The Voice To 15 Million By: Alex Khatwani

West Campus – “In the year of 2000 I went to Germany a man asked me what kind of Cuban are you? A Fidel Cuban or a Miami Cuban?” said Yoani Sanchez.

Yoani Sanchez is on a mission to break the stereotypic barrier that has been going on for many years on how people look at Cuba since the Fidel Castro regime started and after it was over.

She came to Valencia College on Oct 31 to have a “Conversation” with the faculty and staff members, as well as students, to talk about Cuba, how it was before and how it is now.

“I want young generations to understand Cuba better”, said Sanchez. She has been doing this through her blogs and twitter by educating people about Cuba. She receives on average 15 million views per day. This is more followers than Fidel Castro.

She had begun blogging in 1994 after receiving her first laptop that she called a “monster.” She knew that with this kind of technology she could do something about Castro’s regime.

Many people living in Cuba in 1994 were trying to survive food crisis as well as economic crisis. The others were making rafts with items such as dining room tables and trying to escape the Castro Regime by going to Florida.

She wrote her first blog with her “little monster” about a story called “Letter by Letter”. The reason why it was called “Letter by Letter”, she mentioned, was because it was written letter by letter because she did not know how to type.

At her Q&A session she brought up some interesting points that most people would not know. She said 11 million people access approximately 118 sites per day because some are blocked. “The internet makes $5 an hour”, said Sanchez. “An average monthly salary is not even $20 per hour.”

“150 people have access to twitter in Cuba”, said Yoani. She is trying to get people across the world and mostly Cuba to be more creative in the world and to use technology to express their views. “Creativity opens windows when doors are locked, but we won’t settle for windows anymore”, said Yoani.

“Yoani Sanchez gave me a better outlook on the Cuban government and how she wants them to be creative and break the stereotype”, said Marchline Elie, a Valencia College student.

Sanchez ended with this quote “A Cuban government system is like an hour glass, the top is for the people who follow the system and the bottom is for the ones who are against the system.”

“It was an eye opening event for me because now I want to help her make a difference for the people in Cuba, it makes me want to follow her journey as a blogger”, said Aamira Browne, a Valencia College student.

For more information on Yoani Sanchez, visit her blog http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/ and her twitter https://twitter.com/yoanisanchez.