[Ppnews] The Cuban Five - The bird and the prisoner

[Political Prisoner News]

The bird and the prisoner

This is How it All Began - 
<http://www.cubadebate.cu/especiales/2009/11/17/historia-gerardo-hernandez-prision-ave-pajaro/>Espanol

By Alicia Jrapko

Translation: Machetera

Once upon a time, a bird made friends with a 
prisoner.  Both were incarcerated in the United 
States and both were unjustly imprisoned for 
defending Cuba from terrorist activity.

This is how the story began.  On June 4, 2009, 
the same day as his birthday, Gerardo Hernandez 
heard about this creature.  He found out about it 
through a prisoner whose last name was Lira, who 
worked in the prison factory.  Lira and a guard 
were cleaning the roof with a pressure hose and 
without meaning to or perhaps without knowing, 
they destroyed a nest that contained three 
chicks.  Two of them died instantly but one 
remained alive.  They were so tiny that they 
didn't even have any feathers.  It's possible 
that they had just barely hatched.

The guard was visibly moved, and feeling 
responsible, allowed Lira to bring the chick 
secretly inside the prison to try to save 
it.  The prisoner arrived with the chick in the 
palm of his hand and not knowing what to do with 
it, began to ask the other prisoners what to 
do.  Someone suggested: Ask Cuba [the nickname 
the prisoners had given Gerardo]; he likes 
animals and surely he will know what to 
do."  That's how Gerardo came to be summoned, and 
he came to the cell where they kept the bird.

Gerardo's first reaction was to whistle, 
imitating what he imagined the chick's mother 
would have done.  He moved his fingers as though 
they were little wings.  Miraculously, the little 
bird opened its beak.  Gerardo began to give it 
breadcrumbs and later, dipped his fingers in 
water and let the drops fall softly into the little bird's beak.

Gerardo didn't want to take the bird to his cell, 
but every day he went to feed it.  The problem 
was that at the beginning, the bird didn't want 
to take food from anyone except Gerardo.  One day 
it occurred to Gerardo to offer the chick a few 
slivers of fish, and afterwards the rascal didn't 
want breadcrumbs any more.  His feathers began to 
grow and so Gerardo taught it to eat on its 
own.  He put the bits of food in the palm of his 
hand and the little bird came fearlessly.

However, the prisoners were worried.  If an 
inspection were to happen, the little bird would 
be a problem.  Since he was already quite a bit 
bigger, they let him loose in the patio so that 
he might fly free.  The bird flew a little while 
and then returned to Gerardo's shoulder.  Every 
time he tried to fly with the other birds, they 
rejected him with little pecks.  Little by little he gained confidence.

Gerardo went alone to the wing where his cell 
was, but when he returned to the patio, the bird also returned to see him.

Once there were many prisoners in the 
patio.  Someone told Gerardo that the bird was 
perched on the concertina wire surrounding the 
prison.  Gerardo whistled, and in front of all 
the prisoners, the little bird appeared out of 
nowhere and landed on his 
shoulder.  Incredible.  Everyone talked about 
it.The little bird was named Cardinal, because 
Gerardo had painted its tail feathers with a red 
marker to distinguish him from all the rest. The 
ink affected the bird a bit.  It lost its tail 
feathers but only for a little while.  Later they 
grew back, in their natural color.  However, the name remained: Cardinal.

On a different occasion another prisoner found 
the little bird in the patio with its beak 
stretched open.  It was very hot, and the bird 
was thirsty.  Gerardo gave it water.  He hid the 
bird under his hat in order to go inside without 
the bird being seen.  Of course the guards 
realized he had something odd on his head. 
"What's under the hat?" they asked, and Gerardo 
answered, "Nothing." Cardinal answered as well, 
whistling like crazy.  "Don't tell me you're 
training him to take messages to Fidel," said one of the guards, laughing.

The story didn't end there.  Gerardo brought the 
bird to his cell and made a nest for him to stay 
there with him.  He played with him, letting him 
rest on his shoulder, or on his head.  When 
Gerardo was writing, the bird came to play and 
Gerardo would pet him gently, to calm him.  So 
Cardinal would run along his back, where he'd be 
out of reach. Sometimes he curled up inside 
Gerardo's collar and slept there.  Or he pecked 
at his friend's ear and when Gerardo moved his head, he'd go for the other ear.

