IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 26

social, human, and moral considerations
associated with the race problem.” That
is an honest-to-God truth whose weight
is backed by air, but nothing else. As for
the rest, although it seems useless, I am
reminded of the fact that we refer to
political power in Cuba we are not
talking about an ordinary government.
Instead, it is about a government who
control has been uninterrupted for more
than half a century; its structure has not
varied. It has never faced a decisive,
strong opposition, or countering legal
parties. It has existed in a climate of
internal peace and concord, and had
absolute control over the country’s entire
economic reserves and the nation’s
socio-cultural potential. It is a necessary
truth that cannot be hidden or nuanced
that this unparalleled power did not do
all it should have in our hemisphere.
Much less did it do all it could have to
significantly
transform
slavery’s
shameful legacy. It is not that Cuban
slave descendants have not done
something to progress regarding social
demands in recent decades, but it is
embarrassing and disconcerting to
compare today’s results with the
enormous gains that the government
could have offered them over so long a
stable and unchanging administration
with such extraordinary power. is
certainly true that is seems as though it
has been publishing books, allowed
studies, and sponsored periodical
publications in its desire to find rapid
solutions. These have all been under its
control and in special environments, but
about topics that for decades were kept

under lock and key. At the same time, it
seems to have ordered a reevaluation of
the limitations or open censorship that
has for so long weighed on religious
manifestation of African origin. There is
also a review of history underway now,
for the purpose of rescuing issues,
events, and figure that where heretofore
relegated by historians and the public
education system. Furthermore, more
and more spaces are opening up for
organizations rooted in civil society with
special focus on history and a special
interest in slave descendants, an essential
element of Cuban nationality that has
never before received the attention it
deserves. Everything is being pushed
simultaneously, quite rapidly; everything
is under the government’s aegis or tight
supervision. Everything happens within
the strict parameters it imposes. Of
course, despite its meager nature, we
must be grateful for this new
development. Unfortunately, what is
bothersome, however, because it is so
revealing, is that all this has been done
over a very short period of time when
compared to the many decades the
government allowed to go by without
even trying to do this. Now all this is
going on in the midst of an
unprecedented, economic crisis. If we
analyze things even minimally, the
attenuating
circumstances
the
government is facilitating to defend for
its own defense via leftist anti-racists are
not only aggravating, as they are what
the law requires, in any event, but are
from being any real help for their
defenders. It puts them in the

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