Culture of resistance and resilience

2023-10-25 18:26:52

Between October 10 and 20, the birth of what is Cuban is certified in human history

In 1949, Don Fernando Ortiz, rounding out his concepts of “Cubanidad and Cubanness”, pointed out that, “there are Cubans who do not want to be Cubans and are even ashamed and deny being so… (in them) Cubanidad lacks fullness, it is castrated… It is not enough for Cubanness to have one’s birthplace, nation, life and bearing in Cuba; there is still a lack of awareness. Full Cubanness does not merely consist of being Cuban due to any of the environmental contingencies that have surrounded the individual personality and have forged its conditions; The awareness of being Cuban and the will to want to be are also necessary…I think that for us Cubans it would be convenient for us to distinguish between Cubanness, the generic condition of being Cuban, and Cubanness, full, felt, conscious and desired Cubanness; “Responsible Cubanity, Cubanity with the three virtues, theological sayings, of faith, hope and love.”[1]

Six years later, in 1955, Bohemia Magazine reflected an interview with the revolutionary leader and head of the July 26 Movement, Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, who explained his reasons for “…bringing our people freedom and the right to live decently.” “, without despotism and without hunger.”[2] (because) “…with all doors closed to the people for civic struggle, there is no other solution than that of ’68 and ’95. We must repair the outrage that this regime means for all those who have fallen for the dignity of Cuba” .[3] (and) “…as I said before the Emergency Court of Santiago de Cuba, when I was tried for the events of July 26, we are Cubans and being Cuban implies a duty: not fulfilling it is a crime and is treason.”[4]

October 20, 1868, a date assumed to honor Cuban Culture, synthesizes the entire process of cultural formation of the Cuban nation up to that moment and launches the cultural ideal to defend into the future.

That day, after the Mambisa takeover of Bayamo, the second most important city of the old Oriente province (the first was Santiago de Cuba), proclaimed the first great military victory of the nascent Liberation Army, in the midst of patriotic enthusiasm, the notes of the Redemptive anthem, which, although it evokes the local demonym, is conceived with the national spirit… «Run to the combat, Bayameses. May the country contemplate you proudly…” (sic). As is known, the name of the anthem, at the proposal of the patriots of the revolutionary clubs, who conspired and prepared the independence feat, was to emulate that of the French Revolution, which had its “Marseillaise”, because it was conceived in that French city. . Therefore, if our anthem was forged in Bayamo, there is nothing regionalism about it that the name of that place is designated in its lyrics.

Between October 10 and 20, the birth of what is Cuban is certified in human history. The necessary and preceding creolism was extinguished, the antipode and synthesis of the process of cultural assimilation that came with the conquest and colonization of Europe, the inhuman and impious uprooting of more than a million children of Africa and the almost total extermination of the aborigines of this land. .

The justification for this introduction is to reveal, as I consider it, the “key” to what Armando Hart stated as “the canonizing miracle” of Father Varela.

Abel Prieto[5] He recalled that a requirement to canonize the priest Félix Varela, and that the file demanded, was to demonstrate that in his spiritual ministry there was evidence of the performance of a miracle and companion Hart said: «The miracle is already there: it is us. That is to say, Varela’s miracle is the Cuban Revolution itself and its ability to resist and renew itself. And, without a doubt, the fact that we are here after so many shipwrecks and collapses would seem like a miraculous, mysterious fact.[6]

Well, the essence of that miracle and that mystery is to hold on to the identity of being Cuban, above and beyond the political, economic, ideological, religious, legal, philosophical or the entire colonizing machinery of Spain, first, and the Yankees, until today.

Between the biological DNA of those born in Cuba and the historical and cultural DNA of this nation, lies its culture of resistance and resilience, which comes from its cultural development as a Cuban.

The CUBAN entity is superior to fatuous nationalism or fetid xenophobia. The world can be grafted to our trunk, but the roots are Cuban. The world is inside Cuba and Cuba is everywhere in the world.

The Cuban resisted the way of thinking, feeling, doing, saying, eating, dressing and drinking of his four roots: Aboriginal, European, African and Asian. An example is in the language. Although we share a mother language (the traditional language of Spain), it does not carry the current lexical, phonic, or grammatical norm, nor of all the words in use or out of use in the Iberian country. Because our language is also mestizo and has until now been an expression, more than transculturalization, it is a cultural expression of resistance and resilience.

Today Cuba resists the effect of a prolonged economic siege, together with a sophisticated war of cultural colonization. The combination of both is aimed at breaking that resistance and the only possible way is only by annulling Cubanness and the majority Cubanness in our people. In other words, once the notion of being Cuban is lost, it is easier to achieve Machiavellian objectives. That is the essence of 64 years of stubborn confrontation between both camps.

National Culture Day in Cuba is the day of resistance and cultural resilience of the Homeland and the Revolution. It is the day of the first triumph of the emancipatory Revolution. On January 1, 1959, was the triumph of the Neocolonial Liberation Revolution and on April 19, 1961, was the triumph of the Socialist Revolution.

On October 20, “the song and greeting to the Homeland” is celebrated. Not only the National Anthem is sung, but also other anthems and marches of the Revolution. The Nation is greeted with an overflow of artistic wealth, the work of the Cuban Revolution and the cultural revolution.

To be a culture of resistance, it must integrate political, ideological, economic, military, culinary, artistic, civic, axiological, philosophical and family culture.

For it to be a resilient culture, it must provide the people and their leaders with the strong will to do, to achieve and materialize objectives, to have the capacity to defend cultural work and to cultivate the feelings of loving and helping.

Grades:

[1]Fernando Ortiz. “The human factors of Cubanness.” Ethnicity and Society, Social Sciences Publishing House. Havana. 1993.

[2] Interview with Fidel Castro, Bohemia Magazine, July 10, 1955. No. 28. Year 47. p. 62.

[3] idem

[4] idem

[5] Abel Prieto. The Culture of Resistance. P.81. «Symbols, bonfires and infernal spells». Social Sciences Publishing House. Havana. 2019.

[6] Idem.

Taken from the site of the Cuban Chapter of the Network in Defense of Humanity)