Jorge Valls Arango (February 2, 1933 – October 22, 2015) was a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n activist and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

of who spent more than two decades in prison for his opposition to

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. He was born in Mañanan, now part of Havana. He was the son of a Catalan father and Cuban mother, and could read and write Catalan. He was first arrested in 1952 while a student at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Havana, when he demonstrated his opposition to the 1952

Batista Batista is a Spanish language, Spanish or Portuguese language, Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player João Batista da Silva * Dave Bautista, Batista (wrestler) (Dave ...

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

''. Valls was sentenced to a year in prison on July 22, 1955, for possession of a pipe bomb. University of Havana Chancellor Clemente Inclán persuaded Batista to quickly pardon him. In 1956, he joined the

Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil The Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (abbreviation: DRE; ) was a Cuban student activist group launched in opposition to Fidel Castro in 1960, based at the United States, where it soon developed links with the Central Intelligence Agency. In ...

, a student group fighting the new regime. During the trial of Batista police informant Marcos Rodríguez in 1964, Valls was denounced for having been "a known anti-Communist" in the University of Havana "who demanded that the

be an anti-Communist organization, and that Jorge Valls pronounced for the expulsion of Communist students from the university struggles." He was later a

Christian socialist A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

. He was arrested in April 1964 after testifying on behalf of Batista police informant Marcos Rodríguez, with whom he had "a great friendship" and "a great affinity" between 1955 and 1959. The prosecutor accused Valls of "not being a revolutionary," of "defending" Rodríguez and "believing that he is innocent." He spent more than 20 years behind bars in many Cuban prisons and was released in 1984. After his release, he moved to

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

where in 1986, he wrote a book ''Twenty Years and Forty Days: Life in a Cuban Prison'', in which he speaks about his experiences behind bars. He also published a couple of poem books in Spanish including ''Donde estoy no hay luz y está enrejado''. He was the international secretary of the

Democratic Social-Revolutionary Party of Cuba The Democratic Social-Revolutionary Party of Cuba (, ) is a democratic socialist political party in Cuba. Although changes to the Cuban constitution in 1992 decriminalized the right to form political parties other than the Communist Party of Cuba ...

. He died of cancer in 2015.

References

External links

Article by Jorge Valls
1933 births 2015 deaths Cuban people of Catalan descent Opposition to Fidel Castro Cuban male poets Cuban socialists Leaders of political parties in Cuba Activists from Havana Writers from Havana North American Christian socialists Political prisoners in Cuba {{Cuba-activist-stub