Untitled - Convivencia

education of citizens, women and men.There are no institutions without citizens.Institutions exist to serve the citizensbecause the human person must takepriority over the institutions. The citizens are,therefore, the soul and the substance ofinstitutions. Without personal empowermentand without social commitment, theinstitutions succumb and so does the citizenthat lies in every person.The right is the cornerstone of theinstitutions and nobody can demand hisrights if he has civic illiteracy. Human rightsand civic education are just like the river andits original source. The respect andpromotion of human rights depend more onthe exercise of sovereignty on the part ofeach citizen than on the authoritarian powerof one government. One government will lasta short time or it won’t be able to exertmuch control if it finds at every turn or ineach family, in each neighbourhood, in eachinstitution, a swarm of citizens civicallyeducated, pacific defenders of their freedomand supportive men who work for others’freedom. If people relinquish theirresponsibility as citizens, on theirprostration will fall not only the quiet,systematic and painful violation of humanrights but, above all, the whole totalitarianweight of some exclusive institutions forcontrol and repression will fall on theirprostration too.In the second place, besides the need of anethical and civic education from right thismoment, it is necessary to start to exerciseon a small scale, the respect for theinstitutions. It’s not only about theinstitutions at the provincial or national level;it’s about the institutions from the base. Inthis vast network, the citizens, women ormen, that obtain the benefits from theinstitutions, must play a demanding,dynamic and participatory role.HOW TO BUILD THE INSTITUTIONALITY FROMABOVE?To start with, the family must be acommunity of persons united by love andlife; this is the first school of socialization.This means that there, in the family unit,starts the respect for a small institutionwhose relations are essentially blood andemotional relations; but some things aretrained inside the stability of the home: thepersonal initiative, the respect for the rights ofthe other members of the family, the work withother people and the openness to the others. Itis true that the modern concept of familycannot be reduced to a formal or rigidinstitution but it’s also true that things havegone to the other extreme. Family instability,the inexistence of a domestic home, theconstant disrespect for the other members ofthe family, cut in the bud not only the trainingto live in social institutions but the veryexperience and the basic education to acceptthe existence of such institutions andparticipate in them in a constructive way. If in acountry like ours, the family institution–community is almost nostalgia, what will be thedestiny of the other civic and politicalinstitutions where there isn’t even the benefitof the blood bonds? Will it be possible for anational home to exist if there are no domestichomes?The school is the second actor for socializationand for the learning of institutionality in thecivic life. This is because the school is aninstitution and it is, besides, a favourableenvironment for institutional education. Howcould our school teach the respect to theinstitutions if the school does not respect itselfin its ends and its means? How is it possible forthe shortest citizens to live and participate indemocratic institutions if the school is amouthpiece and an eloquent example ofauthoritarianism? How can a civic education forparticipatory institutionality be guaranteed ifthe core and the same all story of the Cubanschool are the exaltation and the imitation ofthe leaders? If there is no education in theplurality and the human rights there will be noinstitutions but new leaders and new exclusions.A school with the pedagogy of Varela, Luz andMartí: liberating, designed to bring about peace,focussed on virtue and love, is a guarantee sothat the future of the Nation can be settled oninstitutions.The civil society which is the multiform fabric ofinformal groups, civic and cultural associationsand non–governmental organizations, is thenext step for an education for democraticinstitutions. The citizens need to gather, toorganize themselves, to have spaces ofEdiciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 201251