by Esteban Morales
August 22, 2021
Translated by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
I believe that with the 8 resolutions recently approved by the Council of State and which have already been published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, our economy will enter into what can be considered the hard core, so far not taken into account by our economic policy.
Our economy, in order to become a socialist economy, must be a transitional economy.
It is that, between capitalism and socialism, there is a historical period, aimed at transforming the former into the latter. There is no direct conversion, nor automatic transition, between capitalism and socialism. Between them there is a Period of Transition, within which the struggle for the transformation of capitalism into socialism takes place. Under the power of a state, which is the representation of the conquest of political power.
Cuba, called socialist until now, had not yet entered this period of transformations from the first to the second.
The fact is that neither the state enterprise is socialist, nor state property. Both have problems that must be overcome. Together with those of an excessively centralized planning, such as ours.
The state enterprise is gradually transformed into socialist, only within a transition period, in which it, as a whole and competing with the rest of the forms of property and management, becomes the dominant one, becoming then social property or property of all the people, which is what really transforms the state enterprise into a socialist enterprise and state property into social property. As long as this transition period is not covered, which is a period of struggles and transformations, neither the state enterprise becomes socialist, nor state property either.
It is only now, when the economic policy gives the rightful place, in the process of its application, to private, medium and large property, to cooperative property, to self-employment and SMEs, all functioning as forms of management, together and coherently, with state property and foreign investment, that the objective conditions begin to be produced for us to enter into the true period of transition towards socialism. In the meantime, we were nothing. That is why our economy could not grow systematically.
When the Revolution took political power, what it achieved was only to have the capacity to begin the economic, social and political transformations to convert Cuban society into a socialist society. A process in which to convert the Cuban economy from capitalism into a socialist economy. Without this, Cuban society cannot become socialist.
And this is essentially the reason for the continuous failures in making our economy grow.
Now that we will put the economy to work in line and in a coherent manner, with all forms of ownership and management, Cuba enters into the transition towards a socialist economy and socialism.
If we had tried to do so from the moment we entered the so-called Special Period, making the real economic transformations that were required to give stability to the process of economic growth, we would not be, as we are now, headed for a new Special Period, with no time to overcome it. Well, time has already run out.
We have gone around the wheel many times, with designs and redesigns, without putting anything into practice, exhausting the political capacity of our state to achieve it.
Here is, in part, the explanation for July 11, but also, a cause, if not the only one, then the fundamental one, of Biden’s decision to betray Obama and his own campaign promises, taking up Trump’s policy towards us. Following the so many times failed, Miami’s extreme right.
And that today Cuba is facing a situation that almost surpasses all the dangers experienced until today, being necessary to put into practice, in a coherent manner, the 8 Resolutions of the Council of State, which will be what will allow us to get out of the critical juncture in which we find ourselves.
August 22, 2021.
Received by email from the author. Photo by Walter Lippmann
Por Esteban Morales
22 de agosto 2021
Creo, que con las 8 resoluciones aprobadas recientemente por el Consejo de Estado y que ya han sido publicadas en La Gaceta Oficia de la Republica, nuestra economía entrara, en lo que puede ser considerado el núcleo duro, hasta ahora no tomado en cuenta por nuestra política económica.
Nuestra economía, para pasar a ser una economía socialista, tiene que ser una economía de transición.
Es que, entre el capitalismo y el socialismo, media un periodo histórico, dirigido a transformar el primero en el segundo. No hay una conversión directa, ni transito automático, entre capitalismo y socialismo. Media entre ellos un Periodo de Transición, dentro del cual se produce la lucha por las transformaciones del capitalismo en socialismo. Bajo el poder de un estado, que es la representación de la conquista del poder político.
Cuba, llamada hasta ahora socialista, no había entrado todavía en ese periodo de transformaciones del primero en el segundo.
Es que, ni la empresa estatal es socialista, ni la propiedad estatal tampoco. Ambas arrastran problemas que tiene que ser superados. Junto a los de una planificación, excesivamente centralizada, cómo la nuestra.
La empresa estatal, se trasforma paulatinamente en socialista, solo dentro de un periodo de transición, en que la misma, de conjunto y compitiendo con el resto de las formas de propiedad y de gestión, va convirtiéndose en la dominante, deviniendo entonces en propiedad social o propiedad de todo el pueblo, que es lo que realmente transforma a la empresa estatal, en empresa socialista y a la propiedad estatal en propiedad social. Mientras no se cubre ese periodo de transición, que es un periodo de luchas y transformaciones, ni la empresa estatal pasa a ser socialista, ni la propiedad estatal tampoco.
Solo ahora, cuando se da, por la política económica, el lugar que le corresponde, en el proceso de su aplicación, a la propiedad privada, media y grande, a la propiedad cooperativa, al trabajo por cuenta propia y a las PYMES, funcionando todas, como formas de gestión, dé conjunto y de manera coherente, con la propiedad estatal y la inversión extranjera, es que se comienzan a producir las condiciones objetivas, para que entremos en el verdadero periodo de transición hacia el socialismo. Mientras tanto, no éramos nada. Por eso nuestra economía no puede crecer de manera sistemática.
Cuando la Revolución tomo el poder político, lo que logro solo fue, tener la capacidad de comenzar las transformaciones económicas, sociales y políticas, para convertir a la sociedad cubana, en socialista. Proceso dentro del cual, lograr convertir a la economía cubana, proveniente del capitalismo, en una economía socialista. Sin lo cual, la sociedad cubana, no puede transformarse en socialista.
Y de ello provienen, esencialmente, los fracasos continuos en hacer crecer nuestra economía.
Ahora, que pondremos la economía, a funcionar en línea y de manera coherente, con todas las formas de propiedad y de gestión, es que Cuba entra en la transición hacia una economía socialista y el socialismo.
Si lo hubiéramos, tratado de hacer desde el momento en que entramos en el llamado Periodo Especial, haciendo las verdaderas trasformaciones económicas que se requerían, para darle estabilidad al proceso de crecimiento económico; no estaríamos, como ahora, abocados a un nuevo Periodo Especial, sin tiempo ya para sobrepasarlo. Pues el tiempo, ya se nos agotó.
Hemos dado muchas vueltas a la noria, con diseños y rediseños, sin poner nada en práctica, agotando la capacidad política, de nuestro estado, para lograrlo.
Aquí está, en parte, la explicación del 11 de julio, pero también, una causa, sino la única, si la fundamental, de que Biden, haya decidido traicionar a Obama y sus propias promesas de campaña, retomando la política de Trump hacia nosotros. Siguiendo a la tantas veces fracasada, extrema derecha de Miami.
Y que hoy Cuba se encuentre frente a una situación, que casi sobrepasa todos los peligros vividos hasta hoy.Siendo necesario poner en práctica, de manera coherente, las 8 Resoluciones del Consejo de Estado, que será lo que nos ira permitiendo salir de la coyuntura critica en que nos encontramos.
Agosto/ 22 del 2021.
Recibido por correo electrónico del autor. Foto de Walter Lippmann
Translated by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
June 30, 2021
Although it still causes many prejudices, misunderstandings and challenges, there is no choice but to pay attention to skin color. Above all, in its consideration within the media and national statistics.
Cuban society is a multiracial society, or rather, multicolored, mestizo. And that reality has to be registered statistically. Not by handling the Census as a simply numerical matter, but as a cultural demographic one.
It is about the fact that color is a legacy of slavery. It is not possible to avoid it, since it has marked Cuban society since its origins.
When the Spaniards arrived in Cuba, in 1492, they did it with white credentials and that is how they stayed. Those who came of their own free will did so in search of a fortune, which they often found.
But Spain is not White. Colonized by the Arabs for 800 years, it is impossible to consider it as such. Even when the Spanish do not assume that identity.
So, the colonizers of our Archipelago were not white. Their power did not consist in being white, but in having arrived with the cross and the sword.
They arrived in a territory of indigenous people, of low culture and they only used them to find gold. They exploited them mercilessly and their population mass did not last long, although we still have representatives of that original population in Cuba.
Chinese also came, brought by means of a system of contracts that turned them into slaves. The so-called “culíes” [coolies], who since then added their beauty to the population of the Island, becoming a part of our nationality. These three large groups were the ones that formed the Cuban population. Later, other Antilleans joined, although not in the magnitude of the first ones, also merging with our population.
Although the Spanish Crown, put rules for the care of the indigenous population; anyway, the ambition of the colonizers, together with the regime of the Encomiendas and slavery, reduced that population to its minimum expression.
In little more than 100 years, the so-called Tainos, Siboneys and Guanahatebeys, almost disappeared, because they were not of an advanced culture, as it happened for the rest of America. Cultures, Aztecs, Mayas, Toltecs, etc. Those that did, culturally, had practically nothing to envy to the European cultures of their time.
But the existing indigenous population in the Cuban Archipelago lacked the strength that comes from belonging to a superior culture.
Along with the Spaniards came the first blacks. Not from Africa, but directly from Spain. Those blacks were called “Ladinos”. They were slaves in Spain. They knew how to speak the language and had a certain culture, acquired in the work of servitude, for which they also arrived in Cuba. But they did so in reduced numbers.
The vast majority of the blacks who arrived in Cuba, massively, did so later, as a result of the slave trade. And massively, after the Haitian Revolution of 1791, they settled in the eastern end of the island. They had a great cultural impact, since they were accompanied by their French masters. This is how the French contradanza and the so-called Tumba Francesa arrived in Cuba. All of which, we know as antecedents of our national dances, the Danzón.
Through the eastern region, the Antillean groups entered to participate in the sugar production, hence the mixture that characterizes that region, which covers up to the current province of Camagüey, where we find many descendants of French (Haitians), or English (Jamaicans) and other Antillean groups. This made the situation of racial discrimination in the aforementioned regions more complicated.
However, they did not give rise to the formation of minorities, as in the United States, but merged with the Cuban population, keeping their English and French surnames.
Then, the blacks were brought as slaves to Cuba, first for the work of construction and later for the work of sugar production, within a colonial regime already organized. To say black in Cuba was to say slave.
These slaves, practically, since the XVI century, could buy their freedom.
As the Spaniards arrived, they were men alone. Immediately, they began to mix with the Indians and blacks, thus initiating the mestizaje of the Island. And within a complex mestizaje, because it was formed by free or enslaved people, mestizos or blacks. Not so the Spanish whites, who never suffered the condition of slavery.
