“We are going to win, we are going to win…” sings Nsila Cheche, starting our podcast. The cajon touch sounds with the invincible optimism of the Cuban, who in the worst moments laughs and dances, scaring away the bad omen.
Well chosen musical greeting to the Day of Cuban Culture. And also the celebration of the date by artists and intellectuals, who did not go to a theater to celebrate themselves. They walk through the towns of Pinar del Río where Ian’s winds took away the roofs and the souls of many people.
Reinier Duardo accompanied his greeting to the Cuban artists and intellectuals, with a praise for that work of love for the people that embodies with deeds, the ideas of the recent message to the colleagues of the world, which has already accumulated more than one thousand one hundred adhesions and that has annoyed the haters.
He reminded the analyst how much they have done to separate the artists from the revolutionary project. And, they have managed to buy several, but, in the midst of the difficult situation that Cuba is experiencing, here are the big ones, what is worth and shines with its own light. And they are defending the Revolution with their art and with their signature.
At her time, Bárbara Betancourt meant that there are not only writers and artists. In fact, the message was made public by intellectuals in the broadest concept of the term: relevant educators and scientists from all specialties. A very brief, but very forceful message, which recognizes the enormous sacrifices imposed on us by shortages and blackouts, which even speaks of mistakes, but ratifies the defense of the nation. She also goes against the haters and the haters and quoted:
“We condemn hate speech, defamation, distortions of our reality, and we hope that truthful information reaches those who follow events with good will and honestly care about this country. With our contribution, school activities begin, the tireless struggle of science, life in the communities is revived, cultural programming available to all is restarted and the truth of Cuba is defended”.
In a certain way, the declaration includes the courageous position of Cuban emigrants such as those from Puentes de amor or the NEMO movement, who against all odds, against attacks of all kinds, are fighting within the United States to fully lift the blockade. In a direct half-hour the night before, Carlos Lazo reacted emotionally to Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez’s announcement that the United States had donated 2 million USD and 100 firefighting suits, of which 43 arrived. His reaction provoked a strong debate in the networks, of many people outraged by the squalid aid from the country that has imposed a blockade on us that already costs us more than a million million and is capable of giving more than 3 billion million in one stroke just for weapons, destined to sustain the war in Ukraine.
This episode contrasts with the quick and generous reaction of Mexico, Venezuela and other friendly countries, which both in the Matanzas accident and now due to the damage caused by Hurricane Ian, extended their hands and their help to Cuba. Given this generosity, the blockade stands out more with its charge of abuse against an entire people. The Cuban Foreign Minister summed it up masterfully: “The blockade is the permanent pandemic, the constant hurricane.”
A very novel approach that, precisely from that very small but unexpected donation, makes more visible, shows with facts, the criminal extent of the damage caused by the blockade.
A synthetic and exact explanation of what it means to keep on the list of sponsors of terrorism those of us who are, several times, victims of terrorism. A transparent exhibition that dismantled manipulations, like the one they use so much on the North American products that our stores sell. The issue is not only from whom they are bought, it is what they are bought with, if we do not have fresh credits, if the financial persecution is surgical, hitting where it most affects the Cuban economy.
The presentation of the blockade report is thus part of the best tradition of Cuban diplomacy. The truth told without offense, without bombast. A blockade of more than 60 years was exposed in a few minutes with the essential arguments. Compared to the two million of the donation, the gross numbers of everything that the North American government has taken from us and harms us, acquires its genocidal dimension in a more exact way.
It had to be said and it was said on a day of such significance, since Perucho Figueredo wrote on the back of his horse the Hymn of Bayamo, our Marsellesa, our Bayamesa, the song of Cuban culture that is a school of creativity and beauty in the resistance, with the unquestionable verse that even today marks our collective fate: To die for the country is to live.
(By: Arleen Rodríguez Derivet)