“I want to continue with our campaign motto which is: United for our rights. I think we are summarizing a lot there. It is a phrase that emerged in the campaign itself. Suddenly we did not have any [phrase] and there were several and that was the one that many liked and from the racial side we have another that marks us a lot and that is: Let's look inside. No to racism. Why do we look inside? Because you have to look inside, know who we are and when we say no to racism, no to discrimination, it is not only about the color of the skin, but what it represents: discrimination as such.”
“In the province of Holguín perhaps it is not the same life that can be led in Santiago [de Cuba] province. And when I say this, let’s see, how I explain it. For example, Holguín, although it’s painful for me that I come from there, is a province marked by strong stereotypes, by, let's say, racial discrimination. So, in Holguín, if a person, well, if that person is of my color, mestizo, although she is characterized as an Afro-descendant woman, but in those years, in those moments, in those times, they do not even identify me as Afro-descendant, and the same people do not identify you as such, because if you have skin a little light and hair, between what is being called, good or bad, because there is no such thing as good hair or bad hair. It's just hair. But hey, if you have this ‘good’ hair, as it is used to be called in that province, you can pass, perhaps not as white people, but as a light-toned person. I did not feel that as a discrimination od races as a child, but I could see it in the cases of my school-mates.”
“You have to look inside, know who you are, and when you say NO to racism, it is not only about the color of the skin, but about what it represents: discrimination.”
Marthadela Tamayo González, was born in Manzanillo, a municipality in the Granma province, on September 6, 1983. She is the daughter of Adela González Hernández and Félix Tamayo Zayas. When very young, her mother decided to return to Holguín, where she was from originally. Marthadela attended the Miguel Salcedo Santana school from preschool to the sixth grade and junior high school at Rubén Martínez Villena. Later she studies at the José Martí Pre-University Vocational Institute of Exact Sciences [IPVCE]. At the end of these studies, Tamayo took aptitude tests for Law, Psychology, and Pedagogy and eventually leaned towards the latter. After a long and recognized journey, she began to stand out for her ideas of change for Cuba, especially concerning racial and gender issues. Marthadela has been beaten by State Security, raped, interrogated, psychologically abused, but not only her; also her husband, her son, and close relatives for the simple fact of thinking differently. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has granted her, along with her husband, musician, and human rights activist, Osvaldo Navarro, alias Navy Pro, precautionary measures by the Citizen’s Committee for racial integration, because they are at risk of irreparable damage to your rights in Cuba. Currently, Marthadela Tamayo González, resides in the Greater Antilles.
