The Tape Deck Hour

0:00Following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston neighborhood network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston neighborhood network 3025 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02110. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-748-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. What's going on, y'all? The mic and today, I have a guest right here. This is, I think it's safe to say this been long overdue for a long time. I've been following this young lady for a good minute. She got a lot going on, so I want to get into her history and her background and everything that she's been going through right now. She has a lot of dope content, she's Cuban, she's anti-communist, she, it's a lot going on. It's a lot going on, but I don't want to stress it all out because we got a lot going

1:00on, we got too much time. For Lisa, just me, I got Gabby Blout for the building, what's going on, Gabby? Yeah, thanks for the invite, it is long overdue, I'm excited to be here. All right. But before I continue on, it's going to be like a lot of laugh in the back, but because there's been a lot of shenanigans that's been going on, my internet is just a bad said, a whole bunch of laughter. A lot to go down, a lot to go behind the scenes going up, because I think we should have recorded our conversation before we remember the story, because we had good content before that. Yeah. Yeah. But give us a brief introduction of yourself, Gabby, because as you can tell, you follow my content, so I always bring up a bunch of Cubans here with a press story, so just tell us about yourself. Yeah, so I moved here, I was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, I lived there until I was 23, almost 24, then I moved to the Cayman Islands, I was working as a waitress there for five, six years, and then I moved here to the US in 2019, at the end of 2019, I was

2:01finally able to come, because my dad and siblings are here, so I was finally able to reunite with them after a decade of being a part, which is a whole other story, but moved to the US, came to Austin, Texas, that's where I live and work, you know, I met my husband, we have two beautiful children, and I guess things started to turn for me, like we were discussing after July 11th, and the protests that happened in 2021, and Cuba was never really involved in any politics at all, I have never been a public speaker at all, and so things just sort of develops that way, after everything that happened in the country, a lot of people like myself finally started, you know, realizing the importance of speaking up, especially if you're not there as well, not just leaving people inside the island who risked so much and who had to face everything they did, to go on the streets and process, so all that support from abroad, we were just so

3:04excited, and we thought that Cuba's freedom was finally so close and we took to social media and started talking to people and sharing and spreading the content, and well that wasn't the time, unfortunately, of course, that march before and after, and I do think there is no turning back after everything that was set in motion that day, so after that I just kind of got really passionate about politics and my country, in a way that I never had before and had never really affected me personally in many ways, although I did, but you don't really think about it, it's so used to your life here, right? You just go with the flow and you move abroad and you're focused on making a living and making something out of yourself and making up for all the time that you lost while being in a country that it's getting you nowhere and you cannot prosper, and so it was a great wake-up call to just also be able to focus on that and remember what you come from

4:05and that you should be trying to make an effort, regardless of where you are, towards the freedom of your country. And so that's pretty much how that started. I had also simultaneously in 2021, my husband and I, he's a Gideon, he's a member of the Gideon's International, so that is a Christian mens group, and they basically have the goal of sharing the gospel and the word of God across the world, so they're the ones that actually put the little testaments, the small bibles and hotels and hospitals and those little bibles that you see, it's an initiative from the Gideon's International, and so with them, my husband and I had already started traveling the U.S. sort of a testimony speakers because they were so interested in history and my story as a him as a Venezuelan, me as a Cuban, our stories of faith, he was brought up cathaly, I was brought up in a completely atheist household, which happened to a lot of Cubans, right?

5:07Oh, I know that's not happening to my next question, but continue, continue. Yeah, so they were just very interested in our in our testimonies of faith and how we got together and the church community we were building here because my husband and I got really involved in our in our home church from the beginning, and so it was just something I loved doing, I loved being able to travel and start talking to people about their reality in my country, and what happened was people had so many so many questions about the specifically Cuba, more Cuba than Venezuela, because it's rare to see a Cuban in those spaces and talking about, you know, Christianity and talking about family life, and they had so many questions for me, and a lot of them were political and about my background, and as much as I love taking those questions, it wasn't really a space that allowed me to go into depth, in depth about, you know, the political situation and everything happened, so I always felt I found myself wanting more,

6:08and wanting the, you know, the space to be able to answer all those questions, and I was like, if I could just sit with you for like 15 minutes and just talk to you about the semi-politics, because people just didn't know, and they were so excited to know, and that's just kind of, at the same time that July 11th thing was happening, and I just realized we are in a space in Texas, where, and especially Austin, which is just such a liberal city, we don't have a lot of Cubans, like you do in other cities, and so people just don't know, and I see that they want to know about our country, and about what's happening, and some of them have seen something on TV about some protests, and I just told Daniel, like, there has to be a way that I can talk to people about this a little bit more, and that's just in the context of my faith journey, which is just mine, but in the context of what's happening in my country and what we have to do. So I started looking online for opportunities to do that, and so that's how I found the decision projects, and they are the

7:09non-profit that I work with. Today, they basically put people like me who fled, socialitarian countries, we have people from China, from Venezuela, from North Korea, from Cuba, and they put people like me in touch with high school students, so basically they just, you know, coordinate with a school at no cost to the school, and they send speakers to be able to share our personal experiences, and tell them about, you know, how socialism, communism, how totalitarian policies ruined our countries, and what that looked like in detail. And so I saw that and I was like, yeah, I would love to do this, I would love to do this, I had never spoken to kids before, I had never, it was never something that I saw myself do it, like going to high schools, and talking to students, and it has been so wonderful. So that's how that started, me looking for a space to get a bit more political, and a bit more specific about the politics, the policies behind everything that's happened in Cuba. And so that started last year, and it's been, yeah,

