Esteban Morales
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.
Esteban Morales
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.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The President spent much of the time he had to speak (because we spoke more) explaining what it means to lead a country that is blockaded and attacked by the media. At the same time, he reaffirmed what has always been the maxim of this Revolution, to move forward in spite of the blockade, not to stop in front of it.
As it happened to me when I had the opportunity to exchange views with Deputy Minister Johana Odriozola, I realized that managing the economy in the midst of a war like the one we are living through, without applying a neo-liberal adjustment package, requires tremendous effort and inventiveness, and is extremely complex.
Johana told us: “It is as if they wake up every day and say, how are these people still breathing? And wherever they find a vent, they plug it up”. The President confirmed this when he told us that we have just received important help with oxygen, which is so badly needed, “but I won’t say where it comes from, because if I do, they block it”.
Faced with this, I contrasted how easy it is to sit down to write with the aim of discrediting, sometimes even from other latitudes, without any real difficulty, prescriptions of what the President, or this minister or this organization or the other should do. It requires a tremendous dose of arrogance. It is good to give an opinion, but a little humility would be good for all of us as long as we do not cease in the exercise of criticism.
I noticed the commendable work done by so many people on a daily basis to move this country forward, in silence, women leading the industry, the police, science, agriculture, the National Program for the Advancement of Women. I realize the sterility of so many discussions in social networks that are exhausted in who is right about one issue or another, while so many work hard in all fields, including the social sciences, with much work and less words and vanity.
There is a very strong struggle in Cuba between the oppression and hopelessness produced by so many years of toil due to economic shortages and the desire to move forward with all the fairness that the Revolution has meant. This is a dramatic expression of the class struggle. It is the resistance to the violence of imperialism, concretized in advancing over the economic terrorism that is done to us. And, in short, as Ileana Macías says, “In my neighborhood, if there is food, nobody cares about anything else”.
Cuban women have emancipated ourselves tremendously. However, the tears there, of some of them, denounce that this equality has cost us to go head-on against a patriarchy that we have not yet managed to banish completely. We women have been the most important pillar of the Revolution because not only did we advance towards every trench in the vanguard, but also because we did so without ceasing to support the houses of all in the rearguard.
Those were the words cried by the one who coordinates an important working commission of the FMC in defense of women’s equity. The National Program for the Advancement of Women is perhaps one of the most advanced public policies proposed by any state in the world in this field.
In Cuba, any woman, regardless of age, profession, income level, skin color, feels entitled to speak to her President without any protocol whatsoever. To tell him what she thinks and feels without any filter. That is rare in a world like the one we live in, where most presidents come to power to represent the interests of untouchable elites.
There I did not see one more candidate in a clientelist play to capture votes. I saw a man seriously concerned about capturing the ideas and feelings of all, to fully assume his responsibility to the country, with a collective leadership style. For those who are so concerned about dialogue and democracy, the system is in very good health in that sense, although it also has important challenges ahead.
Popular wisdom sees: it knows how to differentiate between what is fair and what is not, because dignity and life are at stake. Ileana went from La Güinera to there, not to be right or to say the last word, she went to speak for her neighborhood and to ask for it. That is the wise thing to do and that is what she said. We are facing a leadership style of a vocation to listen and serve a collective project, a style inherited from Fidel’s school and unprecedented in today’s world.
This exercise of dialogue with various sectors of the population, of the highest leadership of a country, in fact, its President and also First Secretary of the PCC, speaks of a feature of Cuban socialism that has much to show the world in terms of democracy.
Let us bear witness to this, because the hegemonic media will not tell it. It is clear that I am not avoiding in this recognition the awareness of all the democracy that is still missing. We need to be in spaces like this so that the mirage of the fracture of consensus and the disintegration of the social fabric that we imagine in our rhetoric does not prevent us from seeing reality.
Published: Thursday 29 July 2021 | 08:17:21 pm.
Author: Santiago Jerez Mustelier
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
When he arrived at 20 de Mayo Avenue, in Havana, the first thing he did was to join the formation of the cordon. He did not expect a disproportionate reaction from some of the provocateurs, who sought to advance towards the Plaza de la Revolución.
It would never cross the mind of Lieutenant Luis Angel Rosales, of the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) that he and his comrades would be attacked with stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails. In his 11 years of experience in this agency, he says he has never witnessed such strong events.
