IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 34

that covered up the race issue in Cuba
over time. In recent years, the struggle
for racial equality has been enriched by
the participation of organizations and
activists that have translated the
denunciations to the language of
citizens’ rights. While the Afro-Cuban
movement has grown in complexity and
diversity, in parallel fashion the debate
of recent years has been producing a
series of large topics that enjoy shared
interest. These points of agreement
perhaps foretell of a possibility for a
consensual program and joint action.”1
There is broad consensus among Cuban
researchers and activists of all
ideological positions with regard to the
racial discrimination and about how little
the problem is reflected in the mass
media or in public spaces for
conversation. Quite a few analysts and
activists confirm that their concerns and
proposals are kept within closed
discursive spaces and never incorporated
into public policies.2 There is even
growing consensus about the evidence of
discrimination against Afro-descendants,
and not only from a cultural point of
view (explicit prejudices, and the
invisibility of the subject, absence of
Cuban
historiography
about
the
contributions
of
Afro-descendant
intellectuals, union leaders, military
men, and politicians to Cuba’s creation
and development, as well the absence of
race studies in the educational system),
but also sociological one: the
disproportionate number of Afrodescendants in the prison population and
the lowest paying jobs, reduced access to

family remittances, their minimum
presence in jobs paid in convertible
currency, as well as the marked
difference in the acquisition power of
white, black, or mestizo families.3 The
axis that reveals the dissonances
amongst the different Cuban lefts has to
do with the possibility for Afrodescendants to autonomously organize,
and the addition of their demands for
positive public policies to face the
problem. On the other hand, from
officialdom’s point of view, autonomy
and agency independent of the State are
demonized as ideological positions
contrary to “socialism” and the
“Revolution.”
This
ideological
conception, when applied to pubic
policies and mechanisms of social
control, was copied by the Cuban
government from “real socialism.” Such
has been the case not only with these
historic experiences, but also with the
demonization
of
human
rights,
particularly civil and political rights
which, no matter how liberal, are
contrary to “socialism” and “socialist
democracy.” Our attention focuses on
the positions assumed by these three
leftist groups about the debate about the
race problem: organic4 intellectuals and
activists; alternative intellectuals, artists,
and
writers;
and
oppositionist
intellectuals, artists, and activists. Our
intention is to reveal their points of
consensus and, above all, their divergent
positions, and identity representation
strategies and civic actions. We do not
include in our analysis musicians and
artists who speak on the subject in their

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