It's just like that time she implored us to shake our bodies, baby, and do the conga -- except, you know, meaningful.
After seeing Gloria Estefan lead a march through Little Havana in solidarity with Cuba's Ladies in White on Thursday, others in cities on both coasts of the U.S. have been inspired to follow suit.
In Los Angeles, actor Andy Garcia will lead a demonstration through Echo Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday. His motto for the march, he told the Miami Herald, is "this is not a Cuban issue; it's a human issue."
In New York City, a network of young Cubans called Raíces de Esperanza (Roots of Hope) has organized a silent march Sunday at 1 p.m. down the east boundary of Central Park to a statue of Jose Martí that marks one of its southern entrances. Joining them will be Yale professor Carlos Eire, who wrote the critically acclaimed memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy.
Organizers are keen to capitalize on the opportunity to continue calling attention to human rights violations in Cuba -- especially the recent government violence against The Ladies in White, mothers and wives of jailed independant journalists and dissidents who march nearly every Sunday in Havana.
"It's important that this event is replicated," Eire said, "and keeps getting replicated and that efforts be made to include as many non-Cubans as possible to open up people's eyes to what's going on in Cuba."
They do not, however, expect large crowds like the one in Miami.
"In New York," Eire said, "[The problems of Cuba are] like a grain of pepper swimming in the soup."
Still, Garcia says, it is important to continue expressing support for those who have taken up the fight in his home country.
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"What little I can do to help them, I'll do."