“What gave us joy was to see the response of a great majority of the people: they chanted slogans together with us, raised flags, wielded posters and photos of Fidel, Raul and President Diaz-Canel. I reaffirmed that Cuba is one people, a cohesive nation”, says the 29-year-old agent, and in contrast recalls that they had to endure insults, threats of lynching and open provocations.
Now that the riots of last July 11 are rough memories lodged in his head, he says that “that day there were stones thrown from the crowds that affected agents of the brigade. I belong to the canine unit and one of our dogs was also hit, so he was off duty days ago, but he has recovered”.
Lieutenant Rosales explains that the “Gallos Finos” (as they are also known) are not trained to hit or kill. Their limits of action are in strict respect to the Constitution of the Republic, to the legal order and to the rational use of force.
“Those arrested in that area of the actions were instigators of attempted vandalism and criminal attack. They were in contempt of court or made attempts against officers. Most of them had criminal records. The rest of those who were there were neither arrested for demonstrating in a civic manner nor for filming at the site,” he says.
A lot is posted on social networks. Much is said in conferences and statements by foreign politicians. The headlines and front pages of the main and most influential media have twisted almost all the truth and placed manipulated photos and videos to absolutely accuse the forces of order of lack of restraint and create an opinion matrix of chaos and disorder in Cuba.
The backing of the White House did not take long to arrive: [accusations of] coercive measures by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Army Corps General Alvaro Lopez Miera and the members of the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior.
“Joseph Biden is categorically wrong -assures the young lieutenant-. Our main mission is the defense of the people, so that citizens can walk and perceive tranquility and security in the streets. We cannot allow the imposition of the terror that the Miami mafia and the anti-Cuban congressmen want for our land.
“This is the first time, since I have been here, that such a complex event has taken place. If it were to happen again, we would be there to safeguard and protect the people, of which we are proudly a part,” Rosales asserts, while emphasizing the participation of rescue and salvage groups of troops in localities devastated by natural disasters, as they were in those that occurred in Ecuador and Dominica.
“In the face of any meteorological phenomenon, we will also go out to support people, as we did when the tornado demolished Diez de Octubre or in situations of flooding in the capital’s coast”.
A dozen publications on social networks have made false reports of protests in recent days, which Rosales denies. He shares his certainties: “Here there is a Revolution that stands firm, calling for unity, peace and love among all, trying to solve the problems of vulnerable communities and families; a country in total calm, dealing with a blockade proud to destroy us, working with will and dedication to contain the pandemic and move forward”.
***
“What do I take away from what happened on July 11? The respect and gratitude of the people, the applause they gave us on our arrival, the signs of support they showed us by approaching us and talking to us”, says Yan Carlos Boza (22 years old), an agent of the National Special Brigade, in a conversation with this newspaper.
The Santiago native has been a member of the troops for ten months. The events he witnessed marked him. He was first in San Antonio de los Baños. Then, he was incorporated into positions before the Plaza de la Revolución.
“When we arrived in San Antonio there was a lot of commotion, people were restless, nervous, confused by what was happening. Sometime later, calm ensued. The appearance of our President was a great encouragement for those present and a demonstration that the Revolution is always at the side of the people, listening, dialoguing, clarifying and rectifying when necessary.
“We saw signs of affection for the dignitary, of confidence that everything was going to be solved. The people’s opinion of our presence was very positive. It gave us strength and impetus to continue defending the conquests that cost so many young lives.
“At no time was anyone repressed. There we reaffirmed patriotism, the moral and ethical values instilled in us by our relatives and the training as part of the special brigade,” Boza narrates with emotion.
“Our participation together with the people was decisive. We have a high responsibility in guaranteeing the security of the country and its citizens. On that occasion, difficult to forget, I truly understood the essence of the National Special Brigade: to defend, from our condition of humble people, with courage and determination, the future of the Homeland”.
Yan Carlos Boza Castillo.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
General view of a crowded beach in South Beach, Florida. The state accounts for nearly 25% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. Photo: Reuters Photo: Reuters
If truth, not interference and hatred, prevailed in our world, a “humanitarian intervention” would be called for right now in the state of Florida, the current epicenter of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
That territory, unfortunately, is the site of nearly 25% of the nation’s COVID hospitalizations this week, despite the fact that Florida represents only 6% of the nation’s total population.
Also of concern is that Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county with some 2.7 million people, has been the number one county for infections and deaths throughout the pandemic and remains so today.
