Keith Fernandez was an invited guest of the University of Miami’s Government Affairs Office and the Romney campaign in an election series event in September 2012. (Photo courtesy of Keith Fernandez)

By Jenna Box
Student writer

The Fernandez family has come full circle.

It started with their days in Cuba – where Keith Fernandez’s grandparents Miguel and Eloisa Fernandez received only an elementary education – to the present day, where Keith Fernandez will graduate with his juris doctorate from UF Law in May.

As if completing law school is not enough, the 25-year-old 3L who is currently studying away at Florida International University was featured in a video at a Cuban-American Bar Association Gala Feb. 2. He has received two scholarships from the organization during his time in law school.

The yearly CABA gala raises money for the Cuban American Bar Foundation, which provides scholarships and mentors to worthy law students throughout Florida.

“The Cuban American Bar Foundation has been instrumental in my law school career,” Fernandez said in the video presented at the gala. “And mentorship has even, just kind of, sweetened the deal.”

When two of Fernandez’s friends approached him about an email concerning the foundation’s scholarship opportunities he applied. In the application, he said he worked hard to make his passion known about advocating for human rights in his grandparents’ homeland.

Throughout Fernandez’s time at UF Law, he participated in the Latino/a Law Student Association and advocated for human rights in Cuba. He also co-authored a petition, which garnered national attention, that urged the Pope to meet with civil society leaders during his visit to Cuba in 2012.

He said UF Law makes all students feel welcome on campus and empowers them to pursue their goals

“The Gator Nation gave me the tools I needed to continue to advocate for human rights on the island,” Fernandez said.

He also attributed his success to his mentors.

One mentor, Marco Leyte-Vidal, attorney-at-law, said his mentee’s personal and political dedication to the Cuban cause was outstanding. Leyte-Vidal said Keith Fernandez’s performance as a Gator in and out of the classroom made him proud.

“It is students like Keith who give me faith in our future. His dedication to the profession of law and our community is inspiring,” Bertila Soto, chief circuit judge of Florida’s 11th Circuit, wrote in an email. “He is truly an asset to our community and our profession!”

Fernandez said he just hopes all of his hard work is a fitting tribute to his grandparents, who gave up their lives in Cuba to give him and their other grandchildren the opportunity to move from a working-class family to professional careers.

In a David vs. Goliath of the digital age, Keith Fernandez (2L), along with friends Nicolas Jimenez and Giancarlo Sopo, is petitioning Pope Benedict XVI to set aside a minute to meet with Cuban dissidents today through Wednesday in hopes of bringing attention to Cuba’s “oppressive and tyrannical regime” during the Vatican’s first papal visit to the island nation in nearly 15 years.

And Fernandez, who is Catholic, is doing it all through Facebook.

“You can reach the entire world,” Fernandez said. “The real power of social media is getting the word out when traditional media can’t or doesn’t have time to get the word out.”

And in an Orwellian state of controlled media like Cuba, where, according to a 2009 Human Rights Watch report, people “live in perpetual fear” of merely expressing their views, traditional media is shoddy and largely worthless.

“We’re acting as a megaphone for the things people in Cuba are saying,” Jimenez said.

So armed with status updates, wall posts and a One Cuba petition Facebook page, the second-year law student and second-generation American is hoping to grab the attention of the pope, who, as of March 20, had 38,355 Facebook fans.

Fernandez, with his 793 Facebook friends, acknowledged the uphill battle he faces in attracting the attention of His Holiness.

“I’m well aware of geopolitics and what it takes to make one of these visits happen,” Fernandez said. “But the pope is the pope. If he says he’s going to Cuba and meet with Cubans, then he should go to Cuba and meet with Cubans.”

But the Facebook petition to Pope Benedict XVI, which was delivered Friday to a University of Miami professor before being delivered to Vatican officials is no ordinary petition. The papal plea has already attracted the support of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, Democratic National Committee chairwoman; U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, chairwoman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and garnered national media attention from FOX News, the Miami Herald and MSNBC.

Fernandez’s social media social change is just the latest cause the Millennial Generation is hoping to influence through a series of tweets and wall postings.

Earlier this month, social media websites across the world backed the nonprofit organization Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012,” a public awareness plea for the capture and arrest of the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The half-hour YouTube video explaining the Kony 2012 movement had amassed more than 79 million views by March 15 in addition to tweets from powerhouse celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Rihanna.

And early last year, when Egyptians overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, Twitter provided the world an unedited, raw view into the world as traditional media outlets struggled to stay relevant and up to date.

“(Our petition) is on Facebook because that’s where our generation is,” Fernandez said.

But Fernandez realizes his petition is about much more than his generation. The petition itself quotes a fellow revolutionary from a different time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Fernandez finds it difficult to speak about the oppressed Cubans without mentioning his grandparents, whose home and business were confiscated by the Cuban government during the Cuban Revolution.

“This is definitely about showing my grandparents their sacrifice was worth it,” Fernandez said, saying his experiences as a law student and a former congressional intern and aide to Ros-Lehtinen, are because of his grandparents.

But in a nation where 85 percent of the 11 million people identify as Roman Catholic, Fernandez said the petition boils down to one thing: hope that the world can know what Cubans themselves can’t say.

“If I learned anything from my grandparents, it would be, ‘If you believe in something, do it,’” Fernandez said. “So that’s why I’m here.”

To sign the petition to Pope Benedict XVI, visit Facebook.com/Onecuba.