8:18it's been great, we have gotten to go to different states, and here in Texas as well, I've been to several high schools, and that's sort of what we do. We talk to students in person, answer their questions, it's always fun and light, and they have the most, you know, the most unique questions, because they just don't know, and they want to know, and I love that. And then I've been trying to do that as well on social media a little, and just create, find the way to create that short form, entertaining content, I guess, that the younger audiences kind of follow. I joined TikTok small recently, which is something I saw, I was like, I'm gonna do, I always thought I was too old for TikTok, but it's been a great platform to engage with the younger American pros, socialist, pro-Marxist crowd, which they are all on TikTok, I swear. And so it's been just a great platform to keep talking to kids, and I like to say and see it as a way of connecting the American audience

9:23with the Cuba situation, which I feel for the longest time there's been at this connect, because as a Cuban, you know, you assume that everyone knows what your situation is, and here in Texas, I spoken with so many people that have no clue, they have no clue, they have been lied to, they have read something, they like a teacher has told them something different, or they just never heard of it, in that way, and I just, I could not believe it. And so I was like, there's such a need for you guys as a, you know, as the newer generation in the States to really connect and understand the history of the failed socialist policies that have affected our entire continent. This is not new, this is not just appearing in the United States, they have, this has all been tried in different stages in different countries, you must know about this, it's your continent, and there's this disconnect. And so I'm trying to close that gap

10:23pretty much, it's what I've been doing since I moved here, whether it's in person, whether it's on social media, just trying to bring that content that we, as Latinos hear about and follow and know about so much, bring that to your regular high school American kid, to your regular Texan churchgoer that has no idea, just close that gap, it's kind of what I've been trying to do. Awesome, awesome, you know, it's crazy because even through July 11th, I think I wouldn't go further by around 2016, you were still in Cuba, but because I was stuck in my own little bubble, you know, you would think that, we're stuck in our own little bubble, our Cuban bubble, you would let everybody knows about like our pain and our struggle and our, you know, our, our thing that we had to go to the gets of this country, and then it was an eye opener, because when for Bill Castro, like there was this weird adoration I saw with him, because I know that people didn't like him, but yeah, I was surprised, I saw this other audience that was just like,

11:24oh my god, this guy was just like the hero he was resilient, he was a freedom fight, he was didn't, so I'm like, I had people telling me, oh, you must be devastated like he died, I'm like, no, that's not, that's not what he is, that's not, that's not what happened, but then you have people that get that they're so invested in life, and the professor, I had a professor, professor Amalia Dacheo on my show, and she said something that was very bad, that she pointed out that, you know, he could do all these like 9% could be bad, but then don't focus on that 10% that he did that was good, so let's just focus on that 10% and just had this like adoration tourism and had this love for him, because he just did a little 10%, and like no, none of it is good, especially if it's on the 10%, so yeah, and how they got to that 10% as well, because how did you manage to, you know, raise these stats or like improve this, that oh, you did it by stripping Cubans of every basic human right, oh, you did it by stealing everything, oh, you did it, so no, it's not good actually, and I mean, I mean, even now we're living in this times,

12:31when you know, and this is when I say, you know, when people talk about white privilege and white privilege this, and we're not here with Americans talking about, oh my god, I'm living in dictatorship, I'm like, you know, you're doing like, you're showing your American privilege, because you know, I did whether the dictatorship looks like, you know what it's like with somebody strips away something, what happened was, you're entitlement, you didn't get what you want, so now you're nagging that what you're getting for, you're, you're, you're complaining, so you have this sentiment entitlement, I need to have this, because I didn't have it, I'm going to talk about, oh my god, I'm oppressed, so now they're trying to sell you victimhood, once you don't get what you want out of there, so that's been another person, that's nothing that I'm very interested into these times of living on, you said you came here in 2019, right? Yeah, December 2019, so at the very end, yeah, so I've got to ask how the hell your English got so good, because my English sucks, and I didn't get my Spanish, it does not, no, I, we always knew that we had to leave Cuba, so my dad's side of the family, they were always so untie government, and my dad had always made it clear to us, we have to leave this country, if we have any hope of, you know, you guys having

13:34a better life and a better future, and so you should study English, and I kind of, you know, dictionaries and then TV shows and music and whatnot, I started working on it, and then I moved into came and I'm working there for five years with big help, because it's all English, and so that really kind of helps improve my English, and so this is what it looks like today. Perfect, perfect, this is me now that I have to work on myself, because I need to work on my Spanish again, because my Spanish is a mess, because I want to speak Spanish, it's a mess, that's all, it's just all over the place, because I started to speak English. Oh, but I was so good, I was so good, and I got so forget about it, and I got to go back, I got to come back home, I got to go back, I got to go back, yeah, I got to do this again, good boy, and I've got podcasts and Spanish, and then people, your Spanish is pretty good, I'm like, my head doesn't say the right now, I'm like, don't say the right thing about my English too, I know, I keep getting accused of being in Miami Cuban or being born in Miami, I'm like, that's

14:37actually a big compliment, if you think about it, because I do not hear myself. I thought you were a man who killed me, that's like, I happen to have to be like a sick biome, your blood, so you're a human human, you live through it. People throw that left and right on social media, as if it's some kind of insult, and they're like, you're just a Miami Cuban, I'm like, I'm not, but I wish I would have been. Unfortunately, I had to be born and raised, and spent most of my life, you know, in these circumstances, in Cuba, so I'm not in Miami, I love Miami, I love Miami, so it's not an insult. But to your point of how people complain about having no rights, and dictators, overaking countries like the US, or like the No Kings protests, they'll complain about Donald Trump and overreach, and all that, but then they'll turn around and find the good, in systems like ours, right, and they will, and they will support for other people what they

15:40could never live under themselves, and they'll be, then just as just happy seeing and pushing for a system where the smallest minority, which is a very small minority of corrupt government individuals, are then allowed to control every aspect of society for everyone else, and they are able to use that as leverage, because if you don't follow, you know, what they want you to follow, then you'll have no job, no house, no access to medicine, as we've seen, so then they'll be today's liberal will be fine supporting those policies for other people, but then they'll complain about government overreach in whatever country, whatever capitalist country they live in, and it's just incomparable to witness how they really, they don't see it, they don't see the irony, and now only that, when you live in that kind of system, it's like they don't only make you're like miserable, they make your life and wherever you're affiliated, miserable,

16:41so they'll do a good job to make sure that your family isolates themselves for you, that like hey, if you want to be a part of this, you gotta give it a pin right here, so so that's the good thing, they do a great job separating, you know, families, in that the fall. That's exactly, that's exactly right, they rely on that, and they're counting on you to be afraid for your family, even after you've left, and that's how they've managed to keep Cubans quiet for as long as they have, I think because you know, you've got family behind, and they have jobs, whether they know, those never paid well, but they have jobs, they have lives, and they know, they have your family hostage, and so they rely on the rest of you to be afraid and quiet, else they'll suffer the circumstances, and so, you know, the family thing is, it's pretty crazy, I, that's actually my biggest motivation here, as soon as I, while everything was happening with July 11th, and then the Gideon, and the public speaking, as my husband and I were becoming

17:43husband and wife, and talking about family and kids, I got so passionate about that angle, and that side of things, the family unit, and just thinking back on my own, upbringing, everything that our government did to the family, and how that was the beginning of the end, for us, let's see, it's such an incredible, sad thing to see, it just reminds me of the importance of keeping the family together all the time, because Cubans unknowingly led the government into their family, right, so they, they allowed the government to feed their kids, teach their kids, clothe their kids, provide medical attention to their kids, so now they have all this leverage, and the government used that from day one to have everyone dependent on the state, and the family unit in Cuba is completely broken, and until we rebuild that, and until we are able to

18:44see the danger, when there's any kind of, you know, organization in charge of every aspect of your kids' lives, and that's not you, this is the result, and it's incredibly sad, and that's the first thing that needs to be rebuilt, I think. Yeah, 100%, and another thing they do, they do a great job on like, you trip the family that's over here to support the family that's behind over there, too, that's another thing I really see, because I know a lot of people, but I've got to say where I'm on money here, I've got to say my sister this, I've got to say clothes over there, I've got to send medicine, I've got some food, I've got to, I've got to, it's like he's saying, they do a great job keeping everybody full of hostage. Yeah, they are held hostage, and you feel terrible, because you know that they rely on you in many ways, but at the same time, Cubans abroad have been through remittances, they have been keeping, we as a whole have been keeping the dictatorship afloat for for all these years, for all these years, remittances are one of the biggest

19:47sources of income of the Cuban dictatorship, and because exactly they they hold our people hostage, and they rely on you feeling guilty, and you wanting to help, and it's one of their biggest sources of revenue. Yeah, that's, that's, it's a crappy, it's a crappy show, it's a crappy film. Yeah, that's right, yeah. Okay, go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, you go ahead, you go ahead. No, I want to touch base on something, because I had, I got into a remittance argument with one of my friends, and he's a, he's a, he's a liberal, and he said me something, you know, of course you know what's going on with Venezuela, you know, with the oil thing and Cuba, and I won't stress that out, but we all know what's going on, and that don't deal. So he's looking at me, and he's like, you know, how do you feel? The American is doing this, and America's doing that, and Venezuela can't support Cuba, and it like, you know, I've tried to break it down to him that, you know, our issue is not a monetary and canonical being a little bit too hard-headed, because he was just being overly passionate with his cause. So maybe you can help me out with the case in your, in your

20:49scenario, you know, you left there in 2019. Was it more than you left because of an economical thing or police? It's really intertwined. I don't think you can separate other two, because everything is a result, your entire life in Cuba is a result of the system that you're in, and whether you see it or not or you're not thinking about it, which was the case for many of us, you just, you think you want to leave because obviously the first thing in front of you is that you have no food or you're struggling, and then that's what you want to go. But when you step back and you look at it, of course it's a result of the lack of political freedom that you have, of the lack of freedom of movement, of the lack of freedom of investment, trading, the result of your, you know, education, the conditions of your hospitals, everything is one thing. There is one culprit, and that is the government. So there is no migrating from a place like Cuba for just economical reasons. It all comes together. Your economical

21:53situation is another result. Yeah, sorry, not to interrupt you, but not to say that your economy doesn't have a, doesn't play a party, but that's not the main reason why dad is going on too, because even if you do quote unquote the embargo that other stuff is still going to have the same problem, because they're still going to control everything, so they're still going to dictate how you eat, how you live, how you live, cook, all the other stuff. Exactly. Before I tell this all the time on social media when people try and use the embargo to show the Cuba situation is what it is, and I always say look, before sanctions were introduced completely in 62, Cuba has already had shortages of everything. We had shortages of fuel, we had lines for food, we had food rations, so we did not get here because of sanctions. Now you don't have to convince, most Cubans are staunch supporters of capitalism and free trade, and we understand the benefit of that, and that's what we want for our country. Now the reason we're not pushing for the embargo to be removed first