However, after Florida reached 21,683 new cases this Saturday, the state governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, continues to resist issuing an order for the mandatory use of masks and the requirement of vaccinations by employers.
But there’s more: Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio noted on Twitter Monday that there is a “hysteria” by the media regarding COVID, “because bad news sells.” And he stated, “The real story here is how, for fully vaccinated people, the risk of serious disease appears to be close to zero.”
However, data from the Johns Hopkins University show that Florida is the third state in number of cases and the fourth in number of deaths in the entire United States, the country most affected by the pandemic in the world, with more than 35 million infected and 613,000 deaths, as of March 1, 2020.
To give a more complete picture of the situation in the nation, some 72,000 children and adolescents contracted the disease in the week of July 22-29, a figure five times higher than in the previous month, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. And 20,000 of these cases are in Florida.
Now, what is the other reality that can be observed today in the territory: On the one hand, what has been described above and which reflects how the COVID-19 with its new Delta variant is hitting the Floridian population, and on the other hand, the Republican government there, as is also the case in Texas, is adopting resolutions so that the inhabitants, including children, do not use masks or have to apply social distancing measures, as warned by health authorities.
Next week, students in that state will resume classes in person, and the use or not of masks by students is also part of the political debate, an aspect that has become a business, since parents who do not accept such measures are encouraged to transfer their children to private schools, where regulations could be more flexible.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that in Florida and, specifically, in Miami, the beaches are crowded with people, mostly children and young people; that bars and other entertainment centers are open and that this is the other side of a reality that, unfortunately, is already lethal.
In this situation, White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, declared that while 25% of the hospitalizations in the country are in Florida, the governor (DeSantis) has taken steps that go against the recommendations of Public Health. She added: “The situation is too serious, deadly serious, to act in a partisan manner.”
What proposals for a solution would be given by those who, right there in Florida, have asked President Joe Biden for a humanitarian (read military) intervention against Cuba. Or is it that the dead and the infected in Florida do not count when it comes to politicking, as Marco Rubio and other feverish promoters of hatred, the blockade and the attacks against our Island do.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Sonic attacks
The saga of the so-called “Havana syndrome”, used by extreme right-wing elements in the US and the Cuban-American mafia to justify a hardening of policy towards Cuba, and to reinforce the idea that Russia and China constitute a threat to world security, is once again in the news.
As reported Monday by The New York Times, “the United States lacks the evidence to blame other nations for the existence of sonic attacks against its citizens inside or outside the country”.
The statement followed a meeting convened by the Director of National Intelligence, Avril D. Haines, to evaluate the investigations into the alleged sonic attacks on State Department officials, CIA officers and their families.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, present at the meeting, stated that these “unexplained health incidents” are a high priority, although there is no evidence to indict any country without any certainty that microwaves are the cause of the illnesses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/us/politics/havana-syndrome-attacks-mystery.html
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Meeting with Religious
Photo: Estudios Revolución
An open and sincere dialogue was held by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with members of the Council of Churches of Cuba and ecumenical leaders. The exchange became a space for gratitude, homage, faith, commitment, participation, learning, reflection and hope.
With them, Cuba will also continue to found. And just as Cuba will do, “the Cuban Church will also continue founding together with our people”, a certainty not only expressed by Joel Ortega Dopico, executive secretary of the Council of Churches of Cuba, but which in many ways marked the essence of more than a dozen interventions that nuanced the debate.
The President of the Republic summoned them to do and found together. It was a little more than three hours in which he was seen listening attentively to every word; taking notes again and again in his agenda; nodding; explaining doubts; inquiring about community projects that really contribute to the neighborhoods; opening ways to solve obstacles that hinder a better performance….
We can still improve and expand harmony, constantly building a lot of trust and the possibility of talking, discussing, debating, even if we do not always agree on the same thing, reflected the Head of State.
From the conviction that together it is possible to create and do more, he thanked everyone for taking the time to attend the meeting and express sincerely “what they feel”. It is tremendous -he said- their willingness to participate in the construction of our society “from all the experience they have and from all the contributions they make”.
“We are going to look for spaces in which you can contribute and participate, so that you can be with us in them and also so that you can teach us, because you have many things to teach, which have already been developed in all these years”, he ratified.
As part of the dialogue, necessary and contributing, the President thanked the prayers that, as those present told him, they make for him and his government team. In detail, he shared with them significant elements of the current situation of the country and the latest events.
