María Cristina GARRIDO RODRÍGUEZ

Cuban poet and activist María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez is continuing to serve a seven-year prison sentence imposed after she was convicted on 10 March 2022 of ‘public disorder,’ ‘contempt,’ and ‘resistance’. She was arrested with her sister Angélica Garrido on 12 July 2021 after participating in peaceful protests. (see Case Lists 2023/2024, 2022 and 2021) 

Garrido is held in poor conditions in detention, including solitary confinement, lack of food and water and inadequate sanitation. She has also been beaten. Together with her sister Angélica Garrido, she went on hunger strike for five days on 20 September 2022 in protest at their continued detention. In November 2023, Garrido sent an audio message to the PEN community talking about censorship in Cuba and the power of art. 

Her sister, released on 10 July 2024, stated that the authorities promised Garrido a transfer to a camp with exit permits that would enable her to see her children, but that the measure was not in the end granted. María Cristina is the only female inmate from the 11-J movement still imprisoned; the rest have been moved to a camp or are on parole. 

Maria Cristina Garrido Rodríguez was born in Quivicán, Mayaquebé in 1982. In 2008, she won the First National Prize in the Carlos Baliño Tobacco Competition. Her poetry and artistic vision have led her to reflect and write about her daily life, while her career as an activist has led her to join the Cuban Women's Network, where she supports the visibility of women in various spaces. Garrido is a member of the Vuelta abajo por Cuba Foundation and a member of the Latin Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR). She is the author of Examen de tiempo (Time examination), published in 2022. Her most recent book Voz cautiva: poemas escritos desde la cárcel (Captive Voice: poems written from prison) was published in 2023 by the Spanish publishing house Deslinde and highlights the challenges faced by Garrido during her political imprisonment, including ill-treatment, isolation, surveillance, and depression, among others.