Vol. 71/No. 38      October 15, 2007

Speakers were Nicolás Hernández Guillén, president of a foundation that makes the poetry of his grandfather, Nicolás Guillén, more accessible; acclaimed Cuban poet Nancy Morejón; and Norberto Codina, director of La Gaceta de Cuba, a magazine published by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Chaired by Keith Ellis, a retired professor of Caribbean literature at the University of Toronto, the meeting was attended by 85 people. Among those in the audience was Austin Clarke, author of several novels on the difficult lives of Caribbean immigrants in Toronto.

“The 1961 literacy campaign confirmed the popular character of the Cuban revolution,” said Hernández. “This massive mobilization, in particular of young people, succeeded in eradicating illiteracy in Cuba in a few months. Today growing popular access to science, art, and culture strengthens the revolution and our capacity to defend ourselves.”

“I am a product of the literacy campaign,” said Morejón. “When I got involved in this campaign, I knew this was part of building a new society.”

“The cultural process taking place in Cuba is like the revolution itself, full of lights, shadows, and contradictions,” said Codina. “This process began with the revolution. It went through a gray period in the early 1970s, marked by attempts by dogmatic and orthodox sectors to impose their views on the cultural policy of the revolution. It is deepening today through what is known in Cuba as the Battle of Ideas.”

“Cuban people use this greater access to art and culture as a tool to confront social problems, such as the marginalization of a sector of the youth,” added Hernández.

“Through this process, Cubans are becoming more confident, take more responsibility for the revolution, and develop their sense of criticism,” said Morejón.

Codina noted that “La Gaceta de Cuba contributes in redefining what is Cuban culture by publishing works of Cuban artists and writers living outside Cuba. La Gaceta has also served as a platform for a discussion on racism.”

“Cuban artists and writers are involved in the defense of the revolution,” said Morejón during the discussion. She described Desde la Soledad y la Esperanza (From Solitude and Hope), a new book by Cuban writers, poets, and painters in defense of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five are Cuban revolutionaries currently jailed in the United States on frame-up conspiracy charges.

The meeting discussed education in Cuba and the role of the army in the Battle of Ideas. One participant returning from a stay in a rural area of Cuba this summer said that he was struck by “the openness of Cubans on questions such as gay rights.”

The meeting was sponsored by the radio station CKLN; three book centers oriented to the Black community, Ashanti Room, A Different Booklist, and Burke’s Bookstore; the Free the Cuban Five Committee; the Free the Cuban Five Cultural Committee; and Pathfinder Books, distributor in Canada of La Gaceta de Cuba.

A similar meeting in Montreal September 9 was chaired by Marie-Madeleine Raoult, the director of Pleine Lune, a Quebec publishing house. More than a third of the more than 40 participants there were Quebec artists and writers who wanted to know more about Cuba and establish relations with a Cuban publishing house.

The two meetings raised more than $600 to cover part of the costs of the participation of Cubans in the convention of the Latin American Studies Association, held in Montreal September 5-8.  
 
 
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