A situation that he defined as extremely complex, and at the same time challenging; in the challenges there is also a charm, -he pointed out- and a way of seeing life to look for the capacity of response, encouragement, encouragement, and to go to a better moment, he trusted.
For that -he added- we have to continue multiplying everything that is efficient and contributive, what gives us harmony, usefulness and beauty, discarding what is inefficient, what hinders, what is bureaucratic, what is corrupt.
We need to reinforce the attention in the neighborhoods, and there we count on you. We know about the projects you have developed, the concept of popular education you have worked on, and we hope to be able to multiply your experiences and enrich everything we do with your participation, he emphasized.
In the meeting, which is the first of others to be held with directors of religious institutions and fraternal associations, as part of a permanent link with them that the country’s leadership has maintained during these years, the Head of State acknowledged the historical legacy of those who preceded him, whose path “we want to continue”.
He thanked them for their condemnation of the blockade in different scenarios and how they have defended Cuba’s position before their counterpart churches in the world. I believe that there is a coincidence between what you have proposed and what we want to do,” he said.
Photo: Estudios Revolución
He also spoke at length about the epidemic caused by the COVID-19 and how the country has been facing it for almost 17 months. The first concept, he assured, “has always been to save people’s lives, with whatever it takes…”
Challenges, future projects, shortages, changes in routines, solidarity and willingness to do, were deeply discussed during the day. From the respect for individual beliefs and dialogue, very useful ideas were born and more than one left with “assigned tasks”.
SERVE, PARTICIPATE, DO…
Serving the people and actively participating in the life of society and the Homeland have marked the course of the Council of Churches of Cuba, in its 80 years of foundation, Joel Ortega Dopico, its executive secretary, was heard to say proudly and firmly.
“Throughout these years of Revolution and throughout Cuba’s history, the Council and its predecessors have actively participated in the life of our society and our Homeland,” he evoked. Then, he listed some of the many scenarios in which they have also left their mark: the clandestine struggles in the Sierra; the literacy campaign; the actions for the return of Elián and the Five; the battles against the Bloqueo…..
With the latent emotion for the symbolic and transcendental exchange, he spoke to Díaz-Canel with the frankness of one who knows he is “taken into account”, and confided to him his expectation that the day of this August 6 marks a before and after in the strategy of the Cuban ecumenical movement with the leadership of our Revolution.
We have -he said- to go to the level of Frank País, to the level of Faustino Pérez, of those comrades who gave their lives, and here we are now, to reaffirm that we are also a continuity of their work.
With the certainty that there are many issues still to be addressed to truly achieve the transformation that the nation demands, the Executive Secretary of the Council of Churches of Cuba referred to the necessary self-criticism, the pending rectification, the profound review of methods and styles of work that clash with the will to serve the people, the bureaucracy, the obstacles and the insensitivity of some that are so damaging. These are realities, I trust, which unfortunately the church has not been able to escape either.
How can we ensure that the church and religion become more and more part of the processes of participation in the changes we are experiencing? He asked himself and in turn asked the audience, to gradually string together ideas that ratified the importance of “seeking ways of dialogue so as not to stigmatize positions. There are cracks that we have to heal together”.
“…is the church we want to be, to be a church for our people…”
“Brother President,” Carlos Ham Stanard, pastor of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, then told him, “here we are, as part of Cuba, to reaffirm our vocation of service, to continue in the dialogue, in the struggle, in the work, and we hope to continue in this process of dialogue, mutually enriching each other.”
Without pretending to boast about his actions, because they have only had the purpose of “being useful”, the also Rector of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas, told how in the institution an extension of the pediatric hospital was enabled, where 1500 patients were attended, in 47 days of service: 900 children and 600 parents and companions.
Those were days of great concern,” he acknowledged, “but also of defense, of fighting for life, and of great satisfaction in being able to serve our people on this front, fighting for life.
Joel Suárez Rodés, executive coordinator of the Collegiate Coordination of the Martin Luther King Memorial Center, spoke about the need to summon and add so that everyone feels part of it; to understand that today’s society is not like the one of 20 years ago, that it is diverse, complex, and has a multiplicity of actors.
Photo: Estudios Revolución
We ask to be convened more, especially in relation to labor and social policies for the attention to vulnerability, he suggested to the First Secretary of the Central Committee. “It is necessary to create a wide corridor to save this Homeland… and it is up to the Party leadership to motivate it…”
Dialogue cannot be imposed, it has to be born from the territory, from the place where people are doing, not saying, he considered.
Díaz-Canel then spoke about granting participation to all, of integrating, of convening. That, he said, we are able to build it and we would be many more contributing, participating. He was joined by members of the Political Bureau Manuel Marrero Cruz and Roberto Morales Ojeda, Prime Minister and Secretary of Organization and Cadre Policy of the Central Committee, respectively; as well as Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, member of the Secretary of the Central Committee, and Caridad Diego Bello, head of the Office of Attention to Religious Affairs of the Central Committee.
First of all, the 15 participants in the meeting who took the floor spoke about their gratitude and considered it a privilege to be able to “meet with our authorities and deal with issues of common interest”.
Regarding the obstacles and bureaucracy that prevent the quick entry into the country of medicines and other supplies necessary for the work they carry out in the communities, they also commented to the Cuban President, who assured them that many of these issues would be resolved immediately. The decision to create an office within the Government to deal with issues related to religious institutions will contribute greatly to open roads and make solutions feasible.
A cornerstone of the interventions was also the need to consolidate the existing spaces for dialogue, not only to talk about “things that concern us, but also to present solutions”; that they become systematic spaces, not temporary, in which to give continuity to the issues and see the answers to the proposals.
With the church we have the duty to work for the unity of our people and we have done it from our messages, with our relatives, friends, people that we have seen that they are wrong, explained Lydia Aguiar Batista, vice president of the Council of Churches of Cuba and vice president of the Sovereign Grace Church.
To embrace, respect and take advantage of the diversity that defines today’s Cuba, called Dora Arce Valentin, pastor and moderator of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church. We cannot reject diversity, she insisted, we have to see that diversity as a gift, as something that enriches society.
That is the Cuba we want, a Cuba where its families are diverse, where they assemble in the way they can, that they want, that they know, (…) because that is how we want Cuban society to be, and in that sense we can be counted on.
Representatives of the Christian youth, “that present that builds the country and the world”, were also heard as a light. From their experiences, they also spoke of participation and the enormous challenge of feeling part of the construction of a better Cuba, in the most diverse scenarios.
“That the religious sector be present in the dialogues with the youth, because from our spirituality and our faith we also have a contribution to those dialogues”, requested to the Cuban President Dianet Martínez Valdés, secretary of the Student Christian Movement for Latin America.
It is up to us now to nurture that unity from this country that we are and to celebrate the diversity that we are. It is up to us, as a church, to be mediators, to be conciliators, said Kirenia Criado Pérez, pastor of Los Amigos Church.
“Cuba is the center of my life, but reconciliation is the center of my task, and I believe that today it is our turn to have reconciliation as the center of our task and we offer ourselves as a church, because of this experience we have lived, to be a space for reconciliation there in the neighborhood, there in the church, there in the smallest communities, to work in these spaces of reconciliation that are so important.”
The intimate moment of reflection then turned into a tribute in which President Diaz-Canel received a wooden cross, a plaque and a Bible from the hands of Rhode Gonzales and Raul Suarez, former presidents of the Council of Churches of Cuba. Similar gifts were also presented to the rest of the members of the presidency.
For the 80th anniversary of its foundation, a recognition was given to the Council of Churches of Cuba, which has historically maintained an attitude of respect, social participation and commitment to the Revolution. Signed by the President of the Republic, this honor was received by the Vice President of the Council of Churches of Cuba, Lydia Aguiar Batista.
In this memorable meeting, the President of the Republic also conferred the Second Degree Felix Varela Order to Pastor Raul Suarez Ramos, pastor emeritus of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Marianao, protagonist of that historic meeting with Fidel in April 1990.
From the integrity and courage of his years, he was heard saying among emotions: “Raúl Suárez did not retire, he is in full jubilee, which means joy and happiness, which is what has given us this meeting and the next ones we will have”.
Likewise, said decoration was granted post mortem to the Very Reverend Pablo Odén Marichal Rodríguez, a man of light who did a lot for the unity in revolutionary Cuba.
“Dispose and count on what we have, for whatever you wish for the benefit of the nation”, Marcial Hernandez Salazar, president of the Free Evangelical Church, had said a short time before.
And for the benefit of the whole nation, those present then joined in a prayer for life, and prayed together, because from our diversity our many strengths are also born.