Unlike the blacks who were brought to the territory of the Thirteen North American colonies, which later became the United States of America; those who arrived, also brought from Africa as slaves to the aforementioned territory, could not speak their languages, but only English, they could not practice their religions or their cultures. They were not allowed by the colonizers. In this sense, the slave regime coming from England was harsher, with an almost absolute separation between blacks and whites. That is what has ended up characterizing the American society.
To blacks brought to Cuba, also from Africa, the Spanish colonization allowed them to speak their languages, worship their gods and practice their cultures.
It was that, for historical and cultural reasons, the Spanish were more inclined to coexist with the cultural practices of the slaves in Cuba and with the different colors.
Unlike in North America, in Cuba, the Spaniards coexisted better with the differences in color. This also contributed to the differences introduced in black slavery by the existence of domestic slavery and plantation slavery.
In Cuba this did not take place, but in the American colonization, there was a type of colonizer who, not having money to cover the expenses of his transfer to America, requested a loan, which obliged him to work, practically as a slave or serf. Once the loan debt was paid, he received a piece of land, becoming a poor farmer. Except for the existence of some slaves, who did not live in the barracks and cultivated a small piece of land, to supply the master’s house, in Cuba there were never serfs as such.
On the plantation, blacks had to work from sunrise to sunset, under the whip of the Foreman or Overseer. Meanwhile, in domestic work, the tasks were deployed in the house of the slave owner, intertwined with the activities of service to the family. There one could be a coachman, cook, seamstress, wash and iron, set the table, mend the master’s clothes and made him a concoction, when he was ill, etc. Performing tasks that practically prepared him for a trade, in case one day he was able to obtain his freedom, bought or manumitted.
The contact with the family instructed them and endowed them with a certain culture, which differentiated them from the plantation slaves. They were only allowed to work in sugar cane cutting or sugar production.
Blacks, wherever they were, were still slaves, and the trap, before the slightest disobedience, was over him, like the Sword of Damocles. For the white master did not allow them those freedoms that could inculcate in them a culture of independence, which was closely guarded. But, in domestic work, in fact, the advantages, they had them and not few took advantage of them very well.
For example, the girl of the house took a liking to the nice, docile little black man, and could even teach him to read and write. In the domestic context, the skillful, respectful, docile Negro was intimate with the father of the house and got to know him even certain secrets, such as his affairs with the black women, from which, not infrequently, “bastard” children were born within the family.
The black man, a connoisseur of herbs, prepared a concoction that cured the master of pain. And within this intimacy, the master practically began to see him as part of the family. He gave him chores, shared certain secrets with his slave and thus, sometimes, this one, already old, earned manumission, or the letter of freedom.
Within the master’s house, living together as a domestic slave, the black man achieved advantages, which he often took advantage of and which made him advance in social life, even while maintaining his status as a slave.
Domestic slavery generated a certain culture and within it, a level of permissibility, of which the black could take advantage. This allowed him to become part of society, even with all the disadvantages of a slave society.
Meanwhile, in the United States, after the Civil War, slavery was abolished in the North, but they had to continue to struggle with it in the South. Blacks escaped to the North, where they became free, but not infrequently, they left behind relatives who remained as slaves in the South.
Not in Cuba, where slavery was a homogeneous system throughout the island. Therefore, when the laws that attenuated it began to appear, such as the so-called Law of Free Wombs, until its official abolition in 1886, this had a national effect.
Of course, slavery began to disappear after a long process, in which Spain abolished it, as a first step, giving freedom to blacks who had fought, on both sides, during the First War of Independence (1868/1878) until it was finally abolished in a general way in 1886.
However, in America, slavery took color. And with it came racism and racial discrimination, which were not born with capitalism, but which hit it very well, as an instrument of power and exploitation.
Therefore, slavery disappeared, but racism and discrimination, which it engendered, for more than 400 years, remained imbricated within the structure of Cuban society. And so, since the middle of the 19th century, a society with a racist, mestizo and white hegemonic culture began to emerge. Therefore, racism, racial discrimination and white hegemony, within our mestizo society, have not yet been eliminated, although they have been attenuated.
Therefore, the Revolution that triumphed in 1959, found a society in which there was a well-defined structure. The so-called whites had the power, they always had it. Mestizos were, more or less, in an intermediate position, some few had access to power; the blacks were, almost always, in the subsoil of society. This is the result of a distribution of wealth that colonialism inaugurated and Cuban-dependent capitalism took charge of solidifying.
In Cuba, poverty was also massively white, but wealth was never black, and almost never mestizo.
After Fidel, almost since the triumph of the Revolution, began to treat it systematically, racism, racial discrimination and white racial hegemony have not disappeared.
The social policy that the revolution inaugurated in 1959 has always had a profoundly humanist character, but, from the beginning, it focused only on poverty, making no differentiation among the poor, treating poverty as unique, which was never homogeneous, without differentiating within it, according to skin color.
Would it have been possible, so early on, to have considered poverty, taking into consideration its differences and levels, according to skin color?
I don’t think so. I believe that this would have greatly complicated the fight against racism and racial discrimination that was beginning at that time. I believe that if Cuban society was not prepared, as it became clear, to assimilate Fidel’s speech against racism, much less would it have been prepared if, in addition, the existing differences in the levels of poverty according to the color of the skin had been introduced. I believe that this would have implied the introduction of a certain level of affirmative action, for which whites, mestizos, and not even blacks themselves were prepared.
That is why, I believe, social policy, in Fidel’s speeches, began by demanding employment for blacks, while everything else: health, education, culture and sports and social security, fell under its own weight and equally for all. When there was an equal distribution for all, blacks and mestizos got what, in general, had never been given to them before. Because the blacks and, to some extent, the mestizos, had never enjoyed free and quality education and much less, blacks, health. Sport was the opposite. And so, it began to produce a distribution of national wealth, which the nation had never known. And, within which, to blacks and mestizos, almost never, almost nothing had touched them. For this reason, although skin color was not taken into account, blacks and mestizos benefited as never before in the history of the nation. For this reason, it was not difficult for blacks and mestizos to understand that the revolution was their revolution and that Fidel had been concerned and fought for their welfare.
This is one of the aspects that, in the last 40 years, we have managed to fine-tune. Without yet reaching, as such, so-called Affirmative Action. Forms of the latter have been gradually appearing in Cuba, but almost indirectly. And we are still in the process of perfecting the initiated path. What is beginning to take shape, by means of concern and an occupation by the political leadership that there is no one left behind.
Having demonstrated that race does not exist, that it is a social invention. But that, however, color does, and that, in our country, after 500 years [M1] of colonialism, skin color continues to behave as a variable of social differentiation. Against which, we have proposed to fight.
This tells us why, since the beginning of the Republic, in Cuba, there were black and mestizo societies. It is true that they acted within a racist and discriminatory context, which made them respond to it. But they also functioned as fraternal societies, which helped the black and mestizo members to train themselves, on the basis of free courses for their young people, social and cultural activities, which in general helped this population to face the problems of inequality. Sometimes they made it easier to find employment and, in general, helped blacks and mestizos to have a certain recognized social presence.
However, after the triumph of the Revolution, these societies began to disappear, as a result of the consideration that they were not necessary, since the revolution assumed the defense of blacks and mestizos and that they could contribute more to the racial division within the Cuban society.
However, paradoxically, at the same time, the Spanish Societies, considered as white, were maintained in Cuba until today. The question still remains unanswered: Why did the black ones disappear and these, coincidentally, of whites, did not?
This is something that has brought controversy and uneasiness, although not only among blacks and mestizos. Today, it is even questioned whether black and mestizo societies should not reappear. Today, the subject tends to re-enter the debate. Especially because the problem of racism and racial discrimination has not yet been completely overcome.
But the blacks and mestizos, from the beginning, did not make any demands and everything remained as it was.
Here in Cuba, after 60 years of a radical Revolution, of profoundly humanist essence and of an extraordinary struggle against poverty, injustice and inequality, to the very edges of egalitarianism, still, from the point of view of social position, access to certain resources and certain advantages in social life, it is not the same to be white, black or mestizo. This is not a burden, but it responds to a structural dysfunctionality that even Cuban society drags along and is capable of reproducing.
In particular, the so-called Special Period showed that the economic crisis had not affected all racial groups equally. Blacks and mestizos suffered the most. This became evident.
Our government also realized that the difficulties with racism, which surfaced with some force during the Special Period, were indicating that it was a problem that, having been considered as solved, was not really solved; or at least, it was not being solved at the pace that many had imagined, but rather, racism had been hidden in the midst of the difficulties experienced during those years of the mid-eighties and early nineties.
Until then, there had been a long period of general silence on the subject, which Fidel broke on several occasions, both inside and outside Cuba, but without achieving then that the racial issue would definitely occupy its rightful place in the struggle for a better society in Cuba today.
I think that, in this, we have to start from the existence of inequalities, to reach real equality. Unfortunately, inequality is what we find at every step. Equality is a social project, not yet achieved by Cuban society as a whole.
Therefore, we should not mechanically assume that all Cubans are equal, because that was also wielded as a hypocritical slogan of Republican Cuba.
All Cubans are not yet equal. We are equal before the law, but not socially. They are two very different phenomena. Equality before the law has been achieved. But achieving social equality is a much longer and more complex process. Equality before the law is not social equality. It is, perhaps, only a step towards the latter.
Today, there is a clear awareness that we must continue to fight against inequality, pursuing it to those places where marginality still assaults members of our society and not only blacks and mestizos. Therefore, the work with the so-called Community projects gains unusual strength.
It is possible to observe the Party and the government, extraordinarily busy, mobilizing qualified human forces and resources, which are put in the function of the solution of multiple material, spiritual and social problems, which the Cuban society still has to overcome.
This task of the Community Projects is strongly intertwined with the Government Resolution, which serves as an instrument for the fight against racism and racial discrimination.
Fidel had already become aware of all this and began to take action. He conducted in-depth investigations in several underprivileged neighborhoods on the situation of sometimes marginalized sectors.
It was also, then, when the experience of the so-called Social Workers was carried out; most of them blacks and mestizos, which resulted in many young people, who neither studied nor worked (it is said that there were 80,000 in Havana) reaching the Universities. Those that had been “whitened” during the Special Period.
Then, at the end of the eighties, we took up the subject again. Which, I think, is the period in which we find ourselves now, at the height of 2021.
