Bay of Pigs Veterans Unveiled Documentary in Union City, NJ

Six survivors of the Bay of Pigs, the failed attempted invasion of Cuba which sought to overthrow Fidel Castro, came together 55 years later [on May 25] in Union City, for the launching of a documentary about their story.

Ángel Casabona Ruiz, Isidoro López González, Ricardo Montero Duque, Raúl Puig Sánchez, Alvin Ross Díaz and Sergio Gatria – members of the Brigade 2506, which was captured and decimated by Castro’s troops – reminisced about the key moments of the battle during the presentation of “Bahía de Cochinos, Nuestra Perspectiva” (Bay of Pigs, Our Perspective) last Wednesday at the Union City Performing Arts Center.

Brigade 2506 was named after the number assigned to Carlos Rodríguez Santana, who died during training exercises in Central America and is considered the first casualty. It was actually a battalion formed by 1,500 Cuban exiles who, with the promised help of U.S. air support, were supposed to defeat the Cuban army.

However, a counter order by President Kennedy left the group to their fate, the former brigade members recalled. Most of them where either imprisoned and executed, or killed on the spot.

Fifty-five years later, those survivors still refuse to give in.

Alvin Ross said that a Cuban worker currently earns a daily wage of $0.67. “With the opening of diplomatic and commerce relations with the U.S., they will probably reach $0.73 per day. Meanwhile, Fidel’s son has a $200 million yacht and Raúl (Castro)’s daughter has $25,000 handbags, but nothing is going to change for the Cuban worker.”

“The situation in Cuba is disastrous. President Obama has thrown them a lifeline,” said Ricardo Montero Duque.

Another former brigade member said that the only way to oust the Castro brothers is “to send the people out into the streets [so] that the people take the streets.”

(…)

Some 100 viewers applauded the documentary directed by Lucio Fernández and Ricardo Bacallao. Megan Fernández is the general producer.

Voices of NY translated this story from Spanish to English.