We share with the readers of Cubadebate the special program for the centenary of Haydee Santamaría:

In 2022:
Friday October 21 || 5:00 pm. || Casa de las Américas: Inauguration of the exhibition The Fabric of Memory. Tribute to Haydee Santamaría, with works from the Haydee Santamaría Art of Our America Collection.
Tuesday October 25 || 3:00 pm. || Che Guevara Room: Presentation of the 2023 calendar “Haydee Santamaría one hundred years after her birth”. A co-edition of Ocean Sur and Casa de las Américas.
Friday, November 25 || 5:00 pm. || José Antonio Echeverría Library; Inauguration of the bibliographic and documentary exhibition “Centenario de Haydee Santamaría”.
Thursday, December 15 || 3:00 pm. || Che Guevara Room: Presentation of the book Hay de defend la vida, a compilation of texts by Haydee Santamaría, which Casa de las Américas publishes in co-edition with Ocean Sur and a special issue of Casa de las Américas magazine dedicated to its founder.
Thursday, December 15 || 5:00 pm. || Che Guevara Room: “Songs for Haydee”. Concert by the Ensemble Vocal Luna, under the direction of the teacher Maribel Nodarse.
Friday December 16 || 2:00 p.m. || Cinema 23 and 12: Special function of the Cuban Cinematheque with Icaic materials dedicated to Haydee Santamaría or that include her presence.
Friday December 30 || Broadcast on Cuban television: Screening of the documentary “Nuestra Haydee”, a production of the Casa de las Américas, directed by Esther Barroso.

In 2023:
Sunday January 15 || 5:00 pm. || Avellaneda Hall of the National Theater of Cuba: Special function of the National Ballet of Cuba dedicated to the centenary of Haydee Santamaría.
Friday January 20 || 7:00 p.m. || Che Guevara Hall: Concert by José María Vitier dedicated to Haydee Santamaría.
Thursday, January 26 || 7:00 p.m. || Che Guevara Hall: Concert by Amaury Pérez dedicated to Haydee Santamaría, as part of the activities of the 2023 Casa de las Américas Literary Prize.
From February 20 to 24 || Manuel Galich Room: Dedicated to honoring the memory of Haydee Santamaría, the International Colloquium “Politics and Politics in the History and Culture of Latin American and Caribbean Women” will be held as part of the Casa de las Américas Women’s Studies Program.
Wednesday, March 8 || 3:00 pm. || Manuel Galich Room: Women and women’s struggles from the Casa de las Américas. A panel in homage to Haydee Santamaría.
Friday April 28 || Che Guevara Room: Celebration of the 64th anniversary of the Casa de las Américas.

The same state that they call “failed” bravely called, just a week ago, for a referendum on the very advanced Family Code. The unequivocal majority of the Cuban people supported it, and a few hours later it became law. Before, this inclusive project, conceived from popular participation, had to go through a fierce campaign of demonization based on supposed moral and religious precepts. Overtly political manipulations were not lacking either. None of this prevented the triumph of the yes, reflected in a pale and reductionist way in the hegemonic press.

Coinciding with the entry into force of the Code, a devastating hurricane hit the western region of Cuba, leaving dozens dead in the United States in its wake. It is painful and difficult for any country that suffers such a contingency to get back on its feet, alleviate the suffering of those affected, try to recover from the damage and move forward.

For Cuba – economically strangled and slandered for decades – the challenge is multiplied. Only the incontestable decision to allocate the scarce resources of the country so that no one is left abandoned and the conviction that only with the participation and support of the people is it possible to move forward, can explain why we managed to overcome it again, without stopping thinking about going far beyond.

While people and organizations from all over the world have expressed their solidarity and offered concrete support to Cuba, while sister governments have provided assistance and friends like those of The People’s Forum have called on President Biden from the pages of the New York Times to show signs of the most elementary humanitarian spirit and does not hinder the Island’s purpose of rising up with its own efforts, other voices have taken advantage of the tragedy to install the opinion matrix that our ills and the difficulties to face them are a consequence of the inability of the Cuban government.

They want to capitalize on the logical discomfort of citizens deprived of basic services in the hope that nature will finally achieve what so many desperate attempts to destroy the Revolution have not been able to do. Now they politicize demonstrations and spontaneous claims, move through the networks hysterical and aggressive hate speech, incite street violence, oppose the slightest relaxation of the blockade and follow the script of the “soft coup” to the letter.

In a few days, sixty years have passed since the October Crisis, perhaps the moment of greatest risk experienced by the revolutionary process, those days in which -as Che said in his farewell letter- Fidel shone like few statesmen in history . Once again, fate offers us the alternative of surrendering to adversity and threats or imposing ourselves on them with imagination and audacity. No “failed state” could dream of the second option; no worthy people would support him.

Today the Cuba so often defamed is recovering from the ravages caused by the hurricane. Instead of the repression attributed to the fabricated “virtual country”, in the “real” one, the authorities constantly visit the affected areas and talk directly with the citizens.

As in all difficult situations, solidarity, the basic principle of our coexistence, comes to the fore. Let our friends know that the overwhelming majority of the people recognize themselves in their leaders, participate in the recovery of the country and defend the principle that is on the threshold of the new Constitution approved in April 2019: “Cuba is a socialist State of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign”.

Havana, October 2, 2022.

Abel Prieto, a former Minister of Culture, is to replace poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar, who died July 20 and served as president of the institution from 1986 until his death. A disciple of Fernández Retamar, Prieto, speaking with the staff, recalled Roberto’s immense work as head of the institution, as well as the important legacy of Haydee Santamaría, founder and “inventor” of the Casa.

Marcia Leiseca, a founder of the Casa, along with Haydee, who has served as first vice president for several decades, was released from her responsibilities and will begin the transition process that will be led by Maria Elena Salgado, first deputy minister of Culture.

(Granma)

Surprised upon learning the news, Retamar told Granma International that he was extraordinarily honored on being “the first Cuban to receive it and coming from an institution like UNESCO – which is a true oasis in this world – which Martí would have been very proud of.”

As Prensa Latina reported, also highlighted was Retamar’s work as president of the Casa de las Américas for four decades, noting he “has contributed permanently, from this prestigious center, to the promotion of peace, solidarity, human rights and equality among Latin American and Caribbean nations, values recognized by this Award.”

Retamar, a tireless scholar of the life and work of the most universal of Cubans, José Martí, among many other topics, received the prestigious award during the 4th International Conference FOR WORLD BALANCE, held January 28 through 31, at the Havana International Conference Center.

(Granma)

The Casa has been located here since its founding in July 1959, through one of the first laws passed by the revolutionary government, and hundreds of Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals have gathered in its halls on the occasion of the awarding of a Prize that today celebrates its 60th edition.

Haydee Santamaría (1923-1980), heroine of the revolutionary struggle, who led the institution until her death, supported the idea of a literary contest, whose foundations were drafted by the great Cuban intellectual Alejo Carpentier, just three months after its founding. The first panel of judges would meet in 1960.

Under several different names, the prize, originally known as the Hispanic-American Literary Competition (1960), then the Latin American Literary Competition (1964), and finally, the current Casa Prize (1965), has become, over six uninterrupted decades, one of the continent’s most prestigious.

Aspects such as the quality of the winning books in a wide range of genres (currently 15), the number of competing works (about 30,000 titles), published authors, and the participating judges (exceeding the figure of 1,300) confirm such an opinion.

In the 1999 book Premio Casa de las Américas. Memoria, compilación y valoración de la historia del concurso, Jorge Fornet and Inés Casañas highlight: “In the first competition, included were the canonical genres: poetry, novel, theater, essay, and short story, but others were added… Thus emerged as a genre or category: testimony; Caribbean literature in French, English or Creole; Brazilian fiction and nonfiction literature; literature for children and young people; and topics that addressed studies on gender, indigenous cultures, Latinos in the United States, or African-Americanism.”

Speaking at a recent press conference headed by poet and Casa President, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Fornet, director of the Casa’s Literary Research Center, announced that this year the literary contest would be held January 21-31.

The number of books submitted, almost 600, attest to the interest that the Prize still arouses among young authors, and the confidence in the strong ethics of a competition that rewards literary quality.

The categories for 2019 are: novel (167 works received); poetry (224), Historical-Social Essay (28), Brazilian Literature (45), Literature for children and young people (101), and the Prize for Studies on Latinos in the United States (19).

In addition, the Casa will once again present its three honorific awards, as it has done since 2000: the José Lezama Lima Prize for poetry, José María Arguedas for narrative, and Ezequiel Martínez Estrada for essay.

These names are not only emblematic within the literature of the American continent — as indicated by a broad dossier put together by the Casa Research Center and Communications Department — but were also linked to the institution and the Prize since its early years.

The Cuban Lezama Lima was a judge on three occasions; Peruvian Arguedas on one; and the Argentine Martínez Estrada not only served as such, but was also the first to win the Essay Prize in 1960 with Análisis funcional de la cultura.

The composition of the juries on this occasion is as follows: the novel prize will be awarded by Adrián Curiel Rivera (Mexico), Víctor Goldgel (Argentina), Lina Meruane (Chile), Anne Marie Metaillié (France), and Eduardo del Llano (Cuba); for poetry by Aurea María Sotomayor (Puerto Rico), Raúl Vallejo (Ecuador), and Soleida Ríos (Cuba); the historic-social essay prize by Néstor Francia (Venezuela), Elissa L. Lister (Dominican Republic), and Raúl Garcés (Cuba) .

The selection in Brazilian literature will be the responsibility of Isis Barra Costa, Luisa Geisler, and José Luiz Passos; the prize for studies on Latinos in the United States by Frances Aparicio (Puerto Rico), José Manuel Valenzuela (Mexico), and Rubén Rumbaut (Cuba-U.S.); while the award for literature for children and young people will be selected by Elena Dreser (Argentina), Mario Picayo (Cuba-U.S.), and Olga Marta Pérez (Cuba).

Given that this is the 60th edition of the Casa Prize, the inaugural remarks were presented by Fernández Retamar, and with them the jury was constituted.

The 2019 Casa Prize represents both continuity and transformation, as it celebrates its 60th edition.

(Granma)