions. “Here is a saying that electoral campaigns are done in poetry, but governed in prose. The President promised that he would lift the cruel restrictions against the Cuban family. We know that the United States is going through a deep crisis due to COVID-19, that half a million people have died, economic problems, and that their priority lies in solving those problems, but at the same time I believe that part of that priority could be this matter that overwhelms us so much. We hope that in the first 100 days he will take action, we are hopeful that at least the sanctions will be lifted. Hopefully he will not forget, but if he does it there we will be there to remind him, because we do not forget. Hopefully tomorrow, but if it took longer, we would return in two, three lifetimes, to fight against those restrictions”.

This Cuban really clings to his flag, and dreams. “I see a future in which it is not difficult for a Cuban to be granted a five-year visa to come and see his loved ones, as when the Obama administration. That entrepreneurs and farmers can buy equipment for their work in the United States, and sell what they produce here, in such a close market. That has to be the future.

“I dream of a cordial relationship, of respect between both parties, in which, on a personal and professional level, I can take young Americans to Cuban homes, as we have done, so that they get to know the countryside, the peasants, the artists, the musicians.

"It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to see my students who have been to Cuba several times, knock on a neighbor's door and say: 'Blanquita ...', walk in there and be greeted with a hug. I also dream, why not, that Cuban youth and children can visit my school here, be with the boys they met there, share with my family. I want a relationship in which there are bridges of love and that they circulate in both ways. That is the future that I see, I want and the one that I am sure that, sooner rather than later, we will achieve”.

• Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez