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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 99