Untitled - Convivencia

has reached a citizenship category and hasbecome a public expression genuinelyparticipatory. This reality had a turning pointwhen one student from the University ofComputer Sciences, Eliezer Avila, establisheda dialogue with the President of the CubanParliament Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada. Thisdoesn’t mean that everything started at thatmoment, but in our opinion, somethingstarted to grow from that landmark on. Atthe same time the community of bloggers,women and men, grew and diversified. Theperformance of Tania Bruguera happenedduring the last Havana Biennial together withother diverse artistic manifestations. In theHigher Institute of Arts in Havana there was aperformance which lasted three days. Ithappened at the campus of the Universityand it started with an explicit protest forhunger and it ended the way these thingsend right at this moment. The “Pánfilo”phenomenon with all its shades and savinghis person and his privacy has been anothersocial phenomenon to be studied.The Non Violence demonstration along the23 rd Street in Vedado, Havana, on the 6 th ofNovember, let us see very young peopledemonstrating along the main street in Cuba.That very day, Yoani Sánchez and OrlandoLuis Pardo were kidnapped and dragged bypersons in civilian clothes, to otherneighbourhoods in the city. In December, theprotagonists were the members of thecultural and spiritual project Omni-ZonaFranca from Alamar neighbourhood. Theyheld their superb Festival “Endless Poetry”.They were repressed and expelled from theHouse of Culture of that neighbourhoodfrom the East of the Capital.In Pinar del Río and in other provinces ofCuba, from the West to the East, there weresocio cultural activities around the 10 th ofDecember, the Human Rights Day. In thewestern part of the country we saw, in themiddle of the Park of Independence in Pinardel Río City, the artist Yamilia Pérez Estrellaperforming an artistic intervention which sheentitled “Without Permit”. A great number ofagents and officials besieged theperformance; it was held, however. Onemonth later, Yamilia tried to hold her secondperformance “Without Permit II: A step to theChange”, together with two friends, one ofthem, Maikel Iglesias, was kidnapped and takento his house in another civilian car. He couldn’tgo out from his house. Yamilia and Sergio Abelwent out for their public participation and anenormous repudiation act accompanied themall the time. On The Teacher’s Day, anotheryoung man released a communiqué during aceremony in a Senior High School in the countryin Pinar del Río. In this communiqué he askedfor a total reform of the Cuban educationsystem and a partial reform of the Constitutionof the Republic.Thus, the culture and education worlds expressthemselves, more and more, in a pacific, critical,punctual and persevering way. Instead ofgreater spaces for debate; instead of openingthe existent spaces for the diversity of opinionand action, the answer has been the increase ofthe violent repression, direct, without masks orsubtleties as it used to be. The repudiation actslike it happened in the 60’s or the 80’s not onlyharm the victims but they degrade the oneswho perform such acts. It is necessary to saveboth parties from this civic depravity: the oneswho endure it without feeling violence or hatredor revenge and the ones who perform it with noreserve, mercy or ethics at all.Cuba, our nation which is all of us, is the onethat suffers, it impoverishes itself, it coversitself with mud, when these repudiation actsoccur. Nothing is more anti Cuban and nothinghurts more the national sovereignty andidentity than seeing some Cubans against otherCubans because they think and act differently.Nothing is closer to the ordeal of the vileness.The ones who order them, the ones whoimplement them, the ones who volunteer toshout, beat and kidnap; the ones who observethat without denouncing it and the ones whotry to “save themselves” from the contaminationof the causes and the consequences, all of usare responsible for putting Cuba in the greatestof its dangers: the danger of not being itselfanymore; the danger to lose its essence of loveand peace, fraternity and reconciliation.The ones who blockade the culture world, theones who silence the arts, the ones who spoilthe beauty and switch off the light of the lettersand the truth of the dreams of freedom, justiceand Love in Cuba, are trespassing a verydangerous red line: they not only repress thecreativity of artists and the honesty of theEdiciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 201258