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Cuban Culture

Haydee Santamaria Medal to Allice Walker

winning, from deep cultural roots

Alice Walker, the famous American writer and tenacious activist, received at Casa de las Americas, by Presidential Decree, the Haydee Santamaría Medal

Author:  | nacionales@granma.cu

february 1, 2024 11:02:06

In a friendship meeting between Cuban and American artists and writers at Casa de las Americas, the Minister of Culture Elpidio Alonso presents the Haydee Santamaria Medal to Allice Walker. Photo: Ismael Batista

To the example of that young Haydee who, before her brother’s torn eyes, said that if he had not spoken, she would not speak either, and she did not speak, alluded the writer and activist Alice Walker, just moments after receiving, this Wednesday, at Casa de las Americas, the Haydee Santamaria Medal, which was awarded to her by Presidential Decree.

“Haydee’s attitude is a reference to move forward in these times,” said the author of The Color Purple, and also confessed to feeling fortunate to have come so many times to Cuba and to see that the nation does not give up. Her people and their dreams will be eternal, “we will go forward and we will triumph,” she said.

Among the reasons put forward to distinguish Walker with this medal -at the proposal of the Cuban Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso- were mentioned the permanent claim of the Pulitzer Prize winner for the end of the U.S. blockade of the island; and her work in the links with our people, based on brotherhood and solidarity in the cultural and political spheres.

Likewise, the merits of her literary works were highlighted, in which she has honestly addressed the issues of racial and gender inequality.

Before the delegation of around 70 Americans visiting the country, related to the progressive cultural organization Busboys and Poets, based in Washington, the poet and essayist Nancy Morejon, National Literature Award, highlighted Walker’s indomitable character, and his life dedicated to the struggle for a better world and understanding among peoples.

On the occasion, she also praised Walker’s influence on Cuban writers through his literature and his civil commitment; and his long years of dedication to the Palestinian cause.

“Alice is at home, the home of all”, said Nancy, who added that this was not just a simple meeting, because both peoples are a family, and that is precisely the concretion of the Casa’s cultural project.

The visitors received a wide explanation of the programs and lines of the institution, through some of its professionals and collaborators; among them, Luisa Campuzano, Zuleica Romay and Víctor Fowler. The Minister of Culture and Abel Prieto, president of Casa de las Americas, were in the auditorium.

Fidel’s legacy, literacy and the cultural battle, and the relationship with Puerto Rico, transcended in the dialogue, in which members of the delegation asked how they could help break down barriers.

Jaime Gomez, vice president of that cultural center, urged them to consider themselves part of the Casa’s endeavors, for as Haydee said, the real workers there are the artists of the continent

José Martí’s Our America

The 171th birthday of Jose Marti

Cuba: To Die for the Homeland is to Live

By Leidys María Labrador Herrera on January 27, 2024

On the eve of the 171th birthday of Jose Marti

Martí is one of those beings whose early death prevents us from evoking him without the question of “how much more could he have done?” However, we choose to remember him without pessimism or regrets, because he lived so intensely, so nobly and so justly, that it is enough for him to be eternal.

The patriotic, political, revolutionary and human maturity of the Apostle came, fortunately for us, very early; that allowed him to build in 42 years an essential legacy, not only to understand the historical evolution of Cuban independence thinking, but also for the definition and understanding of the principles that a society needs to be fair, and the values that cannot be lacking in those who intend to build it.

This is an indisputable merit of Marti’s life and work, developed in perfect coherence, to reach the highest degree of what we wisely identify as an example. To the paradigms we return again and again in search of answers, of safe paths to walk, of truths that are not easily found elsewhere.

Martí has always walked with us, timely and accurate, he has been the protagonist, from his immaterial survival, of the growth of the Revolution, just as he once did with his Necessary War.

We know the answer: in spite of time, of the differences of epochs and contexts, of the variations of objective reality, both programs coincide in the fact that full social justice is only achieved when the benefits of the edified work reach everyone, embrace equally every son of the Homeland.

