"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
(From Generation Y Blog Editor's Note: Video of the event which Yoani was prevented from participating)
Inspired by Cubans marching for nonviolence in Havana & outraged over the abduction & beating of Yoani Sanchez, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo & detention of Claudia Cadelo & friend for trying to attend the same march. I repost the following links in which they tell their stories:
The recent Juanes concert in Cuba created a storm of controversy over the issue of censorship of cultural expression. Many non-Cubans were perplexed by the intensity of emotion in Cuban-American communities. But a recent conference I attended illustrated how the emotions were attached to the sounds and scenes we saw erupt across the country.
Boleros Prohibidos, o La Habana Sin Olga Guillot ["Forbidden Love Songs, or Havana Without Olga Guillot," the acknowledged queen of Cuban torch songs], is a powerful multimedia tour of the romantic music of Havana in the 1950s, the golden age of the bolero. Its author, Armando López, a journalist and cultural critic, was a man who came of age in Havana's cabarets and night clubs, when world-class stars such as Olga Guillot, Elena Burke, and Beny Moré were creating their best ballads: "Miénteme," "Qué Sabes Tú," "Cómo Fue."
Olga Guillot, her music was banned and black listed by the Castro regime.
I grew up hearing this music, and it does evoke powerful emotions in me as well. Few love songs in English can move me so. These songs and artists are the soundtrack of memories of my mother and father, dancing to "Soy Tan Feliz" in an embrace, of my abuelito serenading my abuelita with "Contigo en la Distancia," in his honeyed baritone.
The Union City audience of several hundred bolero fans -- many silver-haired abuelitos y abuelitas, and not a few much younger folks -- sang along with every single sound clip, and ooh'ed and aah'ed at the photos and film clips of their idols. Many were overcome with feelings and memories. Why the nostalgia, why such emotion? Anglo-American seniors don't tend to cry like this when they hear Nat King Cole or Johnny Mathis.
López went on to explain that in Revolutionary Cuba the bolero came to be seen as incongruent with the goals of building a new society. First, jukeboxes were confiscated from corner bars and nightclubs (there were as many as 20,000 jukeboxes in Havana in the 1950s). Then, in 1961, at the First Congress of Writers and Artists, music was defined as an organ of integration into the new Revolutionary society. The bolero came to be seen as a reactionary genre, in bad taste, and ultimately, banned. Cuba's world-class composers and performers, many of whom had brought the genre to its golden age, were abruptly silenced.
Finally, in 1968, in the Ofensiva Revolucionaria -- the Cuban equivalent of China's Cultural Revolution -- most of the 1,200 cabarets and dance halls for which Havana was known were shut down (with only a couple of exceptions, including the notable Tropicana). Bolero lovers and performers were left with no viable venues. An entire generation was traumatized by loss of the very words and music that had defined the key moments of their lives -- coming of age, first loves, stolen kisses, secret romances.
So in the context of musical censorship, it is not surprising that Juanes and his project stirred so much controversy. Heartfelt debates on the usefulness of economic and cultural boycotts are not likely to end, as long as there are states that attempt to silence a love song. Armando López is a writer, journalist, and arts producer, using a fusion of genres and artists. His shows have been staged at Lincoln Center and other major venues in New York and Havana. In Cuba he founded the journal Opina, which the state shut down in 1990. He has spoken on Cuban popular music at universities and cultural institutions all over the US. He often writes for Cubaencuentro.com.
Response to the Spokesman of the Totalitarian Regime, Mr. Bruno Rodriguez Oswaldo Paya, Christian Liberation Movement
November 2nd, 2009 - Havana, Cuba - Mr. Bruno Rodríguez, you have spoken in the United Nation’s General Assembly, using the language of the agents of the repressive forces, to offend those in Cuba who defend the dignity and rights of Cubans and those who are imprisoned for this cause. As a representative of a tyranny, you spoke unabashedly, with insulting and cynical phrases, against the Cuban people.
The first and most insulting statement: Cuba is a democracy.
