Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez
In 1997 a man with long hair and progressive airs assumed the post of
Minister of Culture in Cuba. The intellectual and artistic sector was
relieved, because the other candidates for the post had long histories
of ideological extremism. For writers and artists Abel Prieto
represented a more modern current and more open thinking. Many of them
placed their hopes on the young minister for an end to censorship and
exclusion on ideological grounds. But it was not to be.
Over fifteen years, this man who looked like a hippie was turned into a
bureaucrat. It is true that he won some battles against the demons of
political extremism, but he lost the most important ones.
He managed, for example, to simplify the cumbersome paperwork required
of academics, artists and musicians traveling abroad. While he was at
the head of such a complex ministry the most trustworthy figures of our
national culture also acquired some privileges such as Internet access
from home and the possibility of buying a modern car.
But under the command of Abel Prieto we saw some dark times for the
artists on this Island. Exiled authors and those critical of the
government continued to be excluded from publishing and school curricula.
With the passage of time and despite the hair that continued to fall
over his shoulders, Abel Prieto became the symbol of culture bowing down
to power. A few days ago the national press announced he had been
"released from his post" to retire and write literature. It is unlikely
that the man who managed artistic creation as "a weapon of struggle in
the Revolution" will find the the peace he needs to create fictional
characters in novels very few will read.
Instead, he should make a final gesture of honesty and put down on paper
all the concessions he had to make, all the blacklists he helped to draft.
6 March 2012
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