Irma González, Irmita (1984), is the elder daughter of the family conformed by the industrial engineer Olga Salanueva (1959) and the flight instructor and pilot of commercial airplanes René González Sehwerert (1956), Héroe of the Republic of Cuba, one of the Five.

However, to Irmita -the family reserves «Irma» for the paternal grandmother – she neither enjoys piloting neither the engineering, and she is about to finish (in June 2006) the third year of Psychology in the homonymous faculty at HavanaUniversity.

She was born under Gemini sign, which constellation is represented by the twins but, after being talking with her during two hours, we concluded that really she is more matured than what anyone could expect, more than she looks like, or as we say here, in Cuba, to express this singularity:« She doesn't resemble anybody!».

Olga told us how much René, her husband, wanted Irmita to be born on that Sunday June 17th of 1984, the Father’s Day.The bill failed for one day: the girl was born on Monday 18th.

We decided to interview the young woman on Father’s Day occasion, twenty-two years later. Her own mother, Olga, remarked how both dates were about to match now– finally daddy’s desire will come true- and we realized then the bidirectional sense that would have this interview as a gift to René González, father and Héroe of Cuban Republic for having the possibility of congratulating his daughter, the university student Irma G. Salanueva.

Overpassing both goals,having the VII FEU Congress in front of us, this work would achieve a pair of super-goals, proving that cosmovision and the daily-facing-life approach are the keys to assure the invulnerability of any ideological credo and also they can stimulate member actions in the Freedom Federation for the return to our Island of our Five countrymen.

It is necessary to point out that the majority ofthe questions that we employed as a way of boarding such purposes, signalled the same person, the same Irmita, this young girl in the flesh making a big effort to bethis neighbour’s daughter that, after all, she is.

FREE AND HUMBLE

We would like to discover some memories conserved by you about your father, orsome stories about the relationship between both of you –we approach straightaffections,feelings.

I am crazy in loved about my dad. I was six years old when he left. They told me he went to study. But when I saw the time passing and my daddy delaying so much, such along time, such a long, long time andhe did not return. I started feeling a pain in my chest … I don't know if you have passed thru it, to feel an anguish growing andgrowing inside of you with the conviction of his absence up to the moment when it was completely normal. It was really a very hard time.

Six years later (in 1996), you met him in the USA.

I met there the same dad as well as he used to be, but for me he was suddenly meeting another kind of people, who was against Cuba. I started to understand what was going on for some signs to me.Neither my mom, neither he, they never told me anything explicitly. He sometimes had to take us to family meetings with those people, but back home, he sat down with me giving rare chats, just telling me the contrary of that I heard in voices and words expressed in those meetings. Then I had notions about the more recent history of CubanIsland, I was about 12-14 years old, and already I could infer and translate what was happening. That is why I confirmed my suspicious with his arrest on September of 1998.

By law-life, children are usually selfish with their parents. Did you never reproach your dad for making you to live those difficulties?

May be joking, may be seriously, he has asked me that question; even fear to hear a tough answer. I cannot remember his own words, but in essence, they were such us: « Did I bother you passing thru so much?Are you angry with me? Do you think I am a bad father to you»? Then, I just have looked at him, grumbled, laugh and I kissed him... without reproaching him. I think that if I never have done it to him before, when I was a little girl or an adolescent, less I would reproach him now that I know more things than before...

It is a paradox …, you and your family are depriving yourselves of your father’s proximity due to the noble cause that he defends.

Is just my dad the one who suffers more than anyone (in our family) because of that injustice: he has also been unfair deprived of his wife's and daughters´ proximity, and (to make it worse) he is still imprisoned! The great paradox is that, he is relegating himself to that condition to defend, more than us, as his personal family, the entire Cuban family, and that is why we are completely convinced that he took the best decision. We miss him every moment and we see him in our dreams returning home, but we do not blame him, neither we have reproached him anything.

Neither do you blame him for some of the conflicts in which you could be involved, as a young girl, during your adolescence and during first years of your maturity age?

