very important companies, such as the Houston Ballet and the Royal Ballet of London. Although he holds multiple awards and was inducted Knight of the British Empire with the rank of Grand Commander, there is no single photograph of him at the National Museum of Dance. As a gift and deference to him, the Royal Ballet made the millionaire effort to bring to Havana the whole company, including the stage floor, to offer several functions. Neither the BNC leadership nor the cultural authorities bothered to cheer the prestigious guests with at least some significant award. Finally, Acosta received the National Dance Award in 2011, which he had long deserved, but Alicia Alonso did not deign to appear at the award ceremony. In the middle of last year, Acosta ´ s autobiography, No way home( Harper, 2007), was ready to be launched in Spanish( Sin mirar atrás, Arte y Literatura, 2015), but the presentation was canceled under Alicia Alonso ´ s pressure, according to the extended criterion, in order to prevent the contact by the Cuban readership with testimonies about the racism that has been taking root for decades in the BNC. The actual sociopolitical model manipulates and uses even the most appreciated values as instruments in disregard of the human being. This model is highly deteriorated and has become unviable, but it has destroyed or depreciated many economic and cultural achievements that once were the pride of the whole nation. The BNC is not an exception. Sick of backwardness and hegemonies, the Cuban ballet company is not even the shadow of the one that delighted the entire world decades ago. Perhaps the great diva is much richer now than when she allied herself with the powers that be, but surely the company is much poorer and less prestigious nowadays. Many young dancers take advantage of their tours abroad to escape, like slaves, in pursue of better horizons for their life and work. None of the foregoing matters to the political and cultural authorities, who are guided by the same racist and discriminatory patterns that tarnish the track record by BNC hegemonic clique. It is unfortunate that some merchants— accustomed to traffic with popular culture while presenting themselves as defenders and promoters of Afro-Cuban culture— lowered themselves to reward Alicia Alonso with the unequivocal purpose of ingratiating with the powers that be and to protect private interests. However, it is more lacerating to see how those who present themselves as fighters against racism remain as silent as undignified before such slur. Progovernment anti-racist activists are more concerned with pleasing the state than with consistently denouncing the inequalities and injustices we are suffering. These anti-racists recently crushed prominent intellectual Robert Zurbano with a kind of inquisitorial media lynching because of his article, full of indeclinable truths, published by The New York Times. Now they keep quiet before an undeserved and offensive tribute. It doesn ´ t matter that, for the moment, the powers that be pay its servants with honors and perks, while denying, in miserable and arrogant manner, well-deserved awards to Celia Cruz, Bebo Valdés, Orlando " The Duke " Hernandez, Guillermo Cabrera Infante and many others. Fortunately, time and history will put everyone in the rightful place.
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