Previously, during the 20’s and 30’s, above all, the racial issue had been present in the written media, especially in the press of the time. Personalities such as Juan Gualberto Gómez, Arredondo, Guillen, Deschamps, Chailloux, Ortiz, Portuondo, and others, had produced important texts on the subject. And they managed to keep it within the debate in the press of the time, even in Diario de la Marina.
But that momentum was not maintained and by the triumph of the revolution, it had almost disappeared.
But, since the 80s, many publications of books, articles, essays, documentaries, and research in some universities began to reappear. Cinema frequently brought up the subject, as well as plastic arts, theater and literature. Discussion groups and community projects arose, which today deal with the racial issue and have given it a growing presence in the national culture and life. In fact, it had been years since the subject had such an important place in the national debate.
Miguel Díaz Canel, who dealt with the issue before becoming president and continues to do so now, together with the Aponte Commission of the UNEAC. The Aponte Commission replaced the group “Como agua para chocolate” (Like water for chocolate), led by Gisela Arandia. She was the initial promoter of the racial debate in UNEAC. Already, previously, the racial issue had been taken to the party and later located in the National Library, but it was, finally in the UNEAC, where it found its definitive location. And now it is unfolding. Through the work of the aforementioned Aponte Commission.
All this movement has concluded, with the appearance of a Governmental Resolution, above mentioned, where the guidelines for the attention and treatment of the racial topic at national level are proposed. With the presence, also, of all those groups interested in the subject. Aspects of participation, which still require development.
However, I consider that, although we have made progress, we are still far from giving the racial issue the impetus it requires. There are still many situations to be resolved.
Although our society is culturally mestizo, the presence of racism, racial discrimination and a certain [amount of] white hegemonism are still felt in the following matters:
-Inequalities, persist within the racial population structure, formed by whites, blacks and mestizos. This is not a burden, but a phenomenon of social dysfunctionality, which even Cuban society is capable of reproducing.
-Differences in access to employment also persist. With privileges for the white population, in the most important and better-remunerated jobs: tourism, corporations, state positions, etc. Not so in political positions, especially within the party, Popular Power and Mass Organizations, where the participation of blacks and mestizos is becoming more present.
-Differences by color, in the access to possibilities of higher studies, Universities, masters, doctorates, etc.
-Racism, prejudice and discrimination against the black and mestizo population, which tends not to manifest itself aggressively, but are still present.
-Marked presence of an insufficient number of interracial marriages. With a marked tendency towards racial mixing among young people, which is indicative of the fact that young people are shedding their prejudices.
Discrimination in the mass media, mainly on television, in which white faces have dominated, and only recently have black and mixed-race faces begun to appear. In response to a recent specific claim made by Army General Raúl Castro in the National Assembly.
-Our written press barely reflects the problems of the racial issue. There is no systematic treatment on the subject. Nor is there any promotion of writers who deal with the subject. Almost never in our press there is an article that deals with the subject.
-Our Political and Mass Organizations do not debate the racial issue. They do not promote its discussion, nor do they consider it in their work agendas.
-Discrimination in classical ballet.
-Racist jokes and expressions abound in cabaret activities.
-Only recently, the teaching of history has begun to reflect the place of blacks and mestizos in the formation of our national history. And teachers are being prepared to address it.
-Until very recently, the bibliography used, with honorable exceptions, and very well known, did not reflect the role of the black and mestizo population in the construction of our nation. Now a strong and arduous bibliographic work is being carried out by the Ministries of Education, aimed at solving this insufficiency of vital consideration for the teaching of history.
-There is neither a Social History of the black nor of the black woman, produced in Cuba.
-Even dealing with the racial issue, at any level and in any social space, can generate certain discontent, prejudices and discomfort.
-It is only recently that our national assembly has begun to present a structure that almost faithfully reflects the racial composition of Cuban society.
-For those who deal with the subject in a systematic way, their discussions are not disclosed, always remaining in the frameworks of groups and interested persons.
-In Cuban schools there is no mention of color, leaving it to personal spontaneity to deal with the problem.
-In our universities, the racial issue is hardly studied. Nor does it appear in the teaching curricula.
-Our academic research hardly refers to the racial issue sufficiently and it is practically absent from the student scientific work.
-Only recently, we have begun to observe that an effort is being made to attend to the racial composition of workgroups, activities, or situations in which the black and the mestizo should be represented. This can be seen with particular emphasis on television.
-In reality, our statistics, social, economic and political, are colorless. Throwing centuries of national history into the dustbin. They fail to appreciate where the problems lie.
-Our economic statistics do not allow to cross color, with variables of employment, housing, wages, income, etc. This prevents us from investigating, in-depth, how the standard of living of the different racial groups is advancing. Especially those who were previously disadvantaged.
We consider that as long as the racial issue is not treated systematically and coherently, at a comprehensive level, and is reliably reflected in our statistics and in our media, we cannot aspire to socially advance the country on the subject.
Our inherited culture is racist; that is to say, the practice of racism is cultural, instinctive, responding mainly, but not only, to inherited mechanisms that work, not infrequently, unconsciously.
Therefore, until the issue enters education, is strongly discussed socially, is part of the systematic work of the media and is statistically considered, we cannot expect it to become part of the culture, nor can we aspire to advance in it, banishing it from the usual forms of behavior of citizens in our country.
The fact is that the absence of attention, almost generalized, for a long time, of the racial issue, has very negative consequences. This is because its knowledge, understanding and consideration at the social level, as something that harms the Cuban nation. This is a very serious problem to overcome if we want our society and its culture to advance in an integral way, guaranteeing the success of the social project of the revolution.
June 30, 2021.
Autor: Esteban Morales Domínguez
Junio 30 del 2021.
Aunque mueve todavía a muchos prejuicios, incomprensiones y desafíos, no queda más remedio que atender al color de la piel. Sobre todo, en su consideración dentro de los Medios y las Estadísticas nacionales.
La sociedad cubana, es una sociedad multirracial, o más bien, multicolor, mestiza. Y esa realidad tiene que ser registrada estadísticamente. No manejando el Censo como un asunto, simplemente numérico, sino demográfico cultural.
Se trata de que el color es una herencia de la Esclavitud. Que no es posible soslayar, pues esta marca desde sus orígenes a la sociedad cubana actual.
Cuando los españoles llegaron a Cuba, en 1492, lo hicieron con credenciales de blancos y así se quedaron. Los que vinieron por voluntad propia, lo hicieron buscando una fortuna, que no pocas veces encontraron.
Pero España no es Blanca. Colonizada por los árabes, durante 800 años, se hace imposible considerarla como tal. Aún y cuando al español no asume esa identidad.
Entonces, los colonizadores de nuestro Archipiélago, no eran blancos. En ser blancos no consistía su poder, sino, el haber llegado con la cruz y con la espada.
Llegaron a un territorio de indígenas, de baja cultura y solo los utilizaron para encontrar oro. Los explotaron de manera inmisericorde y su masa poblacional, no duro mucho tiempo, aunque todavía en Cuba, tenemos representantes de esa población originaria.
También vinieron chinos, traídos, por medio de un sistema de contratos, que los convertía en esclavos. Los llamados culíes, que desde entonces agregaron su belleza a la población de la Isla, integrando nuestra nacionalidad. Ésos tres grandes grupos, fueron los que formaron la población cubana. Después se sumaron otros, antillanos, aunque no en la magnitud de los primeros, fundiéndose también con nuestra población.
Aunque la Corona Española, puso reglas para el cuidado de la población indígena; de todos modos, la ambicion de los colonizadores, junto al Régimen de las Encomiendas y la esclavitud, redujeron esa población a su mínima expresión.
En poco más de 100 años Los llamados Tainos, Siboneyes Y guanahatebeyes, casi desaparecieron, pues no eran de una cultura avanzada, como si ocurría para el resto de América. Culturas, Aztecas, Mayas, Toltecas, etc. Las que sí, culturalmente, no tenían, prácticamente, nada que envidiar a las culturas europeas de su tiempo.
Pero la población indígena existente en el Archipiélago cubano, carecía de esa fuerza, que da el pertenecer a una cultura superior.
Junto con los españoles, vinieron los primeros negros. No de Africa, sino directamente, de España. A esos negros se les llamaba “Ladinos”, eran esclavos en España, sabían hablar el idioma y tenían cierta cultura, adquirida en el trabajo de servidumbre, para lo cual, también llegaron a Cuba. Pero lo hicieron en número reducido.
La inmensa mayoría de los negros que llegaron a Cuba, masivamente, lo hicieron después, como resultado del comercio de esclavos. Y de modo masivo, a partir de la Revolución Haitiana de 1791.Se asentaron en el Extremo Oriental de La Isla. Teniendo un gran impacto cultural, pues venían acompañados de sus amos franceses. Asi llego a Cuba, la contradanza francesa y la llamada Tumba Francesa. Todo lo cual, conocemos como antecedentes de nuestros bailes nacionales, el Danzón.
Por la región oriental, entraron los grupos antillanos, para participar en la producción azucarera, de aquí la mezcla que caracteriza a esa región, que cubre hasta la actual provincia de Camagüey, donde encontramos muchos descendientes de franceses (haitianos), o de ingleses (jamaicanos) y otros grupos antillanos. Lo cual, hizo más complicada la situación de la discriminación racial en las regiones mencionadas.
Sin embargo, no dieron lugar a la formación de minorías, como en los Estados Unidos, sino que se fundieron con la población cubana, manteniendo sus apellidos ingleses y franceses.
Entonces, los negros, fueron traídos como esclavos a Cuba, para el trabajo de las construcciones primero y el trabajo de la producción azucarera después, dentro de un régimen colonial ya organizado. Decir negro en Cuba, era decir esclavo.
Estos esclavos, prácticamente, desde el siglo XVI, podían comprar su libertad.
Como los españoles llegaron, hombres solos. De manera inmediata, comenzaron a mezclarse con las indias y las negras, iniciándose así el mestizaje de la Isla. Y dentro de un mestizaje complejo, pues estaba formado por personas libres o esclavas, mestizas o negras. No así los blancos españoles, que nunca sufrieron la condición de esclavitud.
A diferencia de los negros que fueron traídos al territorio de las Trece colonias de América del Norte, lo que después fueron los Estados Unidos de América; los llegados, también traídos de África como esclavos al territorio mencionado, estos no podían hablar sus lenguas, sino solo el inglés, no podían practicar sus religiones, ni sus culturas. No les estaba permitido por los colonizadores. En tal sentido el régimen esclavista procedente de Inglaterra, resultaba más duro, con una separación casi absoluta entre negros y blancos. Que es lo que ha terminado caracterizando a la sociedad estadounidense.
A los negros traídos a Cuba, también de Africa, la colonización española, les permitían hablar sus lenguas, adorar sus dioses y practicar sus culturas.
Se trataba, de que, por razones históricas y también culturales, los españoles eran más proclives a la convivencia con las prácticas culturales de los esclavos en Cuba y con los colores diferentes.
A diferencia de América del Norte, en Cuba, los españoles, convivían mejor con las diferencias en el color. A lo que contribuía también las diferencias que introducía en la esclavitud del negro, la existencia de una esclavitud doméstica y otra de plantación.
En Cuba esto no tuvo lugar, pero en la colonización americana, venia un tipo de colonizador, que no teniendo dinero para correr con los gastos de su traslado a Anerica, solicitaba un préstamo, que le obligaba a trabajar, prácticamente como un esclavo o siervo. Una vez pagada la deuda del préstamo, recibía un pedazo de tierra, convirtiéndose en un granjero pobre. Salvo la existencia de algunos esclavos, que no vivían en el barracón y cultivaban un pequeño pedazo de tierra, para abastecer la casa del amo, en Cuba nunca hubo siervos como tal.
En la plantación, el negro debía trabajar de sol a sol, bajo el látigo del Capataz o Mayoral; mientras que, en el trabajo doméstico, sus tareas se desplegaban en la casa del hacendado esclavista, imbricadas con las actividades del servicio a la familia. Allí podía ser cochero, cocinero, costurero, lavaba y planchaba, ponía la mesa, arreglaba la ropa del amo y le hacía un brebaje, cuando este enfermaba, etc. Realizando labores, que, prácticamente lo preparaban para hacerse de un oficio, por si algún día lograba obtener su libertad, comprada o manumitido.
El contacto con la familia los instruía y dotaba de cierta cultura, que lo diferenciaban del esclavo de la plantación. A quien no estaba permitido más que trabajar en el corte de la caña, o la producción de azúcar.
El negro, donde quiera que estuviese, no dejaba de ser esclavo, y el cepo, ante la desobediencia más mínima, estaba sobre él, como Espada de Damocles. Pues el amo blanco, no les permitía aquellas libertades, que pudiesen inculcarle alguna cultura de independencia, lo cual se vigilaba mucho. Pero, en el trabajo doméstico, de hecho, las ventajas, las tenían y no pocos las aprovechaban muy bien.
Por ejemplo, la niña de la casa, le tomaba cariño al negrito simpático, dócil, y hasta podía enseñarlo a leer y escribir. En el contexto doméstico, el negro hábil, respetuoso, dócil, intimaba con el padre de la casa y llegaba a conocerle hasta ciertos secretos, como sus andadas con las negras, de las cuales, no pocas veces, salían hijos “bastardos” dentro de la familia.
El negro, conocedor de las hierbas, preparaba un brebaje que le curaba un dolor al amo. Y dentro de esa intimidad, este, prácticamente, comenzaba a verlo como parte de la familia. Le daba tareas, compartía ciertos secretos con su esclavo y así, a veces, este, ya viejo, se ganaba la manumisión, o la carta de libertad.
Dentro de la casa del amo, conviviendo como esclavo doméstico, el negro lograba ventajas, que no pocas veces, aprovechaba y que lo hacían avanzar en la vida social, aun manteniendo su condición de esclavo.
Es que la esclavitud doméstica, generaba cierta cultura y dentro de ella, un nivel de permisibilidad, de la cual el negro podía aprovecharse. Lo cual le permitía, irse introduciendo en la sociedad, aun con todas las desventajas de una sociedad esclavista.
Mientras, en los Estados Unidos, posterior a la Guerra Civil, la esclavitud fue abolida en el norte, pero había que seguir bregando con ella, en el sur. Los negros escapaban al Norte, donde devenían en libres, pero no pocas veces, dejaban atrás familiares que se mantenían como esclavos en el Sur.
En Cuba no, la esclavitud era un sistema homogéneo a nivel de toda la Isla. Por lo que, cuando comenzaron a aparecer las leyes que la atenuaban, cómo la llamada Ley de Vientres libres, hasta su abolición oficial en 1886, esto tuvo un efecto nacional.
Claro, la esclavitud comenzó a desaparecer, a partir de un largo proceso, en el que España la abolió, como primer paso, dándoles la libertad a los negros que habían peleado, de ambos lados, durante la Primera Guerra de Independencia (1868/1878) hasta que finalmente, fue abolida de manera general en 1886.
No obstante, en América, la esclavitud tomo color. Y con ella llego el racismo y la discriminación racial, que no nacieron con el capitalismo, pero que le pego muy bien, como instrumento de poder y explotación.
Por ello, la esclavitud desapareció, pero el racismo y la discriminación, que ella engendro, por más de 400 años, quedaron imbricados dentro de la estructura de la sociedad cubana. Y así, desde mediados del siglo XIX, comenzó a surgir una sociedad, con una cultura racista, mestiza y de hegemonía blanca. Por lo que, el racismo, la discriminación racial y el hegemonismo blanco, dentro de nuestra sociedad mestiza, aún no han podido ser eliminados, aunque si atenuados.
Entonces, La Revolución que triunfo en 1959, se encontró con una sociedad, en la cual, existe una estructuración bien definida. Los llamados blancos tienen el poder, lo tuvieron siempre; los mestizos están, más o menos, en una posición intermedia, algunos pocos tuvieron acceso al poder; los negros están, casi siempre, en el subsuelo de la sociedad. Lo cual es resultado de una distribución de la riqueza, que el colonialismo inauguro y el capitalismo dependiente cubano se encargó de solidificar.
Es que, en Cuba, la pobreza fue también, masivamente blanca, pero la riqueza nunca fue negra, y casi nunca mestiza.
Después de que el Cro. Fidel, casi desde el triunfo de la Revolución, lo comenzó tratando de manera sistemática; el racismo, la discriminación racial y la hegemonía racial blanca, no han desaparecido.
La política social que la revolución inauguro desde 1959, ha tenido siempre un carácter profundamente humanista, pero, desde el principio, se enfocó solo en la pobreza, no haciendo diferenciación entre los pobres, tratando como única la pobreza, que nunca fue homogénea, sin hacer diferenciación dentro de ella, según el color de la piel.
¿Habría sido posible, de manera tan temprana, haber considerado la pobreza, tomando en consideración sus diferencias y niveles, según el color de la piel?
Me parece que no. Creo que ello habría complicado sobremanera la lucha que se iniciaba entonces, contra el racismo y la discriminación racial. Púes creo, que si la sociedad cubana, no estaba preparada, como se puso de manifiesto, para asimilar el discurso de Fidel contra el racismo; mucho menos lo habría estado, si, además, se hubieran introducido las diferencias existentes en los niveles de la pobreza según el color de la piel. Creo que eso hubiera implicado, introducir cierto nivel de acción afirmativa, para lo cual blancos, mestizos y ni los propios negros, estaban preparados.
Razón por la cual, creo, la política social, en los discursos de Fidel, comenzó, por reclamar empleo para los negros; mientras, que todo lo demás: salud, educación, cultura y deportes y seguridad social, cayeron por su propio peso y de manera igualitaria para todos. Al producirse una distribución para todos por igual, a negros y mestizos, les toco, lo que, por lo general, nunca les había tocado. Porque los negros y en alguna medida los mestizos, nunca habían disfrutado de educación gratuita y de calidad y mucho menos, los negros, de la salud. El deporte, fue la contra. Y asi, se comenzó a producir una distribución de la riqueza nacional, que la nación nunca había conocido. Y, dentro de la cual, a negros y mestizos, casi nunca, les había tocado casi nada. Razón por la cual, aunque no se tuvo en cuenta el color de la piel, de todos modos, negros y mestizos, resultaron beneficiados, como nunca antes en la historia de Nación. Razón por la cual, a negros y mestizos no les resulto difícil entender, que la revolución era su revolución y que Fidel, se había preocupado y luchado por su bienestar.
Tratándose lo anterior, de uno de los aspectos, que, en los últimos 40 años hemos logrado ir afinando. Sin llegar aun, como tal, a la llamada Acción Afirmativa. Han venido apareciendo paulatinamente formas de esta última en Cuba, pero de manera casi indirecta. Y aun nos encontramos en ese perfeccionamiento del camino iniciado. Qué comienza a perfilarse, por medio de una preocupación y una ocupación de la dirección política de que no haya nadie desamparado.
Habiéndose demostrado que la raza no existe, que es una invención social. Pero que, sin embargo, el color si, y que, en nuestro país, después de 500 años[M1] de colonialismo, el color de la piel, continúa comportándose como una variable de diferenciación social. Contra la cual, nos hemos propuesto luchar.
Lo que nos dice, porque, desde principios de la Republica, en Cuba, hubo sociedades negras y mestizas. Es cierto que las misma actuaban dentro de un contexto racista y discriminatorio, que las hacia responder a él. Pero que también, funcionaban como sociedades fraternales, que ayudaban a la membresía negra y mestiza a capacitarse, sobre la base de cursos gratuitos a sus jóvenes, actividades sociales y culturales, que en general, ayudaban a esta población a enfrentar los problemas de la desigualdad. A veces facilitaban conseguir empleo y en general, ayudaban a los negros y mestizos a tener una cierta presencia social reconocida.
Sim embargo, al Triunfo de la Revolución, estas sociedades, comenzaron a desaparecer, como resultado de la consideración de que no eran necesarias, pues la revolución asumía la defensa de negros y mestizos y de que las mismas, podían contribuir más a la división racial dentro de la sociedad cubana
Sin embargo, paradójicamente, al mismo tiempo, se mantuvieron las Sociedades Españolas, consideradas como blancas, que en Cuba se mantienen hasta hoy. Aún queda sin responder la pregunta: ¿Por qué la de los negros desparecieron y estas, casualmente, de blancos, ¿no?
Se trata de algo que ha traído polémica y malestar, aunque no solo entre negros y mestizos. Hoy, incluso, se cuestiona, si las sociedades de negros y mestizos, no debieran reaparecer. Hoy el tema, tiende a entrar de nuevo en el debate. Sobre todo, porque el problema del racismo y la discriminación racial, aún no están totalmente superados.
