Kristina Arriaga, Castro's Cuba

This conversation features Kristina Arriaga whose personal experience in Castro’s Cuba led her to become an advocate for human rights worldwide. Her parents fled Cuba and later she helped others flee and share their stories. While living in Alexandria, Virginia, the Cubans tapped her phone and blew up her car because of her advocacy for the rights of Cubans.

In this conversation, Kristina describes her family’s escape from Cuba, and recounts her work as an aide to Armando Valladeres, a famous Cuban poet and former political prisoner who President Ronald Reagan appointed as an ambassador to the UN. She also shares about her experience as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2016.

This Trustee of Facebook's Oversight Board also discusses striking similarities between the current cancel culture happening in the U.S. and the suppression of free speech Castro used to gain power.

 Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/ArriagainterviewYouTube

Kristina Arriaga has worked on the defense of freedom of religion or belief in the United States and internationally for over 20 years. She has worked as an Advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, an appointee to the Civil Rights Commission, and as the Executive Director of a U.S.-based public interest law firm that defends all religious traditions.

In 2016, she was appointed by the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In 2017 and 2018 she was elected Vice Chairwoman of the Commission. Since her appointment to USCIRF, Kristina has met with the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the Vice Minister of Islam in Riyadh, the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, among many other foreign government officials, religious leaders, and human rights advocates. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress.

Kristina is a sought-after speaker on religious freedom, on the intersection of religious freedom and women's rights, and on human rights in Cuba. She has a Master’s degree from Georgetown University where she graduated magna cum laude. She was reappointed to the Commission by Speaker Ryan on May 21, 2018.

USA Today - My family fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba, where ‘cancel culture’ was deadly serious.
bit.ly/USATodayArriagaArticle 

Chapters

• 1:46 Cubans Set fire to Kristina’s Car
• 4:08 Kristina’s Family Flees Oppressive Regimes
• 5:58 Castro’s Communication Strategy
• 9:49 Lessons From Kristina's Father
• 12:49 Former Cuban Prisoner Becomes Reagan’s UN Ambassador
• 21:02 America’s Cancel Culture Resembling Castro’s Regime
• 26:58 Coddling of the American Mind
• 29:03 Protecting Conscience Rights in a Pandemic
• 34:42 Culture, Not Laws, Protects Our Freedoms
• 36:53 Kristina Resigns: Bureaucratic Challenges to Protecting Conscience Rights