IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 4 ENGLISH | Page 79

included a subjective, liberating poetics. It examined how social and other identities were formed,
how this was tied to morality, normative ethical
practices, and conduct, and how these related to
Cuban eroticism, mysticism and spirituality. This
got mixed in with the behavior of a particular area
of the popular Cuban universe—but represented
as poetic, and apparently fantastic and dreamlike.
Yet, a new political and ideological specter burst
onto the artistic and creative scene, and the very
expressive freedom of the decade’s poetics and
artistic idioms was affected by clashes and misunderstandings, contradictions and obstacles
which, amid polemical historical circumstances
of the time, directly impacted individual artists.
Artistic production at the end of the sixties was
complex, particularly in literature, but the plastic
arts had created sweetened rural landscapes and
politically uncommitted imaginings.
There were only a few exceptions among artists,
who produced their work with the greatest of dignity, due to their belief in what had been achieved
by Cuban society. Even so, they were seen as
transmitters of a virus, ideological diversionists,
or as having extravagant tendencies: they loved
long hair, the Beatles, tight pants, Afro hairdos,
the Gospels, scapulars and other problematic
practices.
When the Cultural Congress took place in Havana, in 1968, the need to address Cuba’s cultural
underdevelopment through a scientific-technical
revolution became the order of the day. Cultural
and religious practices associated with religions
of African origin were not a reliable standard to
hold aloft when compared to the sciences and scientific explanations the government wanted to apply to the world.
A dangerous labeling of creative, religious works
as retrograde and backward negatively impacted
the creation of art conceptualized within a framework referencing an African worldview and religiosity.
This complication was obvious from the perspective of art criticism: it did not understand artistic
discourse seen as folkloric, or the exotic qualities
of Negritude, as rooted in a living tradition of the
country’s nationality.

Despite its very modern techniques and tendencies, Cuban plastic art was overrun by content depicting the fantasies and customs of country
peasants; people involved in agricultural work;
people defending the country; the liberation
struggles; revolutionary heroes and leaders;
women; youth; everyday activities, etc. This was
the thematic focus that Cuban art embraced: it
was a way for the plastic arts to establish a path
so that young artists could perceive reality.
Guaranteed hope
A generation representing guaranteed hope
emerged: Zaida del Río, Nelson Domínguez, Ever
Fonseca, Flora Fong, Fabelo, Choco and other
very young artists distinguished themselves due
to their rural origin and their training at the Escuela Nacional de Arte [National School of Art]
(ENA). One of the values expressed by all of
them had to do with the fact that they poetically
inserted themselves into the panorama of the plastic arts without hiding their roots. Instead, the
master-student relationship was honored, which
concomitantly led to the students feeling free to
express themselves as they chose in their art.
Whether from a positive or negative view of their
poetics, these 1970s’ artists promoted art that was
not contaminated by social commentary. Using
their own lives and experiences as references,
they poured themselves into a more intimate,
softer, and formalist poetics: they had true technique and executed real experimentation.
During his artistic formation, Manuel Mendive
was the one who more forcefully implanted the
syncretic referent of his Caribbean vocation; in
the spaces he created he hinted with historical underpinnings, imbued his work with a miscegenation of different time periods and his
anthropological leanings, to juxtapose past and
present. He conjugated them within a spiritual
world seen through key cultural symbols. Against
all odds, his painting ventured into a profound
study of Antillean visuality. He formally incorporated naif artistic techniques of the Haitian
school, which was identified with Vodou and certain primitivisms from other countries in F