Pero los negros y mestizos, desde el principio, no hicieron ningún reclamo y todo quedo asi.
En Cuba, después de 60 años de una Revolución radical, de esencia profundamente humanista y de una lucha extraordinaria contra la pobreza, la injusticia y la desigualdad, hasta los mismos bordes del igualitarismo; todavía, desde el punto de vista de la posición social, del acceso a determinados recursos y de ciertas ventajas en la vida social, no es lo mismo ser blanco, negro o mestizo. Lo cual no es un lastre, sino que responde a una disfuncionalidad estructural, que aun la sociedad cubana, arrastra y es capaz de reproducir.
En particular, el llamado Periodo especial, demostró que la crisis económica no había afectado por igual a todos los grupos raciales. Siendo negros y mestizos los que más lo sufrieron. Lo cual se hizo evidente.
Nuestro Gobierno, además, se percató, de que las dificultades con el racismo, que afloraron con cierta fuerza durante el Periodo Especial, estaban indicando, que se trataba de un problema que, habiéndolo considerado como resuelto, realmente no lo estaba; o al menos, no se estaba solucionando, al ritmo que muchos habían imaginado, sino que más bien, el racismo, se había ocultado, en medio de las dificultades vividas durante esos años, de mediados de los ochenta y principios de los noventa.
Había tenido, hasta entonces, un largo periodo de silencio general sobre el tema, que Fidel rompió en varias ocasiones, tanto dentro, como fuera de Cuba, pero sin lograr entonces, que el tema racial, ocupara definitivamente el lugar que le corresponde en la lucha por una sociedad mejor en la Cuba actual.
Pienso que, en ello, tenemos que partir de la existencia de las desigualdades, para llegar a la igualdad real. Lamentablemente, la desigualdad es lo que nos encontramos a cada paso. La igualdad, es el proyecto social, no alcanzado aún por la sociedad cubana como totalidad.
Por tanto, no debemos asumir de forma mecánica, que todos los cubanos somos iguales; porque eso también fue esgrimido como un hipócrita slogan de la Cuba republicana.
Todos los cubanos, aun no somos iguales. Lo somos ante la ley, pero no socialmente. Son dos fenómenos muy diferentes. Ha podido ser lograda la igualdad ante la ley. Pero alcanzar la igualdad social, es un proceso, mucho más largo y complejo. Igualdad ante la ley, no es igualdad social. Sino, solo, tal vez, un paso, para llegar a esta última.
Hoy, se observa que existe una conciencia bastante clara de que contra la desigualdad hay que continuar luchando, persiguiéndola hasta aquellos lugares en que la marginalidad aun agrede a miembros de nuestra sociedad y no solo a negros y mestizos. Por lo que el trabajo con los llamados proyectos Comunitarios gana fuerza inusitada.
Pudiéndose observar al Partido y al gobierno, extraordinariamente ocupados, movilizando fuerzas humanas calificadas y recursos, que se ponen en función de la solución de múltiples problemas materiales, espirituales y sociales, que la sociedad cubana aún debe superar.
Esta tarea de los Proyectos Comunitarios, se entrelazan fuertemente de la Resolución Gubernamental, que sirve de instrumento para la lucha contra el racismo y la discriminación racial.
Ya Fidel se había percatado de todo ello y comenzó a realizar acciones. Orientando profundas investigaciones, en varios barrios desfavorecidos, sobre la situación de sectores, a veces marginados.
Fue también, entonces, cuando se realizó la experiencia de los llamados Trabajadores Sociales; la mayoría negros y mestizos, que trajo como resultado, que muchos jóvenes, que ni estudiaban ni trabajaban, (se dice que eran 80,000 en La Habana) llegaran a las Universidades. Las que se habían “blanqueado”, durante el Periodo Especial.
Entonces, a partir de finales de los años ochenta, retomamos nuevamente el tema. Que pienso, es el periodo en que nos encontramos ahora, a la altura del 2021.
Con anterioridad, durante los años 20 y 30, sobre todo, el tema racial había tenido presencia en los medios escritos, especialmente, en la prensa de la época. Personalidades como Juan Gualberto Gómez, Arredondo, Guillen, Deschamps, Chailloux, Ortiz, Portuondo, y otros, habían producido textos importantes sobre el tema. Y logrado mantenerlo dentro del debate en la prensa de la época, incluso en el Diario de la Marina.
Pero ese impulso no se mantuvo y al triunfo de la revolución, había casi desaparecido.
Pero, ya desde los años 80, comenzaron a reaparecer muchas publicaciones de libros, artículos, ensayos, documentales, e investigaciones en algunas universidades. Un cine que frecuentemente traía a colación el tema, la plástica, el teatro y la literatura también. Surgieron Grupos de Debate y Proyectos Comunitarios, que atienden hoy el tema racial y que lo han dotado de una creciente presencia dentro de la cultura y la vida nacional. En realidad, hacia anos, que el tema no tomaba un espacio tan importante en el debate nacional.
Comenzaron, entonces, las reuniones con el Cro. Miguel Díaz Canel, que atiende el tema, antes de ser presidente y lo continúa haciendo ahora, junto a la Comisión Aponte de la UNEAC, que sustituyó al Grupo, “Como agua para chocolate”, dirigido por Gisela Arandia. Que fue la promotora inicial del debate racial en la UNEAC. Ya, con anterioridad, el tema racial había sido llevado al partido y posteriormente ubicado en la Biblioteca nacional, pero fue, finalmente en la UNEAC, donde encontró su ubicación definitiva. Y ahora se desenvuelve. Por medio del trabajo de la arriba mencionada Comisión Aponte.
Todo este movimiento, ha concluido, con la aparición de una Resolución Gubernamental, arriba mencionada, donde se proponen las pautas para la atención y tratamiento del tema racial a nivel nacional. Con la presencia, también, de todos aquellos grupos interesados en el tema. Aspectos de participación, que aún requiere un desarrollo.
No obstante, considero, que, aunque hemos avanzado, todavía estamos lejos de darle al tema racial, el impulso que requiere. Púes quedan muchas situaciones aún por resolver.
Aunque nuestra sociedad, es culturalmente mestiza, la presencia del racismo, la discriminación racial y la de un cierto hegemonismo blanco, se hacen sentir todavía, en los asuntos siguientes:
-Las desigualdades, persisten dentro de la estructura racial poblacional, formada por blancos, negros y mestizos. No tratándose de un lastre, sino de un fenómeno de disfuncionalidad social, que aun la sociedad cubana, es capaz de reproducir.
-Persisten también las diferencias en el acceso al empleo. Con privilegios para la población blanca, en los aquellos más importantes y mejor remunerados: turismo, corporaciones, cargos estatales, etc. No así en los cargos políticos, en especial dentro del partido, el Poder Popular y las Organizaciones de Masas, donde la participación de negros y mestizos se está haciendo más presente.
-Diferencias por el color, en el acceso a posibilidades de estudios superiores, Universidades, maestrías, doctorados, etc.
-Racismo, prejuicios y discriminación, contra la población negra y mestiza, que tiende a no manifestarse de modo agresivo, pero que aún están presentes.
-Marcada presencia de una insuficiencia de matrimonios interraciales. Con una tendencia marcada a la mescla racial entre los jóvenes cual es indicativo de que los jóvenes se van desprendiendo de los prejuicios.
-Discriminación en los medios masivos, principalmente en la Televisión, en la que han dominado las caras blancas, pues solo recientemente, han comenzado a aparecer caras negras y mestizas. Ante un reclamo especifico, reciente, del Cro.General de Ejército, Raúl Castro en la Asamblea Nacional.
-Nuestra prensa escrita, apenas refleja los problemas del tema racial. No existiendo ningún tratamiento sistemático al respecto. Ni promoción de escritores que traten el tema. Casi nunca en nuestra prensa hay un artículo que aborde el tema.
-Nuestras Organizaciones Políticas y de Masas no debaten el tema racial. No promueven su discusión, ni lo consideran en sus agendas de trabajo.
-Discriminación en el ballet clásico.
-Chistes y expresiones racistas, abundan, en las actividades de los cabarets.
-Solo recientemente, la Enseñanza de la Historia ha comenzado a reflejar el lugar de negros y mestizos en la formación de nuestra historia patria. Y se están preparando profesores para abordarlo.
– Hasta hace muy poco, la bibliografía utilizada, salvo honrosas excepciones, muy conocidas, no reflejaba el papel de la población negra y mestiza en la construcción de nuestra nación. Ahora se realiza un fuerte trabajo bibliográfico arduo por los Ministerios de Educación, dirigido a solucionar esta insuficiencia de vital consideración para la enseñanza de la historia.
-No existe una Historia Social del Negro ni de la mujer negra, producida en Cuba.
-Aun tratar el tema racial, a cualquier nivel y en cualquier espacio social, puede generar cierto descontento, prejuicios y malestar.
-Solo recientemente nuestra asamblea nacional, ha comenzado a presentar una estructura, que refleja casi fielmente, la composición racial de la sociedad cubana.
-Para los que tratan el tema de manera sistemática, sus debates, no son divulgados, quedando siempre en los marcos de grupos y personas interesadas.
-En la escuela cubana no se menciona el color, dejando a la espontaneidad personal el comportamiento frente al problema.
-En nuestras Universidades apenas se estudia el tema racial. Ni aparece recogido en los currículos de enseñanza.
-Nuestras investigaciones académicas, apenas se refieren el tema racial de manera suficiente y el mismo está, prácticamente ausente, del trabajo científico estudiantil.
-Solo recientemente, comienza a observarse, que se hace un esfuerzo por atender a la composición racial de grupos de trabajo, actividades, o situaciones, en que el negro y el mestizo deben quedar representados. Esto se observa con especial énfasis en la televisión.
-En realidad, nuestras estadísticas, sociales, económicas y políticas, son incoloras. Lanzando al cesto de la basura siglos de la historia nacional. Soslayando apreciar donde están los problemas.
-Nuestras Estadísticas Económicas, no permiten cruzar color, con variables de empleos, viviendas, salarios, ingresos, etc. Lo que impide investigar a fondo, cómo avanza el nivel de vida de los diferentes grupos raciales. Especialmente de aquellos antes desfavorecidos.
