Exile With a Cause: Frank Calzón’s Lifelong Stand Against Communism

He’s been called a spy, a traitor, and worse, but Calzón remains undeterred in his mission for freedom.
Exile With a Cause: Frank Calzón’s Lifelong Stand Against Communism
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) (C) greets witness Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, as Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) (L) looks on before a full committee hearing about the Cuba trade embargo on Capitol Hill December 11, 2007 in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Catherine Yang
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Frank Calzón has spent the majority of his life advocating for a free Cuba, and, now, at 81 years old, he is seeing Cubans speak out again in a way he hasn’t seen in decades. Cuban university students are peacefully protesting en masse, and Cuban Catholic bishops are speaking out against the Cuban communist regime after the church fell silent on the issue for years, Calzón said.
Shortly after Fidel Castro took power and the police visited his house after he was a bit too outspoken at school, he left the country. He was a teenager at the time. What he thought might be a year or two of lying low during a testy political transition turned into a life of speaking out for Cubans whose voices are silenced.