Book about the Ideas of Oswaldo Payá titled "Give me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and His Daring Quest for Freedom"

As we approach July 22nd, the tenth anniversary of the death of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in unexplained circumstances, most likely the result of a state crime, the publication of this book on his ideas and legacy is announced and promises to be fascinating. The book titled “Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payᨠwill be available on June 21 in hard copy and digital format (Kindle and Apple Books).

Payá was one of the pioneers of the human rights movement in Cuba, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, architect of the Varela Project and winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize.

Given the importance and relevance of Oswaldo Payá´s ideas, on July 22. 2020 Democratic Spaces dedicated its first post to analyze his pro democratic ideas and legacy.

As a tribute to Oswaldo Payá, I am starting my first blog post inspired by his democratic ideals and legacy. On July 22, 2020, I take great pride in joining Cubans, human rights defenders, freedom lovers, Christians, and goodwill human beings worldwide remembering the ideas and values of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, one of the founding members of the Human Rights Movement in Cuba, a Sakharov Prize laureate, a W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award recipient, a Peace Prize nominee and a hero in the peaceful struggle for democracy and justice in Cuba. 

What follows is an analysis of some of Oswaldo Paya’s ideas and their relevance today. I argue that Oswaldo Payá´s ideas advocating inclusion, tolerance, democracy and national reconciliation stand in sharp contrast with the ideology of hate, exclusion, and criminalization of ideas promoted by the Castro regime in the past 61 years. 

I offer insight on how Oswaldo Payá´s ideas serve to counter some of the Castro regime’s most prevailing myths and how his legacy as a pro-democracy leader and activist lives on as an inspiration and a blueprint for present and future generations of Cubans pursuing change.  Continue reading: “OSWALDO PAYÁ: FOR THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS”

Find a summary of the book´s content below.

¨From the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David E. Hoffman comes the riveting biography of Oswaldo Payá, a dissident who dared to defy Fidel Castro, inspiring thousands of Cubans to fight for democracy.

Oswaldo Payá was seven years old when Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, promising to create a “free, democratic, and just Cuba.” But Castro instead created an authoritarian regime with little tolerance of free speech or thought. His secret police were trained to crush dissent by East Germany’s ruthless Stasi. 

Throughout Cuba’s 20th century history, the dream of democracy was often just within reach, only to be dashed by dictatorship and revived again by a new generation. Payá inherited this dream and it became his life’s work. As a teenager in Communist Cuba, he led a protest against the Soviet-led shattering of the Prague Spring. Before long, he was sent to Castro’s forced labor camps. Payá later became a leading voice of opposition and formed a pro-democracy movement. A devoted Catholic, he championed a simple, bedrock belief that rights are bestowed by God, and not the state. Every day, he witnessed these rights trampled in Cuba. He could not stay silent.

Payá’s most daring challenge to the Cuban government 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 decades of despotism. 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.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David E. Hoffman returns with an epic portrait of a lone individual who had the courage, faith, and persistence to struggle for democracy against an unforgiving dictator. At its heart, Give Me Liberty is a sweeping account of one country’s tragic and continuing struggle for its freedom.”

©2022 David E. Hoffman (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio