Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 43

Movement, to come to Cuba and participate in the
Second Race and Cubanness Forum (2011). It was historically significant, too, that CIR members outside
Cuba presented at a public hearing during a session of
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR). In addition to this, CIR founders and leaders were able to participate in important events abroad.
In May, CIR National Coordinator Juan Antonio
Madrazo, with other CIR founders and leaders, Manuel Cuesta Morúa and Leonardo Calvo, participated
in an intense and successful series of cultural events

ISLAS, in Washington. The island leaders became the
first independent, Cuban academics to present a panel
about Cuban social reality at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) conference there. While
there, they made contact with individuals at prestigious academic and civic institutions.
The activists also presented several talks, and spoke
on television and radio in Miami. They promoted the
creation of the organization Conciencia Cívica [Civic
Conscience], whose membership includes Cuban exiles committed to democratic values regarding funda-

“Poetry Without End” event”
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (United States). These
anti-racists were invited by numerous academic, community and cultural organizations in that city to participate in exhibits and cultural events, and also gave
several talks about topics important to Cuban reality.
By the end of May, the three leaders joined Rafel
Campoamor, President of NGO EmpoderaCuba, and
Juan Antonio Alvarado, Editor-in-Chief of the journal

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mental rights and the integration of all Cubans, regardless of any distinction.
In November, Leonardo Calvo and Juan Antonio Alvarado, President of the Plataforma de Integración
Cubana [Platform for Cuban Integration], took part in
a public hearing about the discrimination of Afro-descendants in Latin America during the 149th session of
the IACHR.