Therefore, when we ask ourselves what Martí would have said, how he would have acted in a given situation, what interpretation he would have made of our reality, we do not do so because of an inability to discern or make decisions, nor because of nostalgia for an opportunity we did not have to listen to him, to see him, to share with him the time he lived, but because we recognize him as timeless, visionary and foresighted, just as we consider the most faithful of his disciples, Fidel.

Martí is a luck, a talisman, a voice that defies the passing of the years, a legacy that refuses inertia, the staticity of the past, because it fits exactly in each present, as if his pen never stopped writing, as if his prodigious mind never stopped giving birth to noble and exceptional ideas, pregnant with the sacrifice always ready to happen when needed.

In those truths lies the definitive answer to the question “how much more would he have done?”, if that May 19 had not happened. He did much, even more than he ever dreamed of having done, much more than he set out to do, more than he set as a goal for his existence, more than the scope of his dreams.

And he did it for an unquestionable reason, one that we sing with pride and embrace with certainty: to die for the Homeland is to live.

Source: Granma, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English

Blockade of Cuba

Cuba was put on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism “WHY”

 

A List that Does not Match the Truth

By Juana Carrasco Martín on January 22, 2024

protest at the White House calling to take Cuba off the List. photo: Bill Hackwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The United States is rife with paradoxes and this is one of them. On January 11, 2021, a few days away from ceasing to be president of the powerful nation -reluctantly and not without trying with his fanatics to reverse the electoral process won by Joseph Biden-, Donald Trump took a low blow and put the name of Cuba in a counterfactual list of countries sponsoring terrorism (SSOT). The incongruity lies not only in the fact that it is without a grain of truth, it is that in fact Cuba and the United States have in place a bilateral cooperation agreement on counterterrorism.

But the unprecedented thing was that Biden put the poisoned cherry on the cake when he kept the our island in that register of falsehoods, contributing his own imprint to the unilateral and tendentious register, whose purpose is to cause the greatest possible damage and burden to the daily life of Cubans, with the pretense that the people rebel against the Revolution, an infernal machination that began as early as July 1960 when then President Dwight Eisenhower imposed the first economic measures against Cuba, suspending the sugar quota and thus depriving us of 89 percent of the income from that sector, practically the country’s only industry.

Eisenhower’s decision did not stop there. In October 1960, he prohibited all exports to Cuba, with the exception of raw foodstuffs and medicines, thus closing the doors to the island’s main market.

On April 6, 1960, the Memorandum of Lester Mallory, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, cynically and overbearingly laid out what U.S. policy toward Cuba was all about in a report entitled “The Decline and Fall of Castro”:

“Most Cubans support Castro […]. There is no effective political opposition. […]. The only possible means to alienate this internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship. […]. All possible and imaginable means must be used quickly to weaken economic life in Cuba […] denying financing and supplies to Cuba, decreasing real and monetary wages, in order to sow hunger, desperation and to bring about the overthrow of the Government”.

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SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA

Viola Plummer Presente

  • Los miembros de Casa de las Américas de Nueva York expresa su tristeza ante elfallecimiento de la compañera y amiga, activista negra de derechos civiles, co-fundadora del December 12th Movement – Viola Plummer.  Viola fue una guerrera incansable, organizadora de la comunidad durante la mayor parte de sus 86 años,también una aliada de la revolución cubana. Le extendemos nuestra más sincera condolencia a su familia, amistades y a todos que la conocieron. ViolaPlummer, descansa en paz. Agradecidos por el legado que nos deja de ser audaz,intrépido e inquebrantable en nuestras luchas.

    The members of Casa de las Americas of New York express their sadness upon the death of fellow comrade and friend, black civil rights activist and co-founder of the December 12th Movement – Viola Plummer. Viola was a tireless warrior, community organizer for most of her 86 years, also an ally of the Cuban revolution. We extend our most sincere condolences to her family, friends and everyone who knew her. Viola Plummer, rest in peace. We are grateful for the legacy you leave us to be bold, fearless and unwavering in our struggles.

    Jaime Mendieta President                                                                                      Nancy Cabrera Vice-President                                                                              Gilberto Villa Vice-President                                                                                  Franklin Flores Organizational Secretary