Max Lesnik is a Cuban journalist and politician based in Miami since 1961, known as El Polaco, and he fought corruption, political bigotry, vices, crimes, and oppression of the governments of the stage prior to 1959. He is the creator of the slogan “Cuba yes, Yankees no”, and was characterized by carrying out political opposition journalism against Batista’s dictatorship, both from the pages of Boêmia and the stations of Cadena Oriental de Radio.

Lesnik was born on September 8, 1930, in San Antonio de las Vueltas, in a city where today is Camajuaní, Villa Clara, located in the western region of Cuba. He is the son of a Polish father of Jewish origin and the Cuban María Teresa. He was a member of the Orthodox Youth at the time of the governments of Carlos Prío Socarrás and Fulgencio Batista, sharing the stage at many times with Eduardo Chibás and Fidel Castro. In 1958 he joined the guerrilla as head of propaganda for the Second National Front of the Escambray.

In 1961 he emigrated from Cuba and settled in Miami, United States. For three decades he directed the Réplica publication and now is the director of Radio Miami at Unión Radio, from where he has maintained his unwavering voice in defense of Cuba, in favor of family reunification, in repudiation of the blockade and the hostile measures of the different US administrations.

The frank opposition to terrorism, the defense of the cause of the Five or in favor of the Bolivarian Revolution and the independence, democratic and integration process that is being forged today in Latin America.

He met Fidel at the Plaza Cadenas, in the University of Havana, and kept him hidden in his house for two weeks, while he was hunted by Batista's henchmen. Lesnik saved the El Comandante’s life. 

Since 1978 he has traveled regularly to Cuba, and is the only Cuban resident in the United States invited by Pope John Paul II to the reception at the diplomatic headquarters of the Vatican in Havana in 1998, when he thanked the work of mediator between the Cuban State and the Catholic Church. On August 16, 2007, Lesnik was conferred the Félix Elmuza Distinction, the highest order granted by the Union of Journalists of Cuba.

“Today we are distinguishing a person who has been characterized by always going forward, by always being at the forefront and has continued to be, despite the siege by the enemies of the Cuban Revolution in the very territory of the United States”.

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, when referring to the journalist, expressed; “With this encouragement, a debt is settled with one of the most brilliant Cuban journalists, but also with one of the most genuine patriots, who has known how to overcome the risks, not theoretical ones, but those of bombs that were pending against him and his offices for many years and yet they were never able to silence it”.

“Max's life has not only been ‘Shame against money’, as Eduardo Chibás raised, but also Shame against terror, against lies and against the C-4 explosive in the streets of Miami”.

“This is also how homage is paid”, he added, “to his wife, Miriam Álvarez, and to his two daughters, Vivian and Mirita, who have also endured the rigors, threats and risks of their father in the middle of Miami, where being ahead and the vanguard fighting against terrorism, in favor of our Five Heroes and preaching the truth of Cuba, is sometimes paid with life”.

His daughter Vivian Lesnik made a documentary entitled “The man of the two Havanas”, where she states that her father has lost so much in his life, because the causes for which he fights seem unattainable.

On the last Sunday of July, Lesnik was present at the protest called by the solidarity movement “Puentes de Amor” against the US blockade of Cuba in Miami, Florida. On the occasion, Lesnik said that “the enemies of these caravans are enemies of the Cuban families who suffer from the blockade and being here today is my duty as a Cuban”.

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