WASHINGTON — On the sidewalk in front of the Cuban Interests Section, on a street that runs straight to the White House, dozens of people have been gathering each Monday for the past month to demand the release of an American who was imprisoned in Cuba two years ago.

Regardless of weather, the protesters carry laminated signs that say "Free Alan Gross Now," and they sing "Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu," a Hebrew folk song that translates to "Peace Will Come."

It's impossible to know whether the Cuban diplomats inside hear the pleas to free the 62-year-old Gross, who on Saturday marked his second anniversary in detention. Regardless, the protesters promise to return every Monday at noon until peace comes for Gross and his family.

"It's directed to everybody who drives down 16th Street and thinks, 'Hmm, maybe I should find out what that's about,' " his wife, Judy Gross, said of the weekly protests, which she attended last week for the first time. "But clearly we want the Cubans to know we're not going to just sit down and do nothing about this."

Judy Gross also has no intention of remaining quiet anymore, and as the second anniversary of her husband's imprisonment neared, she sat down for interviews with McClatchy and other publications. It's a marked departure from her previous approach, which was to grant few interviews and keep a relatively low profile in hopes of securing her husband's release.

Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen whom Cuba accused two years ago of plotting to "destroy the revolution," was convicted in March of crimes against the state for bringing telecommunications equipment into the country and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"At first we were keeping things pretty quiet because that's what we were advised to do, and not to try to ruffle the feathers of the Cubans at all," Judy Gross said. "But that obviously hasn't worked, so we're now trying to go more vocal. And still being nice about it."

Sometimes, she said, she wonders whether any strategy is best.

"You don't know," she said. "It's very hard to read the Cubans. You just don't know what they want. They've never really told us what they want."

Judy Gross also is raising the volume on her criticism of the Obama administration and the apparent unwillingness of anyone on either side of the Florida Straits to sit down and have constructive discussions that would secure her husband's release.

"The State Department has put in a great deal of hours on the case, I'll say that," she said, but she added that the Obama administration "has kept their hands off of it."

"At least publicly," she said. "I've not heard from them once."

Neither has her 89-year-old mother-in-law, Evelyn Gross, who wrote to President Barack Obama for help. She hasn't heard back from the White House, Judy Gross said. Her mother-in-law's greatest fear is dying before her son is released.

"It's hard for her to even say the word Alan without crying," Judy Gross said. "It's heart-wrenching. She wants to go to Cuba to see him. But I don't think she could make the trip."

Last week, Evelyn Gross released a video directed at Cuban President Raul Castro, asking the dictator to release her son on humanitarian grounds.