That is a critical phase (showed upthe psychologist), that is the stage when the personality is structured and the young people enrolls up in any kind of conflicts. There was a time when life could have been hard enough for me, but even so, I should thank my dad for it.

DAD, DEAR DAD

It was a hard time and however, do you thank him for it?

It could not have been different. Can you imagine how many of this things happened?My dad left, and everybody knows about it but me. I should have go from here to there dealing with formalities without being allowed to go to see him. Then, I met him in a system, or a society, that was completely strange for me. After all this, when I finally got there, they arrested him, and I was submitted to many psychological pressures... It was hard, really was, but I learned that one’s perception is only conformed from the different circumstances under whichcan be support your own conclusions, if they were easy or difficult, in dependence, of course, of your own capacity to face them. I should pass thru all that, alone with my mom. She is actually extraordinary too. I became conscious of those consequences, derived from the fact of my daddy’s decision of taking chances in spite of all and everything. That taught to me to face life and it allowed me to grow up.

Do you prefer to have a common father close to you or a father Héroe far away, as you do?

(Her authenticity impresses.) I feel proud of my dad, but I lied ifI would tell you that I do not prefer to have my dad close to me, here with me, so that I could request him for an advice every time I wanted. My haughtiness and understanding of his mission are not quarrelled with my desire of having him near to me. Anyone in my place would feel the same way. I would like that he were here, with my mom, with my sister, with me. It is out of doubt, of course, I would prefer a father close to me, but I understand that not everything is the way you want it, it is necessary to accept life as it is, the acceptance is the base of adulthood.

When you speak about your father, in which terms are you expressing your self about him?

It is difficult to me to speak about my daddy and to mean them, the Five. For me he is just it, my daddy, and my sister's Ivette father, and the others, the four ones, for me are Tone and Gabriel’s father (I mean, Tony Guerrero).Ailí´s, Laura´s and Lizbeth´s father (I mean, Ramón Labañino). Rosa Dawn's husband (I mean, Fernando González) and Adriana’s husband (I mean, Gerardo Hernández). For me, they are five men, parents or family of children. Those terms are in which I speak. What I more desire in the world is that my daddy can be here playing with my sister, seating by me, caressing my mom... I cannot cross my arms: I know I should fight for their liberation, for their return.

How is the people relationship with you?

I feel that they treat me like anyone else. In my Faculty, I am just Irmita: the one that studies, goes to a party, sits down at the yard to chat with them, and calls them by phone… I have friends that I know that they love me just the way I am.

Because you are one of the Five’s daughter, do they treat you in a different way?

I have my own spaces. They are mine because I have earned them, just as any one else, for being the way I am, with my defects and virtues. There is people who loves me, advises me, and joins my family or friendship circle. There is people in which I can trust.

THE NOSTALGIA WEIGHT

If you were not a Héroe´s daughter, we insist, would they treat you in the same way?

I trust myself. I have self-esteem. I have self-perception capacity. I am not announcing me. I neither inflate nor fill out my self with that fact that my father is a hero. I am the fruit of a mortal human couple. Moreover, from that attitude rises my certainty. Because being a René’s sprout, the other ones are related in the same way to me: they make it and they would make it for me, for the human being that I am, not for being the daughter of a CubanRepublic Héroe or one of the Five’s daughter.

Nevertheless want it or not, you are the daughter of one of them. Under that condition, are you forced to act « in a way» or «in another»?

I could not describe you how do I act in my daily life. I do not stop myself thinking if it is or not pertinent to do something, if my behaviour is correct or not in accordance with the fact that I am the daughter of one of them. I behave as I feel that I should behave, according to the way that I consider more appropriate for me, satisfying my necessities, and it makes me feel well. There is only a zone of my life in which I act according to the circumstances and it is related with my dad and his comrades’ life: the one referred to the press. When I am giving an interview like this one that today, I dispense you. I give my own contribution, my grain of sand in the liberation and return of the Five. I can not stay inactive, passive, in front of the media press, it would be an impeachable posture.

