Damas de Blanco

Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) is an opposition movement in Cuba consisting of spouses and other relatives of dissidents jailed by the government of Fidel Castro. The women protest the imprisonments by attending Mass each Sunday wearing white dresses and then silently walking through the streets dressed in white clothing. The color white is chosen to symbolize peace. The movement received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 2005.
The Ladies in White group was formed two weeks after the 2003 arrests of up to eighty dissidents accused by the Cuban government of accepting money and gifts from the United States Interests Section in Havana. Relatives of the prisoners began gathering on Sundays at St. Rita's Church in Havana to pray for their jailed loved ones. After each Mass, they began a ritual procession from the church to a nearby park. The white clothing they wear is reminiscent of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo, who used a similar strategy to demand information about their missing children from the 1970s military junta. Each marcher wears a button with a photo of her jailed relative and the number of years to which he has been sentenced.
Czech Republic 2008, 58 min.
Director Ivana Milosevic