IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 5 ENGLISH | Page 47

todavía” [There is Still a Lot to Talk
About When it Comes to Racism],
wrote that Guillermo Rodríguez Rivera,
who is pro-government, “pointed out
that Zurbano should check things out
with his elders.”10 Pedro Pérez Sarduy,
in “¡Edita tú, que yo titulo!” [You Edit,
I’ll Title It!], who is trying to defend
Zurbano, refutes the possibility that
Zurbano wrote much of what was published in the body of the article, that “he
was absolutely convinced that what was
written was adulterated.”11 Edgar London, for his part, shows that what he
[Zurbano] said is as if not more harmful
than what he didn’t say: “Zurbano’s sin
is not that he pointed out the persistence
of racism in Cuba, but his implicit accusation of the Revolution for remaining
silent about it.”12 In Afromodernidades,
Ernesto Pérez Castillo, had not problem
whatsoever not only with criticizing
Zurbano, but also with insinuating that
it would have been necessary to put in
or take our words from his mouth: “I am
dumbfounded as I read Roberto
Zurbano in the New York Times. Not
because of what he says, which is not a
lot, or anything new, and not even because of what he doesn’t say, but rather
of what he should have said, and did not
want to…”13

Alejandro de la Fuente wrote of Nicolás
Guillén in the introduction to the
“Queloides” exhibit, about how the
Cuban poet laureate called Cubans who
refused to freely use or not use words,
“he was referring to those Cubans who
were staunchly flag waving patriots
who ran away and hid behind patriotic
symbols and anthems because a frank
discussion about the problem terrified
them.”15 By way of conclusion, I’d like
to apply this notion to today’s cautious
ones, to say that they are Cubans who
‘run and hide behind symbols, national
anthems, and official rhetoric.’

Conclusion

5- Ibid, 77.

When the Inter Press Service in Cuba
asked: “To what degree has the issue of
race in Cuba been taken to the people
for public conversati