MIAMI (WSVN) – Despite the economic and political crisis in Cuba, some exiles in Miami remain hopeful about the future of their homeland as they say current conditions could lead to a positive, democratic change.<\/p>\n
In Miami\u2019s Calle Ocho section, the sights, sounds, and smells serve as a reminder of the Cuba many exiles were forced to leave behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way for me to describe it \u2014 it smells like Cuba,\u201d said area resident Orlando Cabrera of Eighth Street.<\/p>\n
For many in South Florida\u2019s Cuban exile community, those memories are accompanied by the hope that the dictatorship on the island nation is nearing its end.<\/p>\n
As for Cabrera, he\u2019s already looking ahead to who could help lead a democratic future for Cuba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be someone out there. Of course, Rosa Mar\u00eda Pay\u00e1. She has the power to put all Cubans together on the same path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pay\u00e1, a longtime Cuban opposition figure, was nominated last year by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to serve on the Western Hemisphere\u2019s top human rights commission.<\/p>\n
She is also the founder of the movement Cuba Decide, an organization focused on a democratic change on the island nation.<\/p>\n
Cameras captured Pay\u00e1 working with her team on the ground in South Florida as well as virtually with activists in Cuba despite the risks they face. They were packing supplies to get inside Cuba.<\/p>\n
One of the ways the team communicates inside Cuba is through various tools and technologies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of making your phone into a walkie-talkie,\u201d said a Cuba Decide team member.<\/p>\n
As evidence of the seriousness of the moment, a member said people on the island nation can go to jail for wearing an arm bracelet that could be connected to Cuba Decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go to jail for wearing these,\u201d said another team member while showing the bracelets activists wear.<\/p>\n
For Pay\u00e1, the fight for freedom in Cuba is deeply personal. Her father, Oswaldo Pay\u00e1, is honored with a memorial in Hialeah.<\/p>\n
She said he was one of Cuba\u2019s most prominent opposition leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was seen as the hope for Cuba,\u201d said Pay\u00e1 of her father.<\/p>\n
Oswaldo died in a car crash in Cuba in 2012. The Cuban government ruled the crash an accident, but Pay\u00e1 said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights later determined that Cuban state agents were involved in the incident.<\/p>\n
Speaking at her home, Pay\u00e1 said the Cuban government would tell her father that he would not be alive to see Cuba become democratic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used to tell my father that he was not going to see the change. But they\u2019re wrong. We\u2019re going to see the change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That change could come sooner rather than later following the January capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Since then, the Trump administration has signaled that Cuba is next.<\/p>\n
Pay\u00e1 and other Cuban exiles like her surely hope it\u2019s true, as what they all want more than anything for the island they once called home is freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want for the Cuban people to decide their own destinies, and if my name is gonna be on the ballot, we\u2019ll see. It\u2019ll be decided at due time,\u201d said Pay\u00e1.<\/p>\n
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