"I am a poor Black woman. I have no resources at all, and my son, the Cuban political prisoner Yunior García Viscay (32 years old), is starving in the prison of Guanajay, in Artemisa."
Who is speaking is Marieta Viscay Mendoza, a 50-year-old mother residing in the municipality of Songo La Maya, in Santiago de Cuba. She is requesting financial assistance to cover the thousand kilometers that separate her from her son, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021.
Yunior García Viscay was first transferred from Valle Grande prison to the Combinado del Este and now to Guanayay, following his mother’s decision to raise his case in the media. He calls her infrequently from jail because he exchanges the time allotted for phone calls for food, and on the few occasions he speaks with Marieta Viscay, he tells her he is starving.
"Help me so I can see my son," asks his mother from the humble wooden house, which has no furniture and a wood-fired kitchen, where she lives in Songo La Maya. "To be able to correct things, I had to make a hole over there in the distance," she comments, referring to the area she uses as a bathroom, out in the woods.
Since her son was imprisoned on July 25, 2021, Marieta Viscay has only been able to see him once, and that was thanks to donations sent from abroad. Now she is once again appealing to the goodwill of Cubans. Those who can help, with anything since all assistance is welcome, can obtain a contact phone number through the email tania.costa@cibercuba.com.
In a phone conversation with CiberCuba, Marieta Viscay broke down in tears while talking about her son. She suffers because she can't bring food to Artemisa from Songo La Maya. "That costs thousands of pesos, and I don't earn anything from anywhere. Now I'm going to eat a peeled sweet potato. I don't mind. Sometimes I don't even want to live," she said.
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