22:58is because we know that that isn't our real issue. We had all these issues before sanctions, because the Cuban government is exclusively the one that doesn't let us, again, really travel or trade or invest or fish in the ocean or sell our crops. It's not the U.S. government, and our government has made it very clear that they never intend on our economy even partially capitalist, so they will never even partially give up control or even a portion of the economy. So regardless of sanctions or not, so all that to say for anything to truly change, sanctions don't need to be removed. The Cuban dictatorship and the Cuban system need to be changed. Now after that, of course, we all dream of a future for Cuba with no sanctions and free travel and free commerce and all of that, that is what we want. It's just we'll never get there as long as this system is in place,

23:59and that's where we need to start. So yeah, and also I feel a lot of people just quote the embargo and quote sanctions without ever actually knowing what those look like, like sanctions, only target government-owned entities, not private citizens. The reason that I as a Cuban citizen couldn't be in Cuba and buy something and just have it shipped and set up my small business, it has nothing to do with the U.S. It has all to do with the Cuba government. So that's what we need to change and everything else will follow eventually. So I feel people love to put the embargo not knowing what that is and how much commerce there is between Cuba and the U.S. And last year, 2024, the U.S. was Cuba's fourth largest economic supporter, like most of our chicken comes from the U.S., most of our beans. So we do a lot of business with the U.S. as much as we can afford. Now, Cuba is not offered credit by the United States and by many countries, including allies these days because

25:03they just don't pay back and people go figure they don't want to pay for what they sell. So it's an escape code that they use to try and show that it has been a success. The socialist experimenting Cuba has been successful that just unfortunately, you know, affected by sanctions and that's not the case. Thank you. Thank you for dropping it just for my audience. Is it easy to see? Everything works for the government officials. They have never liked food homes, luxury hotels. There's everything that's luxury cars. There's a page on Instagram. I think it's called Autos Cuba. It's dedicated entirely to showing luxury cars in Cuba. We have everything. We have everything in Cuba. So somehow, if this is a blockade, as people call it, it's a pretty ineffective blockade, let's say. So everything is there. It's just not for the

26:05people. I need to help me out with something because last, I remember there was a point in time they never let Cubans go to the tourist section. Is there still one of the Cubans? They still can't go to the tourist section? I don't know about today because I haven't been since 2019, but before, by the time I left, that had changed. So when I was growing up, you could not go to a hotel. You could not sit at a hotel restaurant. You could not go to certain beaches. So the beach by the little, they would have these sections that are sectioned off because you as a Cuban national had no access. Even if you came with your own money, even if you wanted to enter a hotel and sit for a coffee, you could not do that. Now that had changed by the time I left, but it's a pretty recent development. I don't know. I want to say 10, 15 years because I do remember when that changed. So you do have some more access. I'm guessing these days as a Cuban national.

27:10Of course, it was never really the same. Tourists will always come first to the dictatorship. They want their money. So every space has always been more open and more welcoming to the tourists because they come with money. Not to the Cuban national. It's a pretty weird thing to witness. Being the last priority in your own country. Yeah, it's insane. It's really amazing. But it's funny. They go so hard to go against capitalism. They invite anybody who gives up some kind of sense of capital. The irony behind those two days is crazy. Of course. And all their kids, you know, they own like the grandsons of Castro and every Prime Minister, they all travel. They own all sorts of restaurants and businesses in the islands and outside that have companies importing cigars. They'll go study in private

28:15universities all over the world. So it just makes you wonder if the Cuban system is so wonderful. We've got the best education possible. Like you've wanted to sell the world. Why are all your kids without exception studying abroad, living abroad, having companies outside. I thought capitalism was bad. Oh, no, it's just bad for the people, but not for you. Not for you. Yeah. So this is the thing, because you know, sometimes I feel like I've been like a broker record, was it counts as guests that I had on my show, but it's like you have to be a broker record because the people still don't know what the heck going on. No, no, what's going on? They still want to invest on the live, support the live and still continue to tell the live when you know the truth is right in their face. So it's like, what's the agenda you got there that you so invented this live is ridiculous. Exactly. They just want to keep that cycle going. And every few years, it repeats itself. You know, they close, they tighten control. They stop issuing licenses for like the small businesses. They sometimes let you have. So you feel a little more, you know, free and in control.

29:20They'll let you have a small stand selling what so does or something. And then they'll start issuing licenses at some point. And then people start getting bolder. People start making money. Then they close those down again. And so it's, it's that cycle. And sometimes the issue will put out a statement like, oh, we're welcome to foreign, like we're opening. We're open to foreign investments. You know, you know, you know, if you're Cuban and you're abroad, we welcome you back, like coming best, your investment is safe. And people so to that, you'll see Cubans and nationals from other countries that go invest, they'll go, you know, purchase a house, they'll set up a restaurant, they'll do renovations, they'll pay for license. And then they're all shocked when six months on the line, you're either not allowed to open or the government came in and took everything from you. And people take to social media, like, can you please help me put this out? Like can you help me spread the word? I'm being robbed. And the rest of us are like, they've been doing this for 60 years. How crazy are you to put any kind of money or any kind of resource in that economy

30:26with that government where nothing ever belongs to you. And you've got no avenue for complaining or suing or defending yourself or securing your investment. Why would you do that? Why would you think that it's different this time? It makes no sense. And the people like that pushing for that to happen, all the paid supporters that you see in other countries that have no idea. Many of them have never even been to Cuba. You'll see them in protest, you'll see them here the capital, the capital of Texas, which is in Austin, you'll see them at the White House protesting, you know, for hands of Venezuela now or hands of Cuba. And you're like, we don't want hands of Cuba. We want our country back. We need all hands on tech if we can get them. Just to, you know, it's, it doesn't affect them. I've been to those protests and I've participated with it for our side. And I don't even take those guys even seriously before. They all bunch of hippies don't even shower. So it's like, why even bother coming after them? They stink.