Consideramos, que mientras el tema racial no sea tratado con sistematicidad y coherencia, a nivel integral y este fehacientemente recogido en nuestras estadísticas y en nuestros medios, no podremos aspirar a que socialmente, el país avance en el tema.
Es que nuestra cultura heredada, es racista; es decir, la práctica del racismo, es cultural, instintiva, respondiendo, principalmente, aunque no solo, a mecanismos heredados, que funcionan, no pocas veces, de manera inconsciente.
Por tanto, hasta que el tema no entre en la educación, sea fuertemente debatido socialmente, forme parte del trabajo sistemático de los medios y sea considerado estadísticamente, no podemos aspirar a que pase a la cultura, ni se avance en el mismo, desterrándolo de las formas del comportamiento habitual de los ciudadanos en nuestro país.
Es que la ausencia de atención, casi generalizada, durante mucho tiempo, del tema racial, tiene consecuencias muy negativas, para su conocimiento, comprensión y consideración a nivel social, como algo que perjudica a la nación cubana. Tratándose de un problema, muy serio a superar, si queremos que nuestra sociedad y su cultura avancen de manera integral, garantizando el éxito del proyecto social de la revolución.
Junio 30 del 2021.
Received by email from the author for translation.
By: Esteban Morales, July 1, 2021. Reveived via email. Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann. If only you, Mr. President, would think carefully about Cuba. You are reviewing Cuba policy, so they say. But I think, you have already taken too long. It is true that your priorities, quite justifiably, have been other, but you should not extend the deadline to define the policy towards Cuba any longer. Because this is a conflict that has been going on for more than 60 years and we should solve it. Even if you continue to wait to define it, you could, at least, adopt some measures that would not contradict any policy, unless what they want is to punish the Cuban people on both sides of the Florida Straits. That would be a truly unscrupulous and criminal infamy. I believe that the deeper policy could wait, let’s say, to remove us from the infamous list of those who do not “collaborate with the fight against terrorism”. Which, it is understood, is a bit of a no-brainer, but the other measures either? Those issues, which were unjustified barbarities, of Trump’s policy, I think, could be fixed. While you analyze in a deeper way, what could be the policy. I see no contradictions in that you could apply that parallelism, within a waiting period, which is already long. Even if you continue to wait to define the policy, you could at least adopt some measures that would not be in contradiction with any policy, unless you want to punish the Cuban people on both sides of the Florida Straits. Which would be a truly unscrupulous and criminal infamy. What could it have to do with politics that you decided to restore remittances, facilitate visas and continue academic exchanges? If all these activities have done is to maintain people-to-people contact. And in particular, the academic exchange, which has done so much to keep the two peoples from coming to blows. I believe that the most profound policy could wait, let’s say, to remove us from the infamous list of those who do not collaborate with the fight against terrorism. Which, understandably, is a little more difficult. But those issues, which were unjustified barbarities, of Trump’s policy, could be fixed. While you analyze in a deeper way, what could be the policy. I don’t see contradictions in that you could apply that parallelism. What is it costing you, Mr. President, that people think you are worse than Trump. They would realize that they should not make the Cuban people pay for what they consider to be the government’s faults. Do not fall into that political mistake. Get along with the government and do not continue to punish the people, who are not the government. I mean, if that is true. Well, one of your mistakes has always been to confuse the people and the government, putting them both in the same bag. Or to say that the punitive measures are against the government and not against the people; when it is known that this is an infamous lie. A few days ago I told you that the problem is not political but humanitarian. And it seems that you have understood this. Now what you have to do is to apply it. It is the families who, on both sides, suffer from the application of measures that you could begin to free us from. There are more than 240 measures, Mr. President, that you have maintained for 5 months; I hope you realize that they are already yours. And you have not even loosened a single one of them. What do you want people to think of you Mr. President? Move over, Trump has already launched his candidacy. And the congressional races are close. You know that, because of your attitude towards Cuba so far, many on this side compare you to Trump. And on the other side as well. Besides, you should take into consideration that solidarity with Cuba has grown a lot this year. And his defeat, yours already, in the UN, with the Cuban Resolution against the Blockade, has been crushing. I don’t think you should allow that, because let’s say, many on this side and on the other side, think that you are worse than Trump. And the truth is, you should not allow yourself to be compared to such a guy. Trump is not a decent person. You know that he’s a mobster and a cheat. And I don’t know of an American president, neither do you, I’m sure, who has been so indecent. Not even Nixon with Watergate. You, Mr. Biden, have worked too hard and held too many important positions in American politics to end your days with such a group of companions. You would be throwing away everything that it has cost you to be a decent politician. On the other hand, do not pay attention to Marco Rubio, nor to his entourage,. They are all failures in their attempts at anti-Cuba policy. If there is anything they owe to the American governments, except with Obama, it is the money they have taken from the American treasury, and to have gone down with them in the failure of the anti-Cuba policy. These people are corrupt, Mr. President; the only thing they are interested in is money. Do not allow them to discredit you. You are not corrupt like them. Don’t hang out with them, Mr. Biden, it affects your image. Review the history of each one of them and you will see that what I am telling you is true. How many have believed in them and have sunk? Do what you want with your Cuba policy, but do it yourself, do not be guided by that bunch of “enlightened” criminals. If you are guided by those people, you will end up, as 11 American presidents have already done…? Aren’t more than 60 years enough for you to realize it? Cuba is not so important, Mr. President, what is really important are the mistakes that, with the policy towards my country, the U.S. governments have made and the failures that the United States has already had with its policy. Do not repeat them. You don’t need to. Think carefully about what you will do, you have no need to repeat historical mistakes. Cuba has never harmed the United States; it is we in Cuba who have had to suffer its policies. We have always been willing to sit at the negotiating table with you. The only condition is that you respect our sovereignty and independence, which has cost us so much blood and sacrifice to achieve. I do not believe that after having failed so much, it is difficult, or a bad way, to try to reach an understanding with Cuba. A neighboring country, so close, not only geographically, that has never practiced hatred against you, nor has it harmed your interests, beyond the duty to defend ours. A country that has much to offer to yours, as has been demonstrated several times. Educational, health and cultural experiences that we could share. I would recommend you to meet with some students and people who have passed through Cuba, to see what their life experiences have been. I am sure they will tell you many things that you do not know. Dare to visit Cuba, see us up close, get closer to our culture, our life and you will see how much we have in common. We have been close peoples, those who have tried to separate us. We Cubans are the most similar to you in this hemisphere. We were colonized by the Spaniards, but we were neo-colonized by you and thus, painfully, you also remained in our culture. You brought modernity to Cuba, not the Spaniards. That is why we love American music, we love your cigars, we love apple pie, turkey, popcorn, American cars, cowboy movies, we wear jeans, we go on picnics, that is how you entered our Cuban culture. American consumerist culture quickly entered Cuba. As well as the advances of technology in urban life, family life, clothing, food, junk and non-junk. In many ways North American culture has entered Cuba. However, when you confront Cubans, you lose, because you have to deal with a version of yourselves, only improved. Thus, it is possible to see you allying yourselves with the Cubans/Americans, who take money and support away from you in order to attack Cuba with a policy that has continually failed on the island. I want you to realize that, both in Cuba and in the United States, you have always failed with the Cubans; both on the side of the revolution and on the side of the counterrevolution. That is why I suggest you have your own policy, without allies from one side or the other. But a policy forged by yourselves, which will be, I am sure, the one that will lead you to have a coherent and convenient behavior in your relationship with Cuba. It already happened to the US with the Batista Dictatorship, therefore, abandon the current variant of re-imposing the dictatorship in Cuba, forging the most convenient policy to relate with a Triumphant Revolution. For if the mediation mechanisms they tried to seek to get rid of Batista did not work for them, much less will they work now to mediatize the Cuban Revolution already in power. Play with the Cubans here, they are not going to give you headaches, nor will they ask you for money to settle with them. If it is a question of ideology, abandon it, it will no longer give you any results. For we are no longer in 1934, when they allied themselves with Batista, nor in 1952, when they supported his coup d’état, nor in 1958, when they tried to replace him in order to defeat Fidel Castro. Now it is with revolutionary Cuba, with which they have to understand each other. And remember, Mr. President, that with the needs, the suffering, the pains, the food, the medicines and the money of the people, you do not play games. That, for a politician like you, should always be sacred. The people are always right. Wherever they live. Greetings
From: Esteban Morales <michel@cubarte.cult.cu>
