IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH

an ambitious project to fight for colonial emancipation. His death, and that of all his co-conspirators, marked the direction of a racial policy defined to benefit only white people. The teaching of history during the republican period (1902-1958) focused on only political issues, on everything negative about all the administrations. Each student should know that the Republic’s public functionaries were corrupt and dominated by U.S. economic interests. The Revolution took power through force in order to put a stop to all these evils. This is the way the fate of the Independent Party of Color (PIC), in the 1912 massacre, with more than 3,000 victims, and loss of property for the survivors, was ignored. Another unknown is the PIC’s struggle and program, which has been minimized by the official media as if were about a Black Republic, not knowing that it was one of the fairest and most democratic projects in America at that time. During the very brief time that is dedicated to studying the Cuban bourgeoisie, between 1920-1958, blacks and mestizos were totally erased. The role they played in artistic and intellectual culture was also denied. Thus, as part of the government’s self-defense, the history books got a new section in them ironically titled “The Revolution in power.” It covered from 1953-1989. It is safe to suppose that the following years, known as the Special Period, were not included due to the econo micstructural crisis that seems to have no solution and exacerbates the race problem. The lack of extracurricular activities at the different educational levels, thinks like workshops or presentations by scholars, is partly to blame for the fact that future generations will lack sufficient education to be able to participate in transparent, explicit deliberation, as a premise for a positive solution to the race issue. Another thing to consider is the authorities’ refusal to implement the study of even the most basic constitutional rights or about different laws that can protect citizens. Despite protective legislation for victims of racism, educational planners answer to the Communist Party’s interests, and silence that chapter. One could conclude about history education in Cuba that it is taught in a truncated manner, with the goal of establishing official policy as the only ideology good for Cubans. But it does not include anything at all on the race problem so that the current leadership’s role in its ignorance—and its racist practices—not be known. 23

IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 23