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LOUISVILLE, Ky. Hundreds of Louisville’s large Cuban community waved flags, chanted and gave fiery speeches Tuesday evening in support of historic street protests in Cuba over high prices and shortages of food and medicine.
The protests, not seen in decades in a country intolerant of dissent, have fueled new hopes for change among Cuban Americans from Florida to Louisville, which has one of the nation’s 10-largest Cuban communities.
“There’s an awakening of the people,” said Irina Baptiste, a Cuban-born resident who spoke at the rally, citing a “breaking point of oppression, hunger and sickness.”
Signs reading “Cuba SOS” hung from the Big Four Bridge at Waterfront Park, and chants of “Viva Cuba Libre,” or “Long live free Cuba,” echoed from more than 300 who listened to speakers call for the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.