Robby Ramos’ play “The Walls Have Ears” is about three Cuban siblings who’ve taken diverging paths in the early years of the Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, only to find themselves confronting those differences in an unexpected encounter at Presidio Modelo, a notorious prison on Cuba’s Isla de Pinos. In writing the script, Robby drew not only from the life of his own grandfather (who had himself been a political prisoner in Cuba), but also from the stories he’d been told by others in his family who lived through those early days of what would become the most most brutal, influential and durable dictatorship in the western hemisphere.

While the subject matter makes “The Walls” an inescapably political work, Robby didn’t go about the project with an activist motive. Instead, he was looking to tell a compelling story about a family and a people torn apart — from a perspective that is too often handicapped by too much emphasis on the politics and too seldom explored outside of Cuban and Cuban exile circles.

In this conversation, Robby Ramos talks with Nick Jiménez about his play, how growing up in his Miami Cuban family informed his politics and his views on liberty and why moving to New York to pursue theater opened his eyes to the need for work like “The Walls Have Ears.”

The two also talk about Robby’s broader acting career, including his work in theater and TV — especially his role on the cast of Heels — and the business side of “The Walls,” which was as much an entrepreneurial venture as it was a artistic passion project.

Finally, Robby and Nick talk about the strikes by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA (which, at the time of this recording, were in their last days).

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Alberto De La Cruz is the managing editor at Babalú Blog, which for years has been among the more recognizable independent sources of news and commentary on Cuban-American life, Cuban exile politics, and human rights activism in Cuba. The site tends to feature conservative political views, but has also been a platform for everything from cultural content to recipes (especially from past Pan Con Podcast guest Marta Darby). These days, the content comes primarily from Alberto and Carlos Eire, a Yale professor and winner of a National Book Award for his memoir, Waiting for Snow in Havana.

TLP host Nick Jiménez was a contributor and editor at Babalú in the aughts.

In this conversation, Alberto and Nick talk about the early days of blogging, dealing with the Cuban government’s Internet trolls, and the political divides that exist among Cuban Americans who approach opposition to the Cuban dictatorship from opposite ends the debate on U.S. policy on trade and travel.

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Michael Beltran is the chef-owner of Ariete Hospitality Group and the host of Pan Con Podcast. On this episode of The Liberated Podcast, he joins Nick Jiménez to talk about the boundaries he draws for himself and his chefs to balance freedom and creativity with business goals and personal development. Also, Nick does impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Johnny Depp.

Visit Ariete Hospitality Group here.

Listen to Pan Con Podcast here.

Follow Michael Beltrán on Instagram here.

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