IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 33

Many realities had to be faced within
the dynamic and segregationist structures and ways in the U.S., but they are
not very much correlated with the interracial relationships in Cuba, especially
with the very unique characteristics of
diversity and social life throughout our
history. The enormous demographic
weight of Africans and their descendants since the colonial era, the decisive
role played by the Afro descendants in
all economic areas and in all political
confrontations, as well as in the cultural
process of nation-building, make Cuba
different from most countries of the
Western Hemisphere, where generally
the Afro descendants are a minority or
have been territorially, culturally and
socially cornered, and even excluded
and even turned into invisible population segments. Nevertheless, there are
important elements identified by Stuparitz that have clear and permanent impact
in Cuban society, where the hegemonic
and supremacist power has kept African
descents in conditions of inferiority and
always away from the access to powers,
privileges and recognition regardless of
historical eras or junctures, and political
colors. The author accurately notes the
notable absence of clear references to
the oldest structures and racist practices
in texts and curricula nowadays. It will
seem very familiar for Cubans such a
statement like "What I received was a
disinformation teaching me neither to
speak nor to ask nor to address more
seriously or deeper that issue. Thus,
since I can remember, white silence has
been nourishing my desire to unlearn
racism and white supremacy." Precisely
this has been one of the burdens or
shortcomings historically suffered in
Cuba. Although the Cuban Penal Law

punishes both the crime of Apartheid
and the offenses against the equality,
here are no effective preventive or
punitive mechanism against racial
discrimination. In addition, the very
issue is off the public agenda, lacking of
rigorous intellectual and academic
discussion and carrying the burden of a
very meager African descent representation in the symbolic, corporate, and
commercial imaginaries. The historical
and sociological particularities in Cuba
predetermine that racism is not characterized by violent confrontation, unless
at specific and limited circumstances
such as the execution of national hero
José Antonio Aponte and his fellow
sufferers (1812), the bloody repression
of the so-called conspiracy La Escalera
[The Ladder] (1844), the slaughter of
members of the Independent Party of
Color (PIC) and innocent people (1912)
or the judicial murder of three young
African descendants (2003) who hijacked a passenger ferry without fatal
consequences. In such cases, power
exercises the most cruel and racist
violence allegedly in order to avert the
risks to the integrity of the supremacist
and exclusive hegemony. Racism and
discrimination are mostly exercised
through exclusion, contempt and social
inequality, always tempered by denying
merits, spaces, and opportunities to the
African descendants. However, as
Stuparitz rightly explained, it is precisely in the mind and mentalities where
most of these images and racist references have become entrenched and
more difficult to remove. Together with
the absence of a debate on the issue and
the lack of civic and public voice of
African descendants to defend their
interests and values, the normalization

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