31:29Yeah. And none of them are, you know, none of them are Venezuelan, none of them are Cuban. They're just paid, paid, paid liberal, white liberal hippies. See, who have way too much time off, if you start questioning them at least, you would think they're kind of familiar with the situation. They can't even answer the most basic questions. Like, what, what are your protests? And it's like, what type of law? Did you know that this exists? Like the embargo says like, why is that? And they're like, just just hands of Cuba. That's all I can't say. That's it. This is all I've got. And that's why it's so important to do the counter to counter that and to go out and, you know, I know we're busy. I always say, we, the rest of us are not as, we don't have that the amount of free time these people have, right? We're not getting paid to show up. We have to work, we've got lives, we've got dreams and things we're doing in families and, but we have to somehow find a time to even do this, you know, put out a conversation, talk to people, show up at a protest if you can. And so because the American, your average

32:32American needs to know where the truth is. And it's, it's, it's our duty to help them see that because they have no other way of knowing. A lot of people are just unaware and uneducated about things. And we all assume again that the world knows our situation that it's so obvious, it isn't, not to them because the Cuban government has done such an amazing job at selling this light to the world for so many years. And they have so many supporters across the world that again have never seen the truth, but this is people pushing whether they're being paid or they're just useful idiots that believe and figures like Castro and Chegavata. And so we need to counter that. We need to be vocal and start countering that. And we like this is actually not what that looks like. This is a truth. So yeah, I am seeing a shift though after July 11 and with the amount of people and support that people are showing the, you know, for the

33:36Cuban freedom cost, everything that's happening with Venezuela, everything that is happening with Venezuela, we are all very much excited and following that situation closely. And I don't think we've ever been this close to a real change in our region when it comes to removing, again, one of the longest running dictatorships in our continent at this point, which has been as well, because they've been almost going on 30 years at this time. And they've shown that, you know, people can protest, people can vote, they have voted, they have shown up, they have shown the world that they want to be free and they can't and they need a hand. And hopefully that's what we're starting to see. And we'll see what comes out of that. But at the very least, the international support that the Venezuelan cost is getting is amazing. And we're very happy to see it with my decodina. We're winning the Nobel Prize at all. That's just such a big slap on the

34:39socialist agenda that they had pushing worldwide. You can see a shift in that trend in that support. I don't think five years ago that would have even been a possibility. Like the Nobel committee actually giving a Nobel Prize to an outspoken opposition leader, like an anti-socialist, that would have never happened. And it's happening now. So hopefully, I'm also starting to see some celebrities in Hollywood and all that starting to speak up about certain things that are anti, you know, socialists, anti-Marxists. And you would have never seen that a few years back. Nikki Modars, the turning point was something I never thought I would see in a million years. And I'm not a fan of turning point or the political views of Kate, but the fact that she took that step to go through your posts inside and show you some videos. Because, you know, she talked about Christian values. She talked about all the stuff that she pull us though. You know, she got bad news.

35:43Whatever the case may be, even though you're questioning her entertainment skills or people who she picked or whatever, there's something about it that she's felt like, you know, I feel a certain way about this, you know, after when it spoke to the issue going on in Nigeria. And you know, with that, I mean, it took a lot. It's been a whole thing because a lot of people turned on her, but then all of a sudden she got like just, she got like 200 more, 200,000 more follows on. Followers. On, on, on next. Yeah. So it's been a lot. And I think more people is going to be more unspoken on what's going on with the issues because it's like, you're not going to, it's like we talked about the COVID thing behind the scene. You just can't be bullying people and say, you need to do this. And if you don't do this, we're going to just stop on you. People are fighting back. And then we're starting. They're fighting on by the people that becomes a real aggressor. So once you fight back and swing back, they'll just let go. That's what it's to do. Just let go. Yeah. All of them like this. It's like the pump fake. Like they're actually going to hit you, but they're not. They're relying on you to be scared. Yeah. And then once you put back a punch with a face, it's like that's her or okay,

36:44okay, okay, won't leave it alone. So yeah, that's all we do right now. They just rely on on threatening your status, I guess, and your follow account and the opportunities that you may have work-wise. But it's so refreshing to see celebrities and people that have a lot to lose, actually. Not caring anymore. I'm saying, look, this is what I think. I recently saw 50s. I'm not sure if you follow him. I'm sure you do, but 50 cents. I love his account. It's really funny. And he also posted something. He retweeted something that Donald Trump Jr. said about him. And he's always really funny. And he's also, he also posted some stuff disagreeing with with Mamdani before he was about to be elected in New York City. And so that type of thing, whether it's in jest or not, you would've never seen that before. And it's so refreshing to see all these, all these celebrities just kind of coming and saying, this is what I think about this. This is funny art. Listen, and you deal with it if you don't like it. So I expect that we see more of that.