Author:
Mileyda Menéndez Dávila |sentido@juventudrebelde.cu
Tuesday 03 August 2021 | 07:22:38 pm
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Tom Daley, now Olympic diving champion, knits to raise funds to help gay boys who have no support from their families. Author: Taken from the Internet Published: 03/08/2021 | 06:59 pm
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
–Marilyn Monroe
If there’s one thing that distinguishes Olympic competitions, it’s their exhibitionist nature. More than to beat their rivals, whatever the sport, each athlete goes out to demonstrate how far we can go in life when we set out to break the limits that someone else set before and seemed immovable.
In that spirit, records are also broken from the stands, as evidenced by the photo of British diver Tom Daley, the new Olympic champion, kintting in concentration as his teammates compete in the Aquatics Center.
The image is iconic because it confirms another challenge overcome in these Games, historic since their inception for many reasons: Tokyo 2020 is the first Olympics in which at least 130 people with homosexual or bisexual erotic orientation, or non-binary identity, and one trans person will openly compete.
Daley declared, “I am gay and an Olympic champion,” to show that these are not incompatible qualities, as has been taboo for too long in modern sport. And the knitting thing is not just a hobby: his fame and activism on Instagram allows him to sell those pieces and donate resources to shelters for gay boys with no family of their own to give them love and respect. The gold didn’t go to his head because he already had it in his heart.
This is his third Olympics and the second time he has come openly gay, an attitude that inspires more athletes to shed the fear of showing who they are in front of the world’s cameras. One less element of stress for their competing bodies and their minds, pending also pandemic.
“When I was younger I always felt like the one who was alone and different and didn’t fit in. There was something in me that was never going to be as good as society wanted me to be,” he told the Guardian. “I hope that any young LGBT person can see that no matter how alone you feel now. You are not alone. You can achieve anything.”
Tokyo 2020 is not the first step, but it is the most forceful in bringing sport out of the closet of sexual prejudice. The sports magazine Outsports states that in the London 2012 Games, 23 self-declared athletes participated outside the heteronormative canons; and in Rio 2016 there were 56.
The Japanese event almost triples the number with athletes from 25 countries. To mention the most significant: from the United States there are 30 and from the United Kingdom 15. There are 12 from the Netherlands and 11 from Canada. New Zealand and Australia had nine each, and Brazil seven. And these figures do not include the technical staff and Paralympic athletes who will come later.
They are in sports as varied as swimming, basketball, canoeing, horseback riding, field hockey, golf, fencing, judo, handball, rowing, rugby, cycling, diving, boxing, BMX freestyle, soccer, softball, tennis, athletics, taekwondo, wrestling and volleyball. At first glance, we can see figures with non-binary identities, that is, that break the typical culturally constructed expectation of feminine and masculine.
And if we are talking about challenging stereotypes, one who does so in a forceful way is New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, 43, the first trans woman to compete in weightlifting. Registered as a male at birth, in 2013 she completed her physical and legal transition process. Her case has raised strong controversy, but her hormone levels meet the international requirements to compete with women in this sport, which is controversial for gender reasons.
Hubbard did not win a medal, but she was still happy to be in competition, and before the press she thanked the International Olympic Committee for reaffirming its commitment to the principles of Olympianism and making it clear “that sports is something for everyone, that it is inclusive and accessible”.
For now, trans people who take up sports competitively face complaints from those who believe that genes, bone weight or pubertal development give them certain biological advantages, especially if they compete with women. The curious thing is that many of these sportswomen or their predecessors faced similar resistance to breakthrough in sports that were considered very masculine, and proved that they could give an equally honorable and exciting show for the public, something that could also be said of Paralympic competitions.
As we have already said: if in any area society quickly applauds those who leave behind obsolete marks, it is in sports. The new generations are born with the physical and mental disposition to excel in an admirable way, and it is good that the fire of Olympus burns, without discrimination, in all hearts.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Taken from the Internet
Cuban women will always be at the side of the Revolution, in defense of the principles and rights conquered for more than six decades. This was emphasized by Teresa Amarelle Boué, member of the Political Bureau and secretary-general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), an organization that, with that conviction, as part of its essence, will reach its 61st anniversary.
In the midst of the media misrepresentation campaign against Cuba, she referred to Granma that fighting it is among the Federation’s priorities: “We are an organization that has legal authority, a non-governmental organization, but that does not mean that we are against the Government or the leadership of the Revolution, because it was the Revolution that dignified Cuban women and that is what we defend.
“We defend the Revolution because we want that in Cuba women have the right to employment, that there are schools, free education and that our women can be more than 62% of university graduates,” she said.
