Untitled - Convivencia

perspective given by any statesman in ourCountry. Let us stop in each idea of this longquotation by Martí. Let it be a work programand a perspective for the true “updating” wewant for the Nation:“Men walk in two sides: the ones who love andset up and the ones who hate and destruct…There is much and spare aspiration in Cuba,much intelligence and the unemployed talentsfind little occupation in that life of beggarsless desirable than death; that’s why we can’tdeny that in Cuba, a trend or a habit ofmutual disallowing and mean rivalry isemerging; something like rubbing shouldersexcessively and selfishly to reach the dish offame or to reach the table which is not wellset to favour indispensable generosity andconcord for the creation of the republic. Theseattitudes are expected to disappear as soon asthe smothered activity is released throughwide channels, as soon as the new land isopen to the worker, commerce is open to theCreole, the newspaper is open to the truth andthe tribune is open to teaching which is whattribunes are truly used for. Ah, Cuba, a futureAmerican university! It is bathed in the sea ofdeep blue: the hot and aerated land raises themind clear and active at the same time: thebeautifulness of nature attracts and keeps theman in love here: the children nourished bythe university and practical world’s culturespeak with elegance and think with majesty,in a land where the three civilizations will beconnected tomorrow. To live in the bond of theworlds, enjoying the easy freedom of a richand hard-working country, as a representativeand authentic people where the Americaninitiative joins the European art thatmoderates its rawness and savageness, will bemore beautiful rather than let the native soul,delicate and strong at the same time,surrender to an alien national spirit thatcontains only one of the factors of the Island’ssoul; an alien spirit that would pour thetorrents of its selfish and corrupting wealth onthe poor and venal island, and would turn arefined people with a glorious future into whatEngland has made of Hindustan! And to plotthe obscure jealously, the fame by biting, thereduction of the mind to local controversiesand unimportant things is not good for thefuture life, for the original and cultured lifethat would turn the rotten garden into aninteresting and saving nationality, a spiritualyeast in an American bread, an altar wherethe spirits of the world should takecommunion in the happiness of climate andrichness at the same time.”The ethical principles to rebuild the Cubannation are two:-That freedom should become responsibilityand generosity.- That the respect for the rights of all shouldbecome the foundation of peace.Martí himself who founded our nationrespecting diversity didn’t want to makeUtopian projects as great as unattainablebecause they are soul empty and that’s whythey collapse in one day; he wanted the firstlaw of the republic to be “man’s full dignity”.The act of building up with love is notfounded only on the project of communitycoexistence explained by the quotation butalso, and above all, by the soul nobilityexplained in the following description of theperson who wants to be a free citizen:“The man of free chest refuses to give hisheart to the selfish and conquering freedomand predicts that the triumph of the worldresides in the abundance of generosity, in thefull passion for the right to respect theothers’ rights as much as his own, more thanin the artistic Babylonian buildings.”This would be a very Cuban way to update theCountry with inclusion and reconciliation andnot a system or a single party. It would be alsoa way to rebuild the Cuban person who suffersfrom an anthropological deterioration due to acollectivist way of life.All of us, let’s do it!Pinar del Río, July 20 th 2012.Ediciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 2012124