37:49It's going to be more of a dance. It's going to be baby steps. I mean, there's people that feel certain things behind the scenes, but they don't want to ruin their career, which I also get also. But I think it's not so, you know, I had enough because this is more for me. This is not right. So I get it. I get it. And it's more respect for that because it's more of the underdog. And somebody, somebody no matter what, it's going to like a v-witch or a rock with you. So I think it's right. Because I think alone. And you have to take that chance earlier rather than later, because in countries like ours, that's what happens. A lot of people went along. A lot of people did support the revolution. Of course, he did have, unfortunately, the majority of support. And people loved and idealized pastor and his people, especially in our grandparents generation, which was crazy to see. And a lot of people still do in that generation. But for the rest of the people that were kind of in between that didn't care. They just went along with that. They just went along because you didn't want to face the consequences and be without a job. And everything started escalating. So whereas before you would have had, you know, people look at you

38:51funny or you exchange words or you maybe risk promotion. If you let that type of pressure and society and government overreach to take over your life, one day it's not going to be your promotion in the line. It's going to be your job. It's going to be your freedom. You're going to go to jail. Like you have to put a stop to that when you see that type of overreach from anyone and that type of pressure to speak a certain way. So it's better that you do it. It's better that you do it sooner rather than later. Yep. For sure. Yeah. Have you been to Cuba at all? No, you haven't. No, no. I came close. It was funny. I came close before COVID because I was in my end of the time. If you know what, let me just go see it because what I got to lose is been this than a third and then boom, COVID hit. Other things that happened in my life that I couldn't go but hope played a major part of it. Then you went, okay, I was wiser than you was in the state, which is not going to anything, you know, as much as they promote the medicine to the third, they were like, oh, we don't have anything right now to save you guys. So a lot of

39:53you're going to die. It's yeah. So they pretty much told you to your faith. Yeah, we don't have, what you think we have. We're only going to take care of the people at an upper level and people in the low level. You're figuring it out. You better call your American family or something because we don't got it. And that's what a halt. And then the following year came to that 11, so I'm like, oh, no, I'm definitely not going to die. Definitely not. Yeah. I think July 11 and COVID before then, it really opened a lot of people's eyes, myself included, to the dangers of visiting a place like Cuba, which have always been there. But maybe they were not as obvious and we also didn't have social media like we have it now. But when you travel to a place like Cuba, you are really at the mercy of the government for everything. And so if they decide to not let you travel out, if they, if you somehow see just nothing involved in any kind of legal situation and they just want to keep you there without a right to a lawyer or a fair trial, if you get into

40:53any small accident, if you get sick and they have no antibiotics, there is nothing for pain. There is nothing at all. We've started to see after COVID, especially how, how that can look and how families have been affected by the family that went on vacation and now the kid has the simplest or ear infection. And there is nothing to treat your baby. And now you are pan-taking and you're going through this nightmare over something so small and people are starting to realize I should not be traveling, unfortunately, to a place like Cuba where I have no conditions and no rights to do anything pretty much. So it is also very difficult, impossible to travel to a country like Cuba and not support with your money, you know, the Cuban government because they own everything, everything, everything. So we're hoping for a change soon so we can all freely visit and not have these things be an issue. Yeah, cross fingers, cross fingers at the

41:56parliament. You know, like I said, I never been there because once my parents left, they said, we're not going back to the things changed. So it came that movie. And then I'm like, is it ever going to, is before all this stuff, you know, happened, is it ever going to change? And then they were like, first, it was like, when I was a kid, yes, it's going to change. Then I was a teenager. It was like, I don't know. And I got older, like, I don't even know anymore. It's something, whatever. I think we're closer than ever now to seeing a change. And I think that could potentially be via Venezuela and everything that's happening there. Because they are propping the the Cuban government up in many ways through oil and all these things. So you know, we're very much looking forward to regime change in Venezuela. And we're very much looking forward to seeing how that can translate to our own situation in our country. The thing about this, I know we're all looking at Venezuela. And hopefully we could be next, but the problem, not the problem, but I'm

42:58hoping is that we just put, we don't just put our hands in our pocket. And we're like, well, let's hope America handles a little America does some kind of miracle because the problem with them to us, I think one of the things that we did, we can rely on other countries to fight our battle. And we've done a terrible job in that department because this is the same conversation we had in the late 90s when the, when the Soviet Union fell, when the Soviet Union fell, it was like, oh, now I was going to happen. Now it's really going to fall. And they kept going. They came in 1994 when the second company came, oh, now it's really going to fall because you know, now things, then you were in Cuba, put in two thousand and simple because they'll got sick. He was like, oh, now it's really going to have to go. He's going to say, then he died. And then he died. Oh, now it's really good. Yeah. And then they have pigs all all the way back. Now, now it's the time. Now it's the time. And we just, you know, we keep, we'll look, we're talking about it like from, like we're like a, like a, like a, like a, like people from like the audience, like from, from a sand base, you know, hoping that like America does something or somebody else in spite of battle. And they're like, no, we, we, we have to do this. We have to go and like, you know,

44:00keep putting the fun to people's neck. Not only us, the people in Cuba got to do that part. And you know, keep protesting and, you know, keep fighting, fight the resilience because just two weeks ago, there was a protest out there. And I wouldn't even really, I was like kind of out of tune. I was going on because I just had to shut off from the internet world. But who called me, somebody called me, they're like, oh, they're back in the streets again. And then they ended up going off. Then what's the internet went off? They turned it back on. They got their racing water and they went back to the regular schedule program. So that's the thing that gets a little bit annoying because it's like, no, I don't want my race. I want you guys to leave. Yeah. And they, they know, the government knows exactly how to calm everything down when there's a protest. And like, just bring a truck with water, just bring a little bit more food, just give them a little extra power. And then people are so desperate for even these basic things that they'll obviously get distracted. And like, we see it all the time on social media. Like, you guys are outside. You don't know, you have no rights to demand people in the island to do the things you never did, right? But at the end of the day,

45:05you are in there. It is only going to be up to you and no one else to overthrow this government at some point. Yes, with outside help, yes, hopefully with the help of whoever wants to help us, right? But at the end of the day, it's us. And I think there's something that the Venezuelan people have gotten right. And they are, they still have that fight. And then, which I always, I am in such awe. And, you know, it's just surprised me all the time and in the best way. I really admire that they still have that. You know, it's also, it also hasn't been that long for us how long, how many years they really take, took the fight out of most Cubans. But when Venezuelans are still showing up, they're showing up to vote. You have large protests. And they are backing Marla Corina. And hopefully with the outside help, they'll be willing to make that change. But it's going to be up to us. I completely agree. No one is coming to save us, but ourselves.

