IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 99
Culturals
Cultural openness in Cuba:
an unfinished business
Luis Oleiydis Reinosa
Antilla, Holguin, Cuba
T
he "ultimate" connoisseurs of
the Cuban culture have dubbed
reggaeton —a genre with more
than 15 years of great achievements
throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean— as the pollutant of good
manners and the dealer of sexual merchandise. This case is just a reference
among many other things that the Ministry of Culture aims to root out. We
cannot continue inculcating what suits
the government just to show worldwide
that Cuba is a cultured country, much
less if the ordinary Cubans do not really
have access to a broad spectrum of
culture, since the better and greater
shows take place in places where prices
are not affordable. We also have limited
access to good books in which most of
the people are interested, no matter who
writes them, whether Cubans or foreigners. There are Cuban troupes that
just want to perform abroad and show
no interest in visiting, for instance, the
eastern part of the country, where a
cultural development is needed. The
films with strong social content are not
shown, because they touch the Cuban
reality. In many cases they are exhibited
only abroad because they question the
Cuban social system. The theater companies already established have
achieved a phenomenal level, but their
mise en scenes are simply controlled
whenever a social problem is reflected,
for example economic deprivation,
racial or gender discrimination, homelessness, marital conflict, political
orientation or many others. The main
course in Cuban cultural menu is always
the music; yes, the Morpheus’ music
that is numbing and relaxing for so
many people. It is “the pain of Lola”, as
they say in good Cuban, because the
people clinging to the aberrations of the
archaic social system simply don’t like
it. Now the aberrant idealism of removing the "bad" from Cuban society is in
course of collision with the blessed
reggaeton. Now it is more clear that
everything depends on who does it. As
always, the skin of the protagonist
determines the consequences, either for
better or worse. Even leading figures of
the Cuban cinema have questioned the
rhythm. They have forgotten that they
were once young and under the influence of the Beatles and the hippies.
Back then, many texts and sounds were
revolutionaries and also brought the
feeling of disagreeing with the regime.
Some of the very people turning against
reggaeton were also a target of the
government and its cultural policies.
Apparently no one remembers why
Fidel Castro delivered his famous
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