A photo exhibit in tribute to Alicia Jrapko opens in Cuba

The photo exhibition "Alicia Jrapko Vive:  A life of struggles for revolutionary change in the world," was inaugurated on Friday as a posthumous tribute to the outstanding Argentine activist.

Numerous Cuban personalities attended the exhibition's inauguration at the headquarters of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), including the Cuban Five, for whom Jrapko fought so hard for their release.

UPEC President Ricardo Ronquillo said at the opening that the late activist was not only in solidarity with Cuba but with all the noble and generous causes of the world.

Graciela Ramírez, the chief correspondent of the publication Resumen Latinoamericano on the island, recalled passages of the journalist's life and urged not to remember her with sadness but with the strength that characterized her.

"Alicia was an extraordinary militant, an Argentine revolutionary with very deep convictions," Ramirez affirmed.

Alicia Jrapko was the coordinator in the United States of the International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity for the Peoples and co-president of the National Network of Solidarity with Cuba in that country. In addition, she helped to organize and promote scholarships for African-American and Latino students to attend the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) free of charge.

At the meeting, the hero of the Republic of Cuba, Gerardo Hernandez, recalled that Jrapko and her husband Bill Hackwell, on hand at the ceremony,  paid him more than 100 visits during his 12 years in prison. He said that there was no event involving The Five in which Alicia was not immersed.

Jrapko received several distinctions for her political commitment to justice and equality, including the Felix Elmuza Medal, awarded by UPEC, and the Friendship Medal, awarded by the Council of State, at the proposal of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.

Despite being ill, in her last project, she was co-chair of the Nobel Committee of the Henry Reeve Cuban Medical Brigade.

Alicia Jrapko passed away last January 11 in Oakland, California, after a two-year battle with cancer.