Untitled - Convivencia

Gaceta de Cuba, Convivencia, Cauce, LaGaveta, Voces, Revista De Cuba, Renacer,Nueva Prensa Cubana, Miscelánea, Primaverade Cuba, Cuba Nuestra (belonging to the CubaStudy Society from Sweeden), Arte Cubano,Herencia (belonging to the Cuba CulturalHeritage Association), Encuentro de la CulturaCubana, Revista Hispano Cubana, Diario deCuba, among others. Not everything in thesepublications is thought for the future in Cubabut especially their editorials and essays are.Those essays and editorials are muchappreciated. Some of these magazines are stillbeing published, others are not but they havegot an ethical, civic, religious and culturalthought in their files and this thought must betaken into account. Other sources of thoughtare the spaces for reflection and theaudiovisual productions: Omni Zona Franca,Observatorio LGBT, Sex Education NationalCenter (CENESEX). Razones Ciudadanas,Estado de Sats, Observatorio Crítico,1Cubano+; some programs on CubanTelevision such as “Vale la pena”, the space bythe economist Terrero broadcasted during theTV space “Diario de la Mañana”, among others.Of course this is an unfinished and insufficientlist. These previous spaces and all spacesknown by the readers can vouch that it is falseto say that good and viable thought is notbeing created in Cuba for the future. We haveonly mentioned some of the centers fordebate, dialogue, thought creation andalternative proposals for the future in Cuba.These spaces work with a respectfulperspective which does not disqualify anyone.These spaces have a wide and inclusive viewand each one of them maintains its ownprofile and dynamics. This enumeration whichis clearly incomplete would be useful to recallother centers that have not been mentioned:they are evident examples showing thatcertainly there are thought issuers in Cubawhich have roots in our most authenticpatrimonial sources. No matter their diversity,divergence or contradictions. We can agree ornot with something published or studied inthose spaces; this is, in our opinion, the bestand desirable thing. It’s the frank and mixedprocess, sometimes dialectic and sometimesdialogic; it’s the always unfinished search forthe best things for Cuba and its happinesswhich is and should be the commondenominator. All of these sources and allthings they have published and debated haveleft a heritage of thought which is stilldispersed and not yet interwoven but whichshould be compiled and published withoutexclusions.Some projects and programs for the futurein Cuba: The 19th century in Cuba witnessedthe emergence of the foundational projects ofthe Nation. Medardo Vitier has called theseprojects “changing agents that grantdenseness to an epoch”. For different reasonsamong which there are leadership,regionalism and frustrations, these projectsdid not culminate immediately in theindependence of the country. The sameauthor points out that those ideas andfoundational projects remained unfinished as“not unfolded germs in the 19th century”; wemust turn to them; the majority of projectswhich are thinking for Cuba in the early 21stcentury turn to them.For example, one of these projects is theVarela Project which was named after “the firstperson who taught us how to think”. Varelawas the Father of Cuba nationality and culturewho devoted all his life to organizing projectsfor Cuba independence and freedom. TheVarela project which is an initiative by theLiberation Christian Movement was anachievement of the joint work by many in civilsociety among which there was theoutstanding participation of the “TodosUnidos” (All United) Movement. This projectled to a reaction by the Cuban government: itdeclared that this kind of socialism in powerwas irreversible. Much earlier, during the 70’sthe first Cuban Rights Committee had beenfounded and it had an essential andelementary program to defend the libertiesand rights of all Cubans; this program hasbeen maintained by all the successors of thefirst committee among which there is theCuba Human Rights and NationalReconciliation Committee. We also recall theeffort by “Concilio Cubano” (Cuban Council)which was an incipient advance of what wouldcome later. Other examples are: the differentorganizations for help to prisoners and theirrelatives, the projects of Independent Libraries,the Cuban Writers Club, the Eastern YoungWriters Association, the Letter of Intellectuals,the “La Patria es de Todos” (FatherlandBelongs to All) Manifest, and the group of 75117