In another moment of her statements, during a meeting held with the press, she highlighted the importance of the National Program for the Advancement of Women. “Women have to know what the Program proposes; this work we are doing in the communities, the laundromats we are increasing, the strategy itself on violence, which should come out in the next few days with a legal norm; the work we are doing in the Women and Family Guidance Houses.
“We must start in the communities a workshop on gender violence, and we are also working on training the Police and legal personnel on everything that has to do with women’s rights so that they are in a position to exercise a better role in this regard.”
She said that next August 23 the FMC will reach its 61st anniversary with the motivations left by the 8th Party Congress. She pointed out that they will organize dialogues among women in each of the municipalities, and the Fidel and the Revolution of Women workshops, on the occasion of the 95th birthday of the Commander in Chief, always respecting the epidemiological norms.
Among the actions to be carried out in the coming days are a process of deep community intervention to stimulate citizen participation in the communities, as well as volunteer work, special matinees and recognitions to artists, founders and outstanding women in the fight against the pandemic.
The tribute to Vilma Espín Guillois will take place on August 23 at the Second Front, in the mausoleum where her remains rest. The commemorative day will also include the presentation of the Mariana Grajales and Ana Betancourt orders, the August 23 distinction and the 60th Anniversary stamp.
Yisell Rodríguez Milán | internet@granma.cu
July 29, 2021
The paradoxes of imperialism are beyond absurd. Just as the U.S. movement in solidarity with Cuba announces the shipment of six million syringes for vaccination against COVID-19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reports that, in order to access the latest two million dollars allocated for subversion in Cuba, counter-revolutionary mercenaries must adapt their “proposals” to reflect the events that occurred here July 11.
The U.S. government seeks to fuel confrontation, division among Cubans, and promote the many lies about Cuba circulating on the world’s principal media platforms, especially social networks.
Now, a little more than a week after that Sunday of disturbances, the USAID – the public face of the CIA – discloses that it will not change its objectives with respect to the island, and that, in addition, those requesting funding must design their proposals taking into account the current political situation, the Cuba Money Project reported.
Last June 30, USAID announced that it would allocate two million dollars to projects that “encourage” democracy and human rights in Cuba, one of the most obvious U.S. interventionist strategies around the world, and historically used against the Cuban Revolution.
In the meantime, as of July 17, some two million syringes have reached the port of Mariel, just west of Havana, from the Cuba solidarity movement in the United States – an act of love organized by Global Health Partners, with the participation of Cuban-Americans and several solidarity groups, who are continuing to collect funds to send medications, including antibiotics, painkillers, contraceptives and vitamins.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The Cuban Revolution is a political and cultural act of support for the Cuban Revolution.
The unity of Cubans is their greatest strength. Photo: Ismael Batista Ramírez
To suppose that we revolutionaries are satisfied with the situation of the country, that we have resigned ourselves and lost our dreams, is a blunder. We are not addicted to shortages, we do not applaud the shortages, we do not ignore the empty shelves or the crowded lines of which we are also part. We long for the bonanza, the good food, the well-stocked market, the full pantry; but we do not shoot at the target with our problems nor do we stay on the random surface of the crisis.
It is up to us revolutionaries to go deeper, to discover the root of the evils, to understand that it is necessary to act against those that are truly ours (the evils) in order to put a stop to them, without necessary self-criticism rising up, like a dense smokescreen, to play the game of those who have become skilled in placing all the evils in the bag of their own inefficiency.
We revolutionaries must have a greater quota of analysis, which will allow us to put the faults in the right place, without forgetting that the tactic of our enemies will always be to knock down our bush and then hold us responsible for not having the fruits. In the human instinct to find the guilty, it is not always easy to discover the real ones.
It is up to us revolutionaries to proclaim that there will be a better future, with the enormous difficulty of doing so from a stormy present. This includes the imperial harassment of our Island; and in that difficult mission, we cannot allow the waters of discouragement to sink our ship, so that others may appropriate our destiny.
We revolutionaries must resemble much more those who sacrificed themselves for the Revolution than those who gave up in the effort. There are many people in our history who overcame more complex moments than those of today without losing hope and optimism.
No one forces us, revolutionaries, to be so, and if we have assumed it, we must understand that it is not a cyclical conviction or a ship that only sails with the wind in our favor. If we are, it must always be with the same face and ready to face more than one storm.
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