46:05It's no one responsibility to come and save us. We got ourselves into this situation. I always say, we have stayed in this situation because of all of us. We have decided to stay in this situation. Because the consequences have been joyful. I'm going against that system. And I'm not trying to downplay that in any way you are. You were and you are risking your life by going against the Cuban government. But if we don't do that as a country, we'll never going to see a change. Relying on the US, Donald Trump, whatever it doesn't, it's never going to work in that way. So if anything, that can be some extra support. But hopefully we can take some inspiration from what's happening in Venezuela. And from Venezuela, it's on the way they are fighting back and ready. Just getting ready to support the cost they're fighting for if it comes down to it. And hopefully we can do the same at some point. That's cross-finger than that. That's cross-finger. I want to touch on something because I find it very interesting that

47:10you became like, but I know people pay the big part of it. How do you convert yourself from being like a fool from an atheist to like finding people? What was that dynamic in that part? Because I like, for one extreme, and you go to this section, I don't know if you want, I don't know how extreme argument you're religion, but you went to that extreme, but I know that with your future, if you go to religion and Cuba is a no-no. So how do you went from that without the finding place? I still don't really know. I think it was honestly the Holy Spirit. I always felt that I was never alone when I was, when I was in Cuba as a kid, let's say. That's how I felt. It was a very taboo thing in my household to have even mentioned, let's say God or the fact that I had started praying to God quietly since I was the kid, but I never told anyone because I knew my family and I knew that as much as they loved me and as much as they're good people, they would have felt their house kind of crazy. So I never shared that with the world. After I became an adult, I started

48:16getting involved in church, especially in Cayman. That's when that first happened. But it was more about the sense of community and you know, giving back to the community and wanting to help people and volunteering my time to make a positive impact, I guess, in the community. It was kind of about that and not about having a relationship with God or knowing what Jesus was. It was only after I moved to the Austin, Texas and my husband. Again, he was brought up Catholic. He wasn't really a church goer at the time, but we had talked about faith on and off and I had a bunch of questions and doubts and I was still very adamant about, well, I don't know if there's the God, so I don't know. And he would just keep asking, so what were you praying to, a way? I was like, I don't know. They're asking all these questions. I don't want to think about it. And eventually we were talking about finding a church and maybe getting some of those questions

49:19answered because we knew that we wanted to raise our kids, you know, in the faith and the Christian faith. And I had no idea what that really looks like for me. But we got into a small car accident in 2021 and I was driving. That was a crazy day. And so what I know, he keeps telling me, because I always tell him, you have to, you better try slow. You're not doing it right. Like, careful, and he always tells me, so who has actually been in a car accident? Yeah. Well, I almost don't tell him me. I've never been in an accident. You on the other hand, it was a crazy thing. We were just driving on the road and I was driving. He was having lunch next to me. We were actually on the way to sign the contracts for what would be our first home. At the time, so we're excited and as I'm driving, I didn't notice that the light in front of me had turned flat. So I ran into the pick up truck in front of me. But it was only like their

50:21tail light was damaged and one of our side mirrors. It wasn't a huge thing, but I was very scared. So as I got out of the car and he gets out of the car to now deal with insurance and all that, the couple that's standing there, this is a busy highway, right? So, and it's like an elderly couple, like, and I was like, oh my gosh, they're going to start screaming at me. This is terrible. I just damaged their nice looking brand new pick up truck. And as I get out of the car, I'm just apologizing, right? I'm so sorry. This happened. I have no idea. I didn't see the light turn red. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And they were just the gentleman was just standing there holding two little testaments. And he just said, it's okay to worry about it. Don't stress. You know, it looks minor. I don't want you to worry. We're going to figure it out. Do you have a home church by any chance? And I was like, what? And my husband is there with like the insurance and for like, I'm sorry, what? Where's all the yelling? Where's all this screaming? And the man just kept saying, I'm just,

51:21I don't know if you know about Jesus, but we would love to have you. I'd love to give this to you. And if you have no plans this Sunday, we would love to come have you join us at church. So Daniel, my husband was working that Sunday, but I just kept thinking about that encounter. And I said, I'm the most careful driver. I'm the most careful driver. And somehow this happened to me. And we've been talking about going to church and whatnot. And then this happened that just the man just he just started sharing the gospel with us on the side of the busy highway. I'm going to join them at church by myself. And then I did. I just decided to go. I decided to go and I sat with them and their names were Simon Linda. And we sat with their kids and grandkids. And it was a great experience. So Daniel joined me the week after that. And we started going and long story short a few months later, we formally accepted Jesus, you know, as our as our savior. And

52:23that was incredible. And that was the start of of getting some of those questions answered. And just at least that journey. And that's pretty much how I started going to church. It's it was a little while, but it's been such a perfect way for things to happen for me at least, because I'm a very inquisitive person. And I'm always I still am that person that has the question. That person that, you know, it's going to ask and come to a question at church. And that is not just going to settle with the, oh, this is how we things are type of things. So it's just been incredible. The acceptance that I have had in the church community in Austin. And the people that we've met, the community that we have, their family, their pretty much family. We actually got married at the home of Simon Linda's daughter. That same year, it was just incredible. And they are

