IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 151

be governed. This new proposal has a
name: it is deliberative democracy. This
can be translated as more citizen
participation, in a pluralist context, and
includes everything from consensus
regarding the basic rules of any debate,
to ensuring that conversations are
informed. Given his experience,
Fernando Palacio Mogár, a Cuban
political leader who works on
constitutional debate, also approaches
deliberative democracy in a simple,
elegant text that is quite accessible for
the
journal’s
readers.
Thus,
IDENTIDADES continues to explore
diverse approaches to the issue of
differences, privileging broad, crosscultural representation. Consummate
intellectual Armando Soler says as much
in his discussion of nostalgias related to
immigration, lives of pain, wonder, and
denial, as does Eleanor Calvo Mártinez,
a young woman who speaks to us from
her own experience and social sphere
about the risks present in today’s Cuban
society. Similarly, there is engineer
Natividad Soto Kessel, a devoted artisan
ceramicist, who dares to share with us
her concerns and experiences, and
aspects of society that shock her. There
are two striking articles in this issue, the
first on the topic of gays, narrated in the
best way possible, through a testimony
about the rawness of Cuban sociology;
the second, about racism in places other
than Cuba, in this case, in the United
States and Argentina. The latter focus
come to us from the pen of Bonita Lee
Penn, Editorial Director of Pittsburgh’s
Soul Pitt Media, and Pablo Cirio, who

works diligently on the invisibility and
invisibilization of Afro-descendants in
Argentina (which has considered itself
the region’s European, advanced center,
for many years). Pablo Cirio examines
this expertly through the legacy of
music. Similarly, Leonardo Calvo
Cárdenas deals competently with the
topic and its manifestation in Cuban rap
music, as does musician David D’Omni,
who approaches from within music and
its society, and Kenya C. Dworkin, in
her substantial, essential exploration of it
in Cuban literature, which helps us
understand the racism present in the
negation of this community. A thorough
review of this issue would never end. I
would like to end my praise of the
journal by celebrating its inclusion of
topics regarding Latin America’s
contemporary reality, which are always
important to us Cubans so we might
understand
things
from
other
perspectives and other, contrasting
realities. We Cubans increase and
improve our visibility through the work
by Colombian Michel J. Ovalle, and the
perspective
of
Peruvian
Afrodescendants. For this, and more, I
continue expressing my gratitude for and
to IDENTIDADES.

* Paper presented at the University of
Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Published
courtesy of Cubanet.

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