First it should be clarified that Cuba is all Cubans, and the government representatives that oppress it are by no means the voice of our people. In Cuba there is no democracy, there is a totalitarian regime where one group with power, that is not popularly supported or representative, denies the citizens and people at large their sovereign rights to choose and to decide, and their right to self determination.
Mr. Rodríguez also said: " Cuba respects the freedom to travel."
It is only because the Cuban people have no voice that you are able to so greatly offend them with such cynicism. In Cuba , freedom to travel is not a right and the government that Rodríguez represents denies this right to the Cubans who live inside and outside the country, a policy that cruelly separates many families.
It is not our style or our spirit to respond to offenses, nor to the sewer language of the officials and agents of the repressive government; however, on behalf of my brothers who are imprisoned for defending freedom and the rights of all Cubans, I respond to you as I responded to your predecessor, Felipe Pérez Roque, when faced with a similar offense:
Bruno Rodríguez, you are a mercenary to a government that pays you to justify to the world the oppression under which our people live!
But as I did with Felipe Pérez Roque, I remind you that those who order you can place and remove you with one finger; but we are not ordered by anyone. And as we said to those that are now in disgrace, we say to you: We are ready to defend your rights as a human being when they throw you to the trash; if it is not before the Cuban people win their freedom and their rights, as will surely happen.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement Havana , Cuba October 29, 2009
Extrajudicial Executions at the Berlin Wall (1961-1989)
As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches on November 9, we remember those who were murdered trying to escape to freedom over the Berlin Wall. Here is the full list of victims. Let us not forget.
1961 Siekmann, Ida
Litfin, Günter
Hoff, Roland
Urban, Rudolf
Segler, Olga
Lünser, Bernd
Düllick, Udo
Probst, Werner
Lehmann, Lothar
Wohlfahrt, Dieter
Krüger, Ingo
Feldhahn, Georg
1962 Schmiel, Dorit
Jercha, Heinz
Held, Philipp
Schmidtchen, Jörgen (Border Guard)
Böhme, Peter
Brueske, Klaus
Frank, Horst
Göring, Peter (Border Guard)
Haberlandt, Lutz
Hannemann, Axel
Glöde, Wolfgang
Kelm, Erna
Huhn, Reinhold (Border Guard)
Noffke, Siegfried
Fechter, Peter
Wesa, Hans-Dieter
Mundt, Ernst
Seling, Günter (Border Guard)
Walzer, Anton
Plischke, Horst
Reck, Ottfried
Wiedenhöft, Günter
1963 Räwel, Hans
Kutscher, Horst
Kreitlow, Peter
Muszynski, Wolf-Olaf
Mädler, Peter
Widera, Siegfried (Border Guard)
Schröter, Klaus
Schulz, Dietmar
Berger, Dieter
Schultz, Paul
1964 Hayn, Walter
Philipp, Adolf
Heike, Walter
Gneiser, Rainer
Wolscht, Norbert
Trabant, Hildegard
Mispelhorn, Wernhard
Schultz, Egon (Border Guard)
Wolf, Hans-Joachim
Mehr, Joachim
1965 Unknown (N.N.)
Buttkus, Christian
Krzemien, Ulrich
Hauptmann, Hans-Peter
Döbler, Hermann
Kratzel, Klaus
Garten, Klaus
Kittel, Walter
Cyrius, Heinz
Sokolowski, Heinz
Kühn, Erich
Schöneberger, Heinz
1966 Brandes, Dieter
Block, Willi
Schleusener, Lothar
Hartmann, Jörg
Marzahn, Willi
Schulze, Eberhard
Kollender, Michael
Stretz, Paul
Wroblewski, Eduard
Schmidt, Heinz
Senk, Andreas
Kube, Karl-Heinz
1967 Sahmland, Max Willi
Piesik, Franciszek
1968 Weckeiser, Elke
Weckeiser, Dieter
Mende, Herbert
Lehmann, Bernd
Krug, Siegfried
Körner, Horst
Henninger, Rolf (Border Guard)
Cuban society: the monologue disguised as dialogue
"Cuban society is not white or black, it's not a matter of zero or 100." Rafael Hernández, Cuban professor and Temas editor "I look around and it is the other blockade which affects us most, that of censorship, intolerance and punishment to those that opine differently." Yoani Sanchez, Philologist and blogger
There have been two events over the past two weeks that I would've liked to have attended. The first was at Florida International University two Thursdays ago. The second this past Thursday in Havana at the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Center.
