brave Cuban democrats in their continuing effort to finally break with the last remnants of the Berlin Wall . In this regard it should be emphasized the impact of President Obama ' s visit to Cuba . He delivered an electrifying speech on the opportunities for the Cuban people and held a very productive meeting with several dissidents . One of them , Jose Daniel Ferrer , leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba ( UN- PACU ), summarized the historical sequence of events in the testimonial piece " A visit , a Speech , and an Unforgettable Meeting ," which we are offering in this edition to the readers . Likewise Jorge Luis Costa describes , in " A Cuba for Obama ," how the government mobilized resources and even carried out police operations to momentary keep up appearances with well paved streets , colorfully painted facades , and no homeless at sight . Meanwhile Leonardo Calvo analyzes the racist offense and dangerous demagogy in the saga of despair and rampant concern among the Cuban authorities unleashed by Obama ´ s presence and messages . For Calvo , a racist offense published in a Havanan newspaper was not an isolated incident , since visitors to Cuba will be in danger of facing such offenses until the full implementation of the public debate on racial issues , history , identity , and inequality . That danger will vanish only when Cubans do not tolerated in silence even an injustice against the most unknown or anonymous young African descent , always threatened by street police arbitrariness ; when Afrodescendants do recover their civic and public voice to reaffirm their identity and rights :, when legal mechanisms are activated to effectively defend them against any manifestation of discrimination . In this perspective , Yusimí Rodriguez asserts that , " After Obama ," the state of affairs remains almost unchanged in Cuba . The government keeps the people as prisoner of the past according to its interested version of history , as patient of the present socioeconomic and sociopolitical ills , and as a deceived believer of the future , with promises on the verge of madness . The latter is evident in Fidel Castro ´ s reflection on " The brother Obama ." Its closing statement reads thus : Cuba does not need anything from the United States , because the Cuba people has all the resources needed to develop the country with the own efforts . The author simply contrasts this statement with a question usually heard in the streets : Why have we lived then so many years in precarious situation ? This precariousness is seen in all spheres of the social life and Luis Oleidy Machado brings an illustrative example : the government is determined to show the world that Cuba is a cultured country , while actually Cubans do not have access to many cultural manifestations ." In " Cultural Opening in Cuba : An Outstanding Issue ," the author emphasizes that the Communist Party is hostile to — even and does not understand — the issues of freedom of expression , assembly and association . Cuba must be culturally open to the world , but it should be without anyone the others what to do or say . An independent cultural movement is described by Iris Ruiz on the basis of the work done by Arte Estudio in the suburb of Alamar , east of Havana , where the lack of state attention increases the risk factors among adolescents . To mitigate the risk , Arte Estudio made a research on the needs and interests of education and training in the community and took the initiative of a workshop of creative drawing with teenagers , focused on such themes like respect in interpersonal relationships , violence , and discrimination because of gender and race , as well as on the better ways to resolve conflicts . Thus the art opened a promissory space to bring parents and children together around educational contents and healthy recreation . In contrast ,
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