There is a made sentence: «To be at the height». Do you understand that you should stand up «at your father's height»?

My dad has never demanded me that. He does not consider him self a person «of height»; he always tells me that « If I could believe about my self that I am better than anyone of those that raise a flag for my freedom, then I would not deserved neither their flag stick»... But it is for real that my own, nowadays, it is influenced by my father whom also is for me a special person; and by my mother too,in addition, by my grandparents; and by my family and friends; and by my society and my culture... Therefore, after all, in short, I believe that I am not so bad; I believe that I reached a worthy height... (Moreover, he laughs with pleasure).

To demand you to get your dad's height, it would be then impertinence.

Nobody could demand me something like that, my father is happy for me being just as I am.

What does it mean for you, the fact that your father is a Héroe of the CubanRepublic?

It is another proof of the kindness of the Cuban people that shows our entire Cuban people as a great Héroe. With all and everything, my daughter condition of a Héroe of the CubanRepublic is not the first and decisive circumstance of my life.

How (much) heavy it is being the daughterofsuch a Héroe?

But... (it is the first time that she hesitates) It is heavy enough just for the mere fact of not having my daddy with me. Sometimes, I get home and I feel so sorry watching my mother’s face without smile, or making her self up just for going to a meetingrelated with the fight for the liberation of the Five...It is heavy in thatmoment when I speak with my father and I perceive his nostalgia... It is an instant when the situation becomes dense, but around it turns a huge activity deployed by us for their returning and for making less heavy their absence than it actually seems to be.

WINGS FOR THE FEELING

Do you get tired for carrying that weight on?

There are days when crying is allowed. You can get in to your room; lock it up giving your self that luxurious chance. However, it would not be fair, even right, to allow your self to live frightening and complaining. At the end, my father is alive and he is fighting too. How many young people didn't have their parents, lost because of sabotage? It may me feel sad that my dad is not next to me, but Ihope that he will return and that conviction maintains me in this fighting. When I attend the Family of Barbados Victims Committee and I see how their orphan children battle for the return of the Five, I tell myself, «that is a real teaching,a truthful lesson!», and then I remember that my dad is imprisoned for preventing the terrorism proliferation.

Your father wanted that in 1984,you were born, on Sunday,June 17th, the Parents Day.The bill failed just for one day. Nevertheless, in this 2006 both dates match...

It is only a coincidence (she smiles again). Birthday date is a day like another one and I don't pay much attention to that. I understand that for my daddy this eventualitywould be a reason of joy, but I think that what really makes him happy is to know that the Parents Day my sister and I will remember him, because we love him and we are proud of having a father like him.

How do you, as a university student, imagine must be the battle for the liberation of the Five?

Youth is more sentimental than anyone could imagine. When I say sentimental, I do not mean to express sensibility in a ridiculous word sense. I don’t mean who acts for affective impulses, but the one who expresses or causes tender feelings, with a sentimental value: youth is open to get affective messages. In my own Faculty, although, it does notshows up, we really walk in this way, we are quick, slight, flying, it is not more than appearance, truly we are people with weight and depth, able to observe, to capture, to identify, to move and to compare. The battle for the liberation of the Five among the brigades of the FEU should give from our own students, compromising them, yes, but keeping in mind its peculiarities, its way of being, and for this, it is necessary the good will.

What is it for you the good will?

To make what should be made, but with positive mind, with optimism, and mainly, with the faith and the conviction of that the other one «also can do it». There it is the secret, the explanation of that «a better world is possible.»

Among the condemnations that received the Five, your father got the shortest of them: 15 years. Still when the United States government maintains them kidnapped, your father would be the first one to terminate the sanction and to return home: it is almost 8 years of jail more...

I do not like to speak about it.Their return under those conditions would not make me feel well. I know that my dad would not be happy if he can return and his siblings remained imprisoned. I have a good, a very good will and a lot of faith!that the Five will come out and they will arrive together in Cuba: the same day!, at the same hour!