Rafael Saumell: A Good Cuban

Among the members of this brand new Committee—an organisation that at that time could, among several adjectives, be described as unusual—was Rafael Samuel, one of Ricardo's fellow inmates.

Saumell was sentenced to five years in prison (1981-86) for Enemy Propaganda. He was the director and screenwriter for the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.

"Even though he and I had both worked in the same field, our paths never crossed. However, in early 1988, this changed; through a friend and fellow member of the Committee, we finally met. I had a conversation with this friend about how I wanted to meet Bofill. We arranged to have a secret meeting on Sunday morning at a church in central Havana.

I arrived before him; I sat in one of the first pews, near the altar, three or four pews behind, in the same row, I saw Bofill. I had seen him on television and in the press because of an unbridled campaign of defamation that the regime had undertaken against him. The regime gave him the nickname "El Fullero" (The Fuller)."

A few minutes later, Saumell arrived and sat down next to Bofill; he tells us: "I continued to follow the development of the mass. When I went back to try to find them, they had left.

We coordinated another meeting, but on the second attempt, the Political Police, who had taken over the outer perimeter of the church, prevented me from entering."

A few days later, Bofill left for exile, first to Germany and from there to the United States, where he died, somewhat forgotten, on July 13, 2019.

A few months later, Samuel also travelled to the United States as an exile. He notes, on Bofill's departure: "Two or three days before he departed, he came to my house to say goodbye and to give me some work suggestions. He did not have an appropriate belt for the trip, so I gave him mine, which was a little more presentable.

I mention this detail because the spokesmen of the regime have always said that the members of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights received a substantial stipend from the United States. The reality is that it was difficult to get what was necessary to be able to put food on his family's table."

During his long stay in the United States, Saumell published several books, was a university professor for years, and managed to become a doctor of Spanish language literature.

He died on Friday, June 30, at his home in Texas.

He is one more of the good Cubans who have embarked on their final journey without being able to see the triumph of democracy on the island. He is another of those who could not say goodbye to the beaches of exile, which, in the words of José Martí, "are only beautiful when you say goodbye to them".