By Dalia Acosta
UNEAC conference participants take a break in the Palacio de Convenciones.
Credit:La Jiribilla
HAVANA, Apr 7 (IPS) - Topics that are taboo in Cuba, absent from media
coverage and missing in the political discourse were nevertheless
present in debates at a congress of intellectuals who advocated a
greater role for criticism in society, and more room for dialogue and
participation.
"This is one more sign that the country is changing. Analyses are much
more realistic, and there's a shift in attitude among officials when
they face criticism," a participant at the Seventh Congress of the Cuban
Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC) told IPS.
"Not only was the congress critical of systems that used to be virtually
untouchable, such as Cuba's public education system, but that criticism
has come from people in high positions, and has been well received by
the people moderating the debates," added the intellectual, who
preferred to remain anonymous.
For his part, Alfredo Guevara asked "Can primary, secondary and prep
schools properly educate children and adolescents and thus lay the
foundation for the future as they are at present, governed by
misconceived criteria and practices that ignore elementary pedagogical
and psychological principles and violate family rights?"
The "new" curricula reflect improvisation or "a lack of design" in
present Cuban society, said Guevara, one of the veteran cultural leaders
of the Cuban revolution. A solution, he argued, must involve
"fundamental corrections."
"Sound solutions cannot be built on the basis of dogmas, obstinacy, lack
of knowledge of reality, or ignoring the warning messages provided by
experience and coming from the people," said Guevara, who founded ICAIC,
Cuba's film institute, in 1959.
Although it was off-limits to accredited foreign correspondents on the
island, the Mar. 1-4 congress was extensively covered by the national
media, which devoted pages of print, hours of broadcasting and space on
Internet sites to the main speeches.
UNEAC, which was founded in 1961 and has over 8,500 members, faces the
challenge of reviving its democratic character and role as a channel for
dialogue between writers and artists and the rest of society, aspects
that according to the main report produced by the congress have been
largely lost since the 1990s.
The cultural congress, the first to take place in Cuba since Fidel
Castro stepped down, coincided with the implementation of a set of
government measures intended to eliminate unnecessary prohibitions and
restrictions, stimulate production and open up new options for the
population, but within the framework of the country's socialist system.
Although the Cuban media avoided mentioning the spontaneous debate that
broke out among intellectuals in early 2007, and it is not yet known
whether it was discussed in the congress, it is a safe bet that the
spirit of the so-called "e-mail war" was alive and present at the
meeting's different commissions.
An important measure, related to that debate, is the proposal to create
a working group attached to the presidency of UNEAC, to monitor aspects
of "institutional control and censorship and to follow up on specific
cases that may arise."
"Most conflicts over publicly circulated works arise because
appropriate, respectful dialogue is not established in time between
officials and the artists, who quite rightly feel committed to the
integrity of their work," said critic Helmo Hernández.
He also proposed a UNEAC commission "to watch for and study any signs of
discrimination, not only racial but also based on gender, religion or
sexual preferences."
"Casting an Afro-Cuban actor, or even five or 10, in important roles in
a television serial does not necessarily mean that an open debate about
diversity is being held, nor is the problem of race portrayed in depth
by their mere presence," said playwright Norge Espinosa, who added that
the same is true in the case of sexual diversity.
The analysis went to the essence of present-day Cuban society. "We must
delve into and debate not only what socialism means, but also, most
importantly, how to make it an attractive and culturally desirable
goal," said essayist and poet Víctor Fowler, one of the participants in
last year's e-mail debate on cultural freedom.
In Fowler's view, socialism must be transformed into "a pleasant way of
life marked by an extremely wide spectrum including lifestyles, sexual
identities, entertainment, folk practices, religious forms, open spaces
for people to use, and new forms of interpersonal communication."
Becoming more attractive is a "categorical imperative" for "a social
process, in this case a socialist revolution that is already half a
century old and has, in addition to external enemies, the contradictions
that the process itself has generated in its progress, and the attrition
that wears down so much strength," said Fowler.
Writer Fernando Martínez Heredia said that the prevalence of "ingenuous
or superficial antithesis" in the world of ideas, like the false
opposition between "native and foreign," is "very damaging," as is
"blindly lashing out, or alternating between hard and soft positions" in
the field of practical measures.
There is clearly much to be done. The congress also debated the role of
the media in Cuba, including the banality encouraged by today's
television programming, the silence of the national press on some
aspects of modern Cuban reality and the limited access to the Internet.
"We talk about a culture of debate, but we don't have spaces where the
practice of debate is systematically facilitated," said Rafael
Hernández, editor of the cultural journal Temas, who also spoke of the
need to "create spaces for truly inclusive discussions on the Internet."
Among the problems discussed were hard currency-only sales of Cuban
music and films, the lack of venues for dance music and singing, meagre
royalty payments for authors and the lack of resources which threatens
Cuban television production.
Prior expectations which have not been reflected in the national press
also include the need to legalise independent music and film and TV
productions, which have been ushered in by new technologies and the
limited response and support from state companies.
"UNEAC must help build the Cuba of today. The country, in effect, is
accepting that what was neither convenient nor prudent yesterday is
necessary today," said Havana city historian Eusebio Leal, who added
that the changes being experienced by the country today are not
"cosmetic," but profound. (END/2008)
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