IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 117

Yet, the National Museum of Dance has
not even one photograph of the great
dancer Carlos Acosta, despite his
exceptional trajectory, which has been
universally acknowledged. In Mariana
Grajales’ case, Havana’s authorities
have done nothing to promote any real
acknowledgment of this famous patriot
as the Mother of the Nation, a proposal
and demand that was made all the way
back in the 1950s. On Mesa Redonda,
they attempted to mention other
renowned women of the independence
struggles. The invited specialists made
no reference to the participation of Afrodescendant
women
in
civic
organizations, who for more than a
century, promoted the rights of this
important social group. Neither did they
acknowledge the important contribution
of Afro-descendant women to the
feminist movement during the first half
of the last century. It is not with
circumstantial references on a TV
program that historic justice can be
brought upon.

Extremely important figures like José
Antonio Aponte, an 1812 precursor to
Cuba’s independence; Evaristo Estenoz
and Pedro Ivonet, both leaders in the
Independent Party of Color (1908-1912);
and great labor leader Sandalio Junco
and exceptional communist orator
Salvador García Agüero all suffer from
nearly total anonymity and ignorant
abandon. The anniversary came and
went, and we all know that Mariana and
many others worthy of our veneration
and pride continue as victims of
ignorance, abandon, and omission
simply because they do not fit doctrine’s
manipulative
scheme.
But,
the
persistence of the legacy and example of
the Maceo brothers’ mother does not
depend
upon
this
demagogic
manipulation. These values—ethicalmoral integrity, unswerving, patriotic
and humanistic commitment, and
stalwart intransigence against injustice—
are very important in facing the
challenge of reconstructing the Cuba for
which Mariana took her beloved sons to
the battlefields.
(*Courtesy of CubaNet)

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