Cuban Vice President Diaz-Canel - “The Cultural Policy Of The Cuban Revolution Is Unique”

Cuban Vice President Diaz-Canel: "The Cultural Policy Of The Cuban
Revolution Is Unique" / 14ymedio
Posted on July 16, 2015

A few days after the censorship of Juan Carlos Cremata's production of
The King is Dying, cultural policy has been the topic of discussion on
Monday at the National Assembly commission dedicated to these issues.
The first vice president of the Councils of States and of Ministers
Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, participated in the debate.

The parliamentarians discussed the implementation of cultural policy in
public spaces, which led to Diaz-Canel to warn that "the enemies of the
Cuban process are trying to use culture as a platform of capitalist
restoration. Therefore they insist on the trivialization and
vulgarization of culture."

Also present at the commission were Abel Prieto, adviser to President
Raul Castro on cultural issues, and the Minister of Culture, Julian
Gonzalez, along with officials of the Cuban Institute of Radio and
Television and the Ministry of Domestic Trade. The normalization of
relations with the United States prompted the first vice president to
claim that "in the new scenario (…) Cuba should take advantage of the
economic opportunities that circumstance offers, but must also assume
the ideological challenge." According to the official, "in that sense,
the role of culture is unquestionable."

Diaz-Canel said that "at a time when the contents, their distribution
and impact take on a great importance in the political landscape, the
political culture of the Cuban Revolution is the guarantee of national
sovereignty (…) and is unique." The Ministry of Culture, he added, "is
the governing body of its application, but all government agencies must
participate in its application.

Abel Prieto, for his part, specified that "it is not about imposing one
culture, but promoting it, to guide people's taste."

Source: Cuban Vice President Diaz-Canel: "The Cultural Policy Of The
Cuban Revolution Is Unique" / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/diaz-canel-the-cultural-policy/