the World of the Cuban Culture / IntraMuros
IntraMuros, Translator: Adrian Rodriguez
By Dagoberto Valdes and the Editorial Board
In editorial No. 14 of Convivencia Magazine (www.convivenciacuba.es) of
March-April 2010, we said that:
"In the last year there has been a visible increase of the natural
diversity of expressions of men and women in Cuba. This plurality has
been manifested, mainly, in the cultural world. This world has been
always a very multicolored one. And in the last fifty years, it has been
treated more with subtle censorship and exclusions than with more direct
methods. Thus, the cultural and educational world was expressing itself,
more and more, in a peaceful way, critical, punctual and persevering.
Instead of more room for debates; instead of opening the existing paths
to the diversity of opinion and action, the answer has been the growth
of violent repression, direct, without a mask nor subtleties as before."
The last two milestones with this sad reality have been: The closing
down of Pedro Pablo Oliva's studio in Pinar del Rio last May 14, 2011
and the "cancellation" of the enrollment and grades earned over two
years, by the blogger from Camagüey Henry Constatin, who is also a
member of the editorial boards of the magazines Voces and Convivencia
and who participates in the preparation of the serial Citizens' Reasons,
an audiovisual space for independent debates that address different
aspects of our national life. Both decisions damage noticeably the
spirituality and creativeness of the Cuban nation. So we expressed in
the afore-mentioned editorial only a year ago.
"Those who blockade the cultural world, those who gag the arts, those
who uglify beauty and turn off the lights of letters and the
truthfulness of dreams for freedom, for justice and for love in Cuba,
are crossing a very dangerous red line: Not only are they repressing the
artists' creativity, and the honesty of the intellectuals, or the
sincerity of the communicators, but also they are repressing the
nation's soul. Those who repress the soul of the people in order to try,
unsuccessfully, to smother the motions of the human spirit, are
inflicting the greatest of anthropological damage on their citizens,
fatally wounding the spiritual stability of the nation and executing it
by means of the irreparable slope of violence, which nobody wants."
On the now closed door of Pedro Pablo Oliva's house, the greatest living
artist of Pinar del Rio, there's a phrase that speaks clearly of his
great soul: "strictly prohibited to stop dreaming". So responds this
Cuban who loves so much his motherland, who gave so much for it and who
did so much good, discreetly, to Pinar and to Cuba. All artists,
intellectuals, cultural or civic animators, know that Pedro Pablo, his
home and his help, has been always in favor of the realization of the
best dreams of each one of us. His moderation, his humble life and his
desire for a universal inclusion of everything good, right and
beautiful, mark his attachment to the homeland and his indelible
contribution to the culture. Reading the exhortation to don't stop
dreaming, I couldn't avoid recalling the end of the number 14 editorial
of Convivencia which is another way to say the same thing and to dream
of a better future for Cuba and its culture.
"This world is upside down. And one day will be straightened. And the
artists will create and express in free public spaces, respectfully and
participative. And the bloggers will write and launch to the world their
blogs without gags or blockades on the internet. And the musicians and
composers will say, with their free musical notes and free lyrics, what
their souls want for the good of all. And the writers and artisans will
let fly in the air letters and shapes as free as they are responsible.
And the educators and students, methodologists and directors of
education, will not fear students expressing themselves, or gathering
freely without the surveillance of their custodians with teacher faces.
And every one, men or women, will contribute, express or intervene in
the public spaces, in the cultural environments without the horrible
nightmare of being labeled as a worm or a mercenary.
This world will come, nobody doubts it, and then Cuba will stand up and
will close the door on the gag. And the threatening arms of brother
against brother will be lowered. And the offenses between lifetime
neighbors will end, and fear and the threats from our phones and squares
will end. And families divided by all these will be reunited. And, then,
it won't be a day for revenge, or for hate, or rancor. Cuba, every Cuban
man or woman, will brick up the door to violence and repudiation. And we
will open between all of us, with the beauty of the arts and the
letters, with the truthfulness of the ethical and civic education and
with the kindliness of the peaceful coexistence, the ample door, diverse
and fraternal of the National Home that it is and it will be forever
this Cuba that still navigates in hope."
Pedro Pablo and Henry, you know you can count on the solidarity, the
affection and respect of many people in Cuba and overseas. Even the
silence of fear speaks by itself. It's only a matter of not sinking in
hopelessness. It is only another big blackout. Let there be light.
Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez
May 26 2011
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