Si el Sr. Presidente pensara detenidamente sobre Cuba. Autor: Esteban Morales. Ustedes están revisando la política hacia Cuba, según dicen. Pero creo, ya se han demorado mucho. Es verdad que sus prioridades, bastante justificadas, han sido otras, pero no debieran alargar más el plazo para definir la política hacia Cuba. Porqué se trata de un conflicto que ya lleva más de 60 años y debiéramos solucionalo Aun y cuando continuaran esperando por definirla, pudieran, al menos, adoptar algunas medidas, que no caerían en contradicción con cualquier política, a menos que lo que quisieran es castigar al pueblo cubano, de ambos lados del estrecho de la Florida. Lo cual sería, una verdadera, inescrupulosa y criminal infamia. Yo creo que la política más profunda pudiera esperar, digamos, quitarnos de la infamante lista de quienes no “colaboran con la lucha contra el terrorismo”. Que se entiende, es un poco memos fácil. ¿Pero las demás medidas tampoco? Esos asuntos, que fueron barbaridades injustificadas, de la política de Trump, creo, pudieran arreglarse. Mientras ustedes analizan de manera más profunda, cual pudiera ser la política. No veo contradicciones en que pudieran aplicar ese paralelismo, dentro de un tiempo de espera, que ya resulta largo. Aun y cuando continuaran esperando por definir la política, pudieran, al menos, adoptar algunas medidas, que no caerían en contradicción con cualquier política, a menos, de que quisieran castigar al pueblo cubano, de ambos lados del estrecho de la Florida. Lo cual sería una verdadera, inescrupulosa y criminal infamia. ¿Que puede tener que ver con la política, que ustedes decidiesen restaurar las remesas, facilitar los visados y continuar los intercambios académicos? Si todas esas actividades lo que han hecho es mantener el contacto pueblo a pueblo. Y en particular, el intercambio académico, que ha hecho tanto porque ambos pueblos no se vayan a las manos. Yo creo que la política más profunda pudiera esperar, digamos, quitarnos de la infamante lista de quienes no colaboran con la lucha contra el terrorismo. Que se entiende, es un poco más difícil. Pero esos asuntos, que fueron barbaridades injustificadas, de la política de Trump, pudieran arreglarse. Mientras ustedes analizan de manera más profunda, cual pudiera ser la política. No veo contradicciones en que pudieran aplicar ese paralelismo. Que les está costando, Sr. Presidente, que la gente crea que Ud. Es peor que Trump. Se percatarían de que no debieran hacer pagar al pueblo cubano, las culpas que considera son del gobierno. No caiga en ese error político. Entiéndanselas con el Gobierno y no siga castigando al pueblo, que no es el gobierno. Digo, si eso es cierto. Pues un error de ustedes ha sido también, siempre, confundir pueblo y gobierno, metiéndolos ambos en un mismo saco. O decir, que las medidas punitivas son contra el gobierno y no contra el pueblo; cuando se sabe, eso es una infamante mentira. Hace algunos días le dije que el problema no es político sino humanitario. Y parece que Ud. Lo ha comprendido. Ahora lo que tiene es que aplicarlo. Son las familias, las que, de ambos lados, sufren, por la aplicación de medidas, que Ud. Bien podría comenzar a liberarnos de ellas. Son más de 240 medidas Sr. Presidente, que Ud. ha mantenido por 5 meses; que espero se percate, de que son suyas ya. Y ni siquiera, ha aflojado una sola de ellas. ¿Que Ud. Desea que la gente piense de Ud. Sr. Presidente? Muévase, que ya Trump lanzó su candidatura. Y las congresionales están cerca. Sabe, Ud. Que, por su actitud hasta ahora mantenida con Cuba, muchos de este lado lo comparan con Trump. Y del lado de allá también. Además, debe tomar en consideración, que la solidaridad con Cuba creció mucho este ano. Y su derrota, la suya ya, en ONU, con la Resolución Cubana contra el Bloqueo, ha sido aplastante. No creo debiera permitir eso, porque digamos, muchos de este lado y del lado de allá, piensan que Ud. Es peor que Trump. Y la verdad es, que Ud. No debiera permitir que lo comparen Con semejante tipo. Trump no es una persona decente. Usted lo sabe, es un mafioso y un tramposo. Y yo no sé de un presidente norteamericano, Ud. Tampoco, estoy seguro, que haya sido tan indecente. Ni Nixon con Watergate. Usted, Sr. Biden, ha trabajado mucho y ha tenido posiciones importantes en la política norteamericana, como para terminar sus días, con semejante grupo de acompañante. Estaría echando por tierra todo lo que le ha costado ser un político decente. Por otro lado, no le haga caso a Marco Rubio, ni a su séquito, que todos son unos fracasados en sus intentos de política contra Cuba. Si algo les deben a los gobiernos norteamericanos a esos tipos, salvo con Obama, es el dinero que les han quitado al tesoro norteamericano, y haberse hundido con ellos en el fracaso de la política contra Cuba. Esa gente son unos corruptos, presidente; lo único que les interesa es el dinero. No permita que lo desprestigien. Que Ud. No es un corrupto como ellos. No se junte con ellos, Sr. Biden, que afecta su imagen. Repase la historia de cada uno y vera que es verdad lo que le estoy diciendo. ¿Cuantos han creído en ellos y se han hundido? Haga lo que Ud. Quiera con la política hacia Cuba, pero hágalo Ud. mismo, no se guie por esa piara de delincuentes “ilustrados”. Si Ud. ¿Se quía por esa gente, va a terminar, como ya lo hicieron 11 presidentes norteamericanos…? ¿No le son suficientes más de 60 años para percatarse de ello? Cuba no es tan importante, Sr. Presidente, lo verdaderamente importante, son los errores que, con la política hacia mi país, los gobiernos estadounidenses, han cometido y los fracasos que Estados Unidos ya ha tenido con su política. No los repita. No tiene necesidad de ello. Piense detenidamente lo que hará, que Ud. No tiene necesidad de repetir los herrores históricos. Cuba, nunca le ha hecho daño a los Estados Unidos, somos nosotros en Cuba, lo que hemos tenido que sufrir sus políticas. Estando siempre dispuestos a sentarnos a la mesa de negociaciones con ustedes. Poniendo como única condición que respeten nuestra soberanía e independencia, que tanta sangre y sacrificio nos ha costado conseguirlas. No creo, que después de haber fracasado tanto, sea difícil, o un mal camino, tratar de entenderse con Cuba. Un país vecino, tan cercano, no solo geográficamente, que nunca ha practicado el odio contra ustedes, ni ha dañado sus intereses, más allá del deber de defender los nuestros. Un país, que tiene mucho que ofrecer al suyo, como ha quedado varias veces demostrado. Experiencias educacionales, de salud, culturales, que pudiéramos compartir. Yo le recomendaría se reunieran con algunos estudiantes y personas que han pasado por Cuba, para que comprueben cuales han sido sus experiencias de vida. Estoy seguro le dirán muchas cosas que Ud. No sabe. Atrévase a visitar Cuba, véanos de cerca, acérquese a nuestra cultura, nuestra vida y vera cuanto tenemos en común. Hemos sido pueblos cercanos, a los que han tratado de separar. Los cubanos, somos en este hemisferio, los que más nos parecemos a ustedes. Es que a nosotros nos colonizaron los españoles, pero nos neocolonizaron ustedes y así, dolorosamente, quedaron también en nuestra cultura. Ustedes trajeron la modernidad a Cuba, no los españoles. Por eso, amamos la música norteamericana, nos encantan sus cigarros, nos encanta el pie de manzana, el pavo, las pok corn, los carros americanos, las películas de vaqueros, usamos Jeans, hacemos picnic, así entraron ustedes en nuestra cultura, cubana. La cultura consumista norteamericana entro rápidamente en Cuba. Como también entraron los adelantos de la técnica en a vida urbana, familiar, el vestir, las comidas, chatarra y no chatarra. De múltiples modos entro la cultura norteamericana en Cuba. Sin embargo, cuando ustedes se enfrentan a los cubanos, pierden, porque tienen que vérselas con una versión de ustedes mismos, solo que mejorada. Así es posibles verlos, como aliándose a los cubanos/americanos, estos últimos les quitan dinero y apoyo para agredir a Cuba, con una política, que, en la Isla, continuamente ha fracasado. Quiero que se percaten, de que, tanto en Cuba como en los Estados Unidos, ustedes siempre han fracasado con los cubanos; lo mismo del lado de la revolución, que de la contrarrevolución. Por lo que les sugiero tener una política propia, sin aliados de un lado ni del otro. Sino una política forjada por ustedes mismos, que será, estoy seguro, la que les llevará a tener un comportamiento coherente y conveniente de relación con Cuba. Ya les paso con la Dictadura de Batista, entonces, vuelvan a abandonar la variante actual de reimposición de la dictadura en Cuba, forjando la política más conveniente, para relacionarse con una Revolución Triunfante. Pues si los mecanismos de mediación, que trataron de buscar, para apartarse de Batista, no les dieron resultado; mucho menos, les darán resultado ahora, para mediatizar a la Revolución cubana ya en el poder. Jueguen con los cubanos de acá, que no les van a dar dolores de cabeza, ni les pedirán dinero para arreglarse con ellos. Si se trata de una cuestión ideológica, abandónenla, que ya no les va a dar resultado. Pues ya no estamos ni en 1934, cuando se aliaron a Batista, ni en 1952, cuando apoyaron su Golpe de Estado, Ni en 1958, cuando trataron de recambiarlo, para vencer a Fidel castro. Ahora es con Cuba revolucionaria, con la que se tienen que entender. Y recuerde Sr. Presidente, que, con las necesidades, los sufrimientos, los dolores, la comida, las medicinas y el dinero del pueblo, no se juega. Eso, para un político como Ud., Siempre debiera ser sagrado. El pueblo siempre, tiene la razón. De cualquier lado en que viva. Saludos
A Letter to US President Joe Biden
Una carta al Presidente de los Estados Unidos, Joe Biden
To: Walter Lippmann <walterlx@earthlink.net>
Subject: Traducir
Date:Jul 1, 2021 5:22 PM
The So-Called “San Isidro” case
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
I believe that what is happening there is a consequence of not having taken care of four fundamental issues in time:
1- The marginal conditions of some of our neighborhoods in Havana.
2-The lack of attention or delay in recognizing and using the Social Sciences.
3- In spite of Fidel’s early warning, having neglected, for a long time, the racial question.
4-Some deficiencies in our political-ideological work.
On the last three points, I have warned enough.
But as a result of my warnings, I was never called to the Round Table, and when the faces of its protagonists appear, mine is never there. In spite of having been, individually, among those who have attended the Round Table the most.
None of those who used to publish me now publish me. They have not called me anymore to Cuban Television. Luckily TELESUR gave me a job.
I have also written many works on the racial question, three books and dozens of articles, always warning about the role that the Social Sciences should play and about the importance of ideological work. I am sure you have read some of them. In them, I have had to fight many battles, so that they do not accuse me of being a racist, accept my criticisms as necessary and do not believe that because I have traveled a lot to the United States, I have brought these things from there. Of which I have been accused more than a few times. Racism and discrimination were not brought by anyone, from anywhere. They are here, because they were born, with us, as a nation. And from here we will eliminate them someday. For the glory of all Cubans. We are already working on it within a Governmental Commission, presided over by Miguel Diaz Canel, President of the Republic.
We have slums, which I know very well, because I have visited them, so that no one can tell me about them. And, in addition, because when I had to come from my town, to Havana, in October 1958, I lived, beyond the triumph of the Revolution, in the Jesus Maria neighborhood, in Vives Street No. 258 between Alambique and San Nicolas. I know the neighborhood very well, because I participated in the La Coubre, joined the Young Rebels there and worked in the Provincial Directorate of 26th of July, which was on Arroyo and 27th.
In those neighborhoods, the standard of living is very low, it always was. They are plagued by delinquents, prostitutes, and poor people, who live on the day-to-day things they can get. It does not mean that all their neighbors are prostitutes, antisocial and delinquents.
Many decent and revolutionary people also live there. But this is the environment that has always tended to dominate. In general, social relations, forms of behavior and mentality are still far removed from what is reflected in our journalistic, radio and television media. The state of the houses, the streets, the material conditions, do not contribute to generating a healthy social environment. As a result, many families struggle to move to other neighborhoods and the worst remains in the neighborhood.
