The blockade is an act of cruelty
to culture

"EVERY US government action against Cuba is detrimental to both nations, even more so if we take into account the profound cultural and historical ties which unite us," Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto remarked, answering many questions from internet surfers who participated in the Blockade against Cuban Culture forum on the website cubavsbloqueo.cu

Prieto enumerated the most affected sectors: "music, film, literature, figures such as Henry Reeve, and the constant teaching of Martí, who knew that country so well and defined it so precisely in its virtuous dimension and in its terrible brutal and arrogant expression."

Organizing a movement against the blockade in the heart of US intellectual circles is something that has greatly advanced within that society, the minister pointed out. "Now, the hostilities reinforced by the Bush Jr. government are trying to disrupt those communicating arteries between the two nations. The denial of visas to important figures from Cuban culture, science, and sports, as well as the prohibition on artists, filmmakers, academics, and other notable representatives of US society to visit the island are some of the measures to achieve that end."

The impact of the blockade "also hides the imperial fear that our reality becomes known and promoted," Prieto pointed out.

"For this reason, it is important to draw together all the people who are against the blockade and for the truth to be known."

The minister of culture remarked that from May 2003 to April of this year, 194 visas out of the 462 requested by this ministry were refused.

"To cap it all, this high number of visas was refused under section 212 F of the US Immigration and Naturalization Act, applied to those whose entry the administration considers detrimental to US interests," he remarked.

Prieto enumerated the cases of notable figures from Cuban music whose performances in the United States have been prohibited: "Emblematic figures with enormous international recognition such as Ibrahim Ferrer, Barbarito Torres, Amadito Valdés, "Maracas," Carlos Varela, and many others are among those to whom entry has been denied based on section 212 F."

To a Spanish participant who said that she believed that "in Cuba, people do not know universal culture," the minister offered a well-supported argument, pointing out that in their efforts to screen movies from around the world, "our movie theaters and festivals could give a lesson of diversity and ecumenism, whereas, in many countries, less than 20% of the movies shown are made outside the US cultural industry. In Spain alone, the 20 most popular movies shown last year came from the United States, and they are generally of a dreadful quality."

"Perhaps you are not being allowed to watch alternative US films that we do screen in Cuba," he added.

Prieto told another surfer that he believed that "the great Ministry of Culture of the United States is Mr. Market, who annihilated all the revolutionary and critical elements present in the 1960’s protest songs; who mutilated the hip hop movement, born from the most genuine black protests in large cities; and promotes a light insipid rap; who has ghettoized Noam Chomsky, one of the most brilliant intellectuals from his country while the most mediocre puppets become unavoidable elements of daily life; and this does not only happen over there, but everywhere."

Fidel’s text, known as "Words to the Intellectuals," laid the bases for an anti-dogmatic and anti-sectarian policy over 40 years ago and for ever, and "adopts and highlights the best of universal culture and of our own culture in the face of those who are attempting to standardize and numb us and the rest of the world," underlined the Cuban minister.

"I believe that this text prevented that anti-cultural aberration called "socialist realism" from prospering in Cuba, whereas it was a movement that did so much damage to the Soviet Union and to other countries, and which in Cuba does not appear in the Constitution or in any other official text."

The Revolution is accused of being a dictatorship and a totalitarian regime, he said, "but something is false within this logic: dictatorships do not eradicate illiteracy because it is convenient for them to keep the masses in a cloud of ignorance, nor do they publish millions of books on the best of Cuban and universal culture from all times, nor do they transform military barracks into schools, nor do they provide free education for all from preschool to university. How many governments, self-labeled "democratic," could pride themselves on showing such a cultural and educational record in our time, including the United States (where there are 32 millions of illiterate people)?"

The blockade is an act of cruelty against Cuban culture, and this has an impact on Cubans as well as on the rest of the world, Prieto remarked. "Indeed, they are implementing the blockade with an unthinkable cruelty and a barbaric systematization, including the prohibition on Grammy Award winners to travel to the United States, as well as selling books, teaching materials, technology, and what is needed to preserve the cultural heritage."