Once when Gerardo had let Cardinal go, he flew 
toward the cafeteria and landed on the plate of a 
very large, tough prisoner who was eating a piece 
of chicken.  The prisoner caught the bird in his 
hands, meaning to strangle him and someone 
shouted, "Don"t kill him!  He belongs to 
Cuba."  The outcry took the prisoner by 
surprise.  He let Cardinal go and asked, surprised, "And who the hell is Cuba?"

Gerardo was actually very worried.  A certain 
guard was not showing any mercy toward the little 
bird.  During an inspection, the guard had forced 
Gerardo to let Cardinal go, and closed the door 
behind him.  The little bird returned later, 
completely exhausted.  Gerardo let him rest for a 
few days inside his cell.  And then came the 
lockdown (solitary confinement as punishment for 
all prisoners), and whenever there's a lockdown, there are inspections.

When Gerardo heard that they were checking all 
the space between the floor and the door, he 
pushed Cardinal outside.  Cardinal flew, within 
the wing where Gerardo's cell was located.  When 
the guard arrived, he saw the box where Cardinal 
lived.  Gerardo said that this was where his 
friend lived, of his own free will: "The problem 
is that I take him outside and he returns; it's not my fault."

"Look," said the guard, gesturing as though to 
say he thought Gerardo was nuts, "if you think 
I'm going to believe that bird is going to return
"

Gerardo whistled from his cell and the guard 
froze in his tracks as he watched the bird return.

Cardinal had no problem picking out the cell 
belonging to his friend, among the huge array of 
cells on two floors that looked exactly alike.

Cardinal arrived at Gerardo's cell.  He looked at 
him through the bars but couldn't enter (since 
this was lockdown).  He waited there nervously, 
until Gerardo couldn't stand it any more and 
opened the slot where food was delivered, and 
Cardinal came in.  A few days later there was 
another inspection.  When the guards arrived at 
Gerardo's cell, he told them that he had a small 
bird, so they wouldn't be scared if the bird 
should happen to fly overhead.  He was told that 
he had to release it, but since none of them 
could catch the bird, they brought Gerardo to the 
entrance for the entire wing so that he could let it go himself.

Since they were in lockdown, Gerardo and the 
little bird walked down the passageway, escorted 
by the guards.  All the other prisoners saw them 
through the bars of their cells and began to 
shout: "They're taking Cuba and the bird to the 
hole!" as they banged their doors in protest.

The guard shouted, "Calm down!  He's not going to 
the hole; we're just going to free the bird!"

That was the last time that Gerardo saw 
Cardinal.  The lockdown lasted a month while the 
wing was completely shut down.  Gerardo couldn't 
leave and Cardinal couldn't enter.  The little 
bird had been inside this rough high-security 
prison since Gerardo's birthday, from June 4th, 
and he remained there until July 16th, one day 
after the wedding anniversary of Gerardo and his wife, Adriana.

And that's the end of this (true) story.



Alicia Jrapko wrote this story from memory, two 
hours after hearing it from Gerardo during a 
visit to the maximum security prison in 
Victorville, California.  Gerardo later revised 
and corrected the text, which Alicia plans to 
present to Casa Editora Abril so that it can be 
published as a children's story.  Gerardo is 
incarcerated under a double life sentence plus 15 
years, for unproven charges made against him in a 
highly prejudiced trial in Miami.

Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo was born in Havana on 
June 4, 1965; the third child of Gerardo 
Hernandez Marta­ and Carmen Nordelo Tejera, both 
deceased.  He is a graduate of the Raul Roa 
Garcia Foreign Services Institute (ISRI).  One 
year before graduating, he and his wife Adriana 
Perez O'Connor were married.  He is a cartoonist 
and graphic artist who has worked in both Cuba 
and the United States.  In the mid-1990s, he 
served missions in the United States, designed to 
protect Cuba from the terrorist actions planned 
and executed by counter-revolutionary 
organizations located in Miami.  On September 12, 
1998, he was arrested along with four other men 
and subjected to a trial plagued with 
irregularities and prejudice, in Miami.  He was 
convicted, without any evidence whatsoever, and 
sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years, which 
he is serving in a high security prison in Victorville, California.

Machetera is a member of 
<http://www.tlaxcala.es/>Tlaxcala, the network of 
translators for linguistic diversity. This 
translation may be reprinted as long as the 
content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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