53:24one of our closest friends still. And I don't know. I just started, you know, reading my Bible after that, I joined Bible studies and women's group. Emma has been and I started going to small groups. And we just started to grow in our Christian faith and decided that we definitely wanted to strengthen our faith to strengthen our marriage and for our kids to be raised in that way. And it also really showed me the power that removing religion and God from the Cuban society, the impact that that had in our country. And hopefully we can get that back. Not because people have to believe in God. Again, it's a personal choice. But forcefully removing faith from a society has had such detrimental effects on our people. And you know, the Cuban people have no hope. We are a hopeless society today. And that's something that Venezuelans have not let go of. And they believe in their God. They have their faith. They know that the states and this precedent they have today,

54:29it's not the ultimate authority. It's not their God. And they have not lost that and we did. And we have to get it back. Hopefully we will. You know, if you've got a chance to, there was an ever question before we get you out of here. This is, this is, of course, I always had all the Cubans before I get them out of here. Oh, go for it. The lie 11. Where were you and where were the reaction? So I was actually on Lake Travis in Austin. We were going on a boat with all of our friends. And I'll never forget. I'll never forget because I just could not focus. I did not, I was on my phone. Yeah. And people kept saying, you have to get up. Why are you on your phone? Like, what are you doing? And my husband was there. And I just could not believe what was happening. I was like, I need to get off this boat and eat like proper internet. There's a protest. I have never seen that in my country, not to this magnitude. This is groundbreaking. And we were just all sharing and posting and sharing and talking to one another. And you see in this and

55:30trying to get a hold of your family and the internet was down. And people didn't know what was going on. Like the family that we have that I have there because they don't have access to information like we do on real time. And so it was just a lot. I didn't sleep for the days. Like this first week, we were, I'm sure you were the same. We were like posting and sharing and waking up in the middle of the night. Like, what's happening? Is it, are we free yet? So it was, it felt so refreshing to have that hope that we've never had. And that's what I was doing. And it marked before and then after. Yeah. I wrote, I wrote clean up. I don't know, I was actually in Florida when that happened because I was on my little vacation tip or whatever. Oh wow. That was the place to be. I was in Florida. I was in Florida a lot of day. And then I was sleeping and I just woke up and then like I was watching the news and I breaking news. It's a big process going on in Cuba. But it isn't the third. I'm like holy crap. And it kept like, it was one of those things. It was showing every 15 minutes, every 15 minutes, every 15 minutes on the local Newt. And then it went from that. And then you had all the Cubans in Versailles. And then

56:35got your whole trip protested. And you know, sewing solidation. I pulled my mug up north. I'm like, yo, are you watching this? It's like, yes, I'm watching the newtum. Everybody was just sitting there and being intense. So just the fact I was able to be at the heart of it. It was just like, overwhelming for me or whatever. And then I'm going online and I don't know what happened in that department. But I like the first time ever. Like I'm seeing all Cubans. I'm like, I don't recall having that many Cuban friends on Instagram for whatever reason. It'll get coming on my Instagram or all these Cubans talking and, you know, saying they part. So I guess my algorithm was popping up and saying like, you know, if you're interested in this, take a look at that. So I'm like, oh, this is major. This is major. Yeah. And it was something that finally better fuse. So now we got some kind of momentum going. So it's a wonderful thing. And we have to keep it going. Yes. And final question, the $50,000 question I was telling people, do you think we're going to see a free Cuba? Yes. We will see a free Cuba. And it's closer than it's ever been. I know it's been a long time coming and it feels a lot of days. It feels like we're getting nowhere.

57:37But we are getting cases. We see it in their policy changes and we see them desperate, desperate trying to come up with ways to capture those US dollars that are, you know, escaping them. And we see them just scrambling for their lives and seeing what else can they do to keep that regime afloat? Now that most Cubans have woken up and they don't have remittances like they used to. They don't have tourism like they used to. They don't have the worldwide support like they used to from other countries and the donations like they used to. And they are desperate. And they see what's happening in Venezuela and they see what's happening everywhere. And so we just have to keep it going. Even if it looks like nothing is changing, it is. We are going to see a free Cuba. So no, rather than later. Thank you. That's what's up. Yeah. And before I get out of here, I think the worst thing that the Cuban people, the Cuban government has right now, the worst, the worst enemy right now is the Internet because they didn't even know that the Internet could be so powerful that we had this little thing on our phone that go able record and show what was going on.

58:37You know, I had the truth. So yes, thank God for the Internet. So Gabby, thank you. What are we doing? Hopefully we do this again near the future. Yes. One more episode. And we talk about why we do a lot of stuff. So I'm trying to get something going with the rest of the Cuban kids in so you can get something going. Let's do it. Let's get it. And if you're ever in Austin, I'll be here. We'll connect and we'll do one of these soon. How far is Austin from Dallas? It's two and a half hours. Hey, in Texas, in Texas around the corner. All right. All right. All right. We'll talk. We'll talk about that. If you're ever planning a trip to Dallas, let me know. We can plan a weekend's up there. All right. We can have it. No doubt. All right. All right, guys. All right. This little retaped deck. I will make the cast me here every Friday for six to seven. I'll catch you next time here at St. Tafedic Time, St. Tafedic Channel. Gabby, 100 thank you. I'll catch you on Instagram. Thank you.