Thus, attitudes, forms of behavior, colloquial language, philosophy of life are generated, all of which are very different from the environment in which most of us live and develop.
In general, there are no reading habits, interest in studying is very low, the sense of intellectual and cultural improvement is also very low. Access to the University is very limited.
Most of them are interested in earning money, or rather in having it, even if they do not seek it by lawful and moral means. Therefore, whoever offers them money, buys not a few, with relative ease, even if it is to carry out antisocial activities, and sometimes even counterrevolutionary activities.
Excessive drinking is very common among the type of person who live in this neighborhood. Rather, not a few of them are interested in partying and getting drunk. As a result, the vast majority of them, within the environment in which they live, are not interested in standing out for the positive, but for the negative, which not a few exacerbate. In their dress, their speech, their behavior, the way they behave socially, the way they treat women.
So then, the people, let’s call them normal, who live there, suffer a kind of cornering. That forces them to move away, so as not to suffer the negative consequences of being forced to live under such conditions.
The environment in which they live, tends to generate an ethic of permissibility, before any crime. A similar type of behavior is the treatment that women generally receive. Women often react in the same way, with a tendency to associate with these types of men, who some consider more “macho”. Generally, this type of woman, when receiving from the man any cultured attention, respectful treatment or delicacy, confuse them with homosexuality, as a lazy and effeminate type. This serves to fuel rude and disrespectful behavior, with a tendency to brutality towards them. Without realizing, sometimes, that they themselves contribute to the worse treatment they are subjected to. So then, feminism, the struggle for equality and recognition of women’s status, does not have much space among many of them.
They despise the laws, those who apply them, the police, in particular, they hate them and do not deserve any respect. They see them as their enemies and never as agents of order or guardians of good morals. For this reason, the tendency is not to inform on anyone, regardless of the crime they may have committed. This is considered as an act of “snitching”, lack of manhood, which many consider should be punished, even with a beating or death. Revenge is a typical phenomenon of social behavior.
They were not born this way, but, not infrequently, the example they receive at home, is forming them in this way; because, not infrequently, the same parents, inoculate them with customs, forms of behavior, values, ethics, inverse to those that the average of the society demands of them. From here also, sometimes, developed their behavior regarding education, respect to teachers, authority and government institutions.
In their eyes, the ideological work that is done is looked down upon, the work of the UJC seems to them as elitist and that of the rest of the organizations do not manage to attract them to good manners.
Fidel was very concerned about this, when he spoke several times about the racial question and generated the “Social Workers”, in view of the reality of the number of young people who neither studied nor worked. It was said that there were about 80,000 in the province of Havana. I also oriented to make investigations to know what was happening with the children in these neighborhoods. If the mothers had enough money to buy food for them, if the children had a television set and toys, etc. Trying to alleviate a social situation that could already be considered critical.
But all this remained in Fidel’s good intentions and the work that was being done was not continued. We were coming from a situation in which prostitution, drugs and these social problems were not considered to have a place in our society. But Fidel perceived them clearly from the beginning and oriented work toward them.
Today then, these neighborhoods are affected by delinquency, drugs, people without ideology, the unclassed, the marginalized, to whom we have already arrived too late. The consequences are manifesting themselves.
In these neighborhoods, in general, the revolution has not been able to reproduce itself and the counterrevolution, which has always stalked them, does not find it very difficult to attract them. If we add to this, the Pandemic and the difficult economic conditions we are going through today, I would say that we are in the most complex situation to address their problems. Although I am sure we are going to do it. Because our social policy and the interest that “no one is left helpless” are real. And they are being reinforced within the current economic policy.
They would not have been counterrevolutionaries, in their immense majority, but we, with our inattention and deficient political-ideological work, have been giving them away to the counterrevolution. Perhaps, without realizing it. So, if the revolution had managed to work more strongly against inequalities, the racial question, marginality, invisibilization; if our television and our media in general, had always been more visible of the differences, had debated more our problems, of things about which we are only beginning to talk about now, it would have been less difficult to fight against that environment and rescue its victims from the problems that now afflict them. And that the counterrevolution takes advantage of.
But we concentrate on the advances, neglecting the fact that not all of us have arrived in the same way to the current Cuban society and those have been left behind. Being the majority, blacks and mestizos, unfortunately, poor in general. They are the ones who were more directly affected by the “starting points”, farther away from the social and cultural welfare that the revolution, from the beginning, has lavished on many.
San Isidro is not the only neighborhood in Havana with these inequalities, marginalities and social disadvantages that have degenerated into the counterrevolutionary attitudes of a few.
There are other neighborhoods. And not only in the Capital.
What should we do now?
I believe that we should pay attention, with urgency, to the following issues:
1- We must pay attention to the material needs of those neighborhoods, in order to improve them. No promises, no propaganda. Just start. To make people see that their material situation begins to improve.
2- It is necessary to work on those neighborhoods with quality ideological and cultural work. Not with speeches or talks. Nor with master classes.
3- The situation of all those neighborhoods, Cuasi cuaba, La Lisa, Siboney, Atares, Luyano, etc., must be reviewed. If they have not turned around, it is because there are community projects and positive neighborhood leadership.
4- It is necessary to dust off everything that the Social Sciences have investigated and put it into execution. Formulate new projects and finish giving the Social Sciences the place they deserve, within the general scientific work and in the treatment of problems, in particular. There is scientific potential to do so.
5- The party must thoroughly review the work of the Ideological Apparatus and turn part of the tasks of its cadres in the directions that this situation demands.
6- The neighborhood of San Isidro, it is necessary to negotiate with them. See what they want. Take them to the logic of what they can ask for. And try to convince them of what cannot be given to them.
7- Formulate a strategy to help the nuclei of the party in situations of this nature. Because I am convinced that this struggle continues. And the insurmountable ones, already on the side of the counterrevolution, will continue, as long as they can, taking advantage of the complex situation the country is going through, to fulfill their purposes linked to the current US policy towards Cuba.
Biden already gave them the human rights policy, in his recent report, with which they will continue to pressure and perhaps do nothing to help the country solve its difficulties. On the contrary, they will try to exacerbate them. Generating a waiting period to see how the story ends.
Havana, April 18, 2021
By Esteban Morales Domínguez
June 16, 2017
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
As has been said, we are working on a theoretical foundation of the Economic Model. Let´s not forget that the economy is essential, but it cannot be sustained without a Political Model.
Moreover, dialectically speaking, the economy is fundamental, but it is not always so in every particular moment of social dynamics. Quite frequently, politics prevails over the economy.
A call should be made to work on a theoretical foundation for our political model: the one that, whether we like it or not, will come about from the impact of the changes that will come as a result of the new economic model.
In a way, the recent speech by Vice President Diaz-Canel lays down that route when he calls upon universities, research centers, and the intelligentsia to conceptualize the processes that are taking place in the nation. They must emerge from ideological discussion, controversies and a critical, committed, and revolutionary analysis.
The discussion would have to cover several issues to produce a foundation for our socioeconomic model. It has to be seen within the dynamics of the changes that the process of conceptual and practical adjustments of the new economic model demands.
In our view, this process would have to address the following fundamental aspects:
-Firstly, it is not possible to fulfill the tasks that we have set in the economic, political and social fields if we do not obtain the most complete and dynamic participation of workers and all Cubans in that process. Participation is the key to success in everything we do to push forward the changes.
-For this reason, it is fundamental that all the organizations, led by the Party, finally break away from the schemas that limit the participation of each citizen –and in particular of each party member– in the discussion of problems.
-The structuring of Cuban civil society must be thoroughly examined. The structure must represent the new interests that emerge beyond those represented by the existing political and mass organizations. These should act as transmission mechanisms of the party´s politics, taking into consideration that citizens have private interests that go beyond those already represented in these organizations.
-Cuban media must leave behind secrecy, schematic thought, elitism, and exclusiveness in information management. It should give the revolutionary intelligentsia the widest participation in the critical analysis of difficulties so that it becomes a real platform for discussing the problems that affect us.
-The masses must feel that within the Party, state, government and other levels of the political structure there is an open space for criticism, for questioning policies, pointing out mistakes, and critical harassment of the bureaucracy that hinders processes. These actions should receive support and obtain appropriate answers.
-Party militants must be alert because there are “moles”: individuals posing as revolutionaries who slow down the processes, carry out some activities to introduce mistrust, discomfort, and discouragement and serve as subversion’s fifth column.
I think that a fundamental task before us is to pick out those who –by ignorance or intention– hinder the process the country is carrying forward. This is the new “counter-revolution” which, like corruption, can be found in the higher echelons of the country´s leadership, in the political and mass organizations, and in social institutions.
Undoubtedly, there is resistance to change on the part of certain elements in society. Especially in the media, which despite the many criticisms it has received, continues without making the expected contribution.
But is this something for which journalists are responsible? I do not think so. It seems that the responsibility is at the highest level of the Party that refuses to change the pattern with which it has led the media.
In my view, this is a clear indication that resistance to change can also come from the high echelons of the country’s leadership.
The same can be said regarding several issues in our social reality.
-Particularly on the racial theme –one of great sensitivity– the above-mentioned incongruities become evident. The schools, the media, and science have just begun to move forward to tackle the issue. This, in spite of the fact that we face the reality that subversion tries to turn it into a weapon against the revolution and the country.
There is no institutional racism as such, but state institutions responsible for working to solve the problem –and its different manifestations– are far behind in the tasks that must be carried out.
Progress has already been made in the fields of education and scientific work, but neither the printed media nor TV have embraced their role.
Fidel Castro and President Raul Castro have repeatedly referred to the problem as a shameful evil that Cuban society still drags on, but little progress has been made in banishing the problem from our social relations.
Both the racial issue and the media are two clear examples of the resistance that exists, hindering the advancement of projects directly related to the changes the country must make. These are also two objectives in the subversive plans against Cuba.
Nevertheless, I think that the most complex phenomenon we are facing today is the combination of resistance to assimilating and acting consequently, as the follow-up to the criticisms made by the highest political leadership; the magnitude of the problems; and the age limit of that political leadership.
Today Cuba finds itself at the crossroads of substantial change. No one knows if it will be led to term by the historic leadership of the Revolution. It is true that this leadership is in turn responsible for the mistakes made. At the same time, it is the one with the capacity and the experience to lead the country along the new paths.
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