On Thursday, October 22, 2009 Rafael Hernández a University of Havana professor and editor of Temas delivered a lecture at FIU, according to The Miami Herald titled: Catharsis or Debate? Critical Thinking in the Public Sphere of Cuba Today. According to the Miami Herald the professor argued that "catharsis" or emotional arguments leads to "a denial of alternatives, personal reprobation, verbal aggression . . . a monologue rather than a dialogue." This is a redefinition of the word that flies in the face of thousands of years of history beginning with Aristotle and sets catharsis on its head.
Casually looking at the definition of the word it refers to the "purification or purgation of the emotions through art" that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension by affording its expression leads to the "elimination of a complex." Psychologists say that catharsis offers a way to vent feelings in an appropriate manner. One approach to catharsis in the realm of theater uses negative experiences actively reliving them on stage in order that "participants can develop the creativityneeded to find new solutions. " Perhaps a better title would have begun with "debate or dialogue" rather than "catharsis or debate" although in either case all of the terms: debate, dialogue, and catharsis have much to offer within the Cuban context and should not be demonized or marginalized.
When Professor Hernández argues that "If it was only Fidel Castro, it would not be a problem" referring to the denial of alternatives he ignores a half century of history not to mention constitutional and penal law. Now if what he means by this answer is that if others were not following orders and that having the brothers Castro spouting orders with no one to carry them out would end the problem then I would agree, but if the argument is that there are many who deny alternatives and engage in their own monologues and are unable to come together with a constructive program I would respectfully disagree.
In Cuba it is not a question of zero or 100 but rather one or nothing. Either you accept as laid out in Article 5 of the Cuban constitution that the Communist Party of Cuba is "the organized vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the highest leading force of society and of the state, which organizes and guides the common effort toward the goals of the construction of socialism and the progress toward a communist society" or you do not. No other political party is legally permitted or recognized in the current system. It is one party or nothing.
Furthermore the term nothing or zero applies to the freedoms recognized for Cubans who are in opposition to communism and advocate an alternative socio-economic-political system according to Article 62 of Cuba's constitution along with the warning that attempts to exercise those freedoms to advocate alternatives is "punished by law."
Professor Hernández's swipe at Yoani Sánchez and her Generation Y blog not meeting his vision of critical debate stating that "by definition, it is not an analytical debate ...unfortunately, it has more of catharsis than debate. Sorry,'' and arguing that there is "too much cyber-chancleteo'' [ gutter-level discourse] was both unfortunate and perhaps indicated a lack of familiarity with the material. Yoani's blog has been blocked from viewing in Cuba by the dictatorship.
This brings me to the second event I would have liked to have attended. On Thursday, October 29, 2009 the magazine Temas organized a debate about the Internet at the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Center. Several bloggers, among them Claudia Cadelo, attempted to participate and were denied access with the phrase: “The institution reserves the right of admission.” Nevertheless clad with a blonde wig Yoani Sanchez was able to get in and briefly participate. This is an exerpt of her account of the event:
"A young writer asked to speak and lamented that so many had been prevented from entering; then someone came and mentioned terms such as “enemy,” “dangerous,” and “defend ourselves.” When finally I was called, I took the opportunity to ask what relationship there is between the limitations in bandwidth and the many websites censored for the Cuban public."
The questions she raises are concrete and refer to problems that impact most Cubans, and the actions by the organizers to restrict participation by those with a different point of view indicate a monologue disguised as a debate.
Instead of monologues disguised as debates or dialogues and ad hominem attacks disguised as detached criticism the internet offers a virtual space for catharsis, debate, and dialogue which can be the basis of a more open, pluralistic, and democratic conversation on Cuba that in the realm of ideas brings an end to the legally enforced totalitarian monologue.
Posts
