Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 7

The Hidden Truth,” by Guillermo Ordóñez also deal
with this subject.
Despite all this, this civic movement’s perseverance
and valor is ongoing; it gets stronger and stronger
every day, not only in Cuba, but on an international
scale, as can be appreciated in “CIR 2013. The Consolidation of a Promise.” Along these lines, Manuel
Cuesta Morúa’s “A Seminal Encounter,” which
makes reference to his recent meeting with AfricanAmerican Congresswoman Federica Wilson, during
which she acknowledged the struggle for democracy
and against racial discrimination in Cuba, and the importance of starting a process of exchange with African Americans, with their traditional yet changing
view of this problem in Cuba. The letters to Raul Castro by Leo Casey (Executive Director, Albert Shanker
Institute) and Norman Hill (President Emeritus, Philip
Randolph Institute), about the violation of Cuesta
Morúa’s civil rights, can be added to the growing, international solidarity he so desperately needs to be
able to confront the silence imposed on him concerning what is really happening on the island. This is an
issue that had its moment at the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’149th Period of
Sessions.
It is precisely the attention that the race problem in
Cuba is garnering that motivated Enrique del Risco to
write “Racism and Translation.” As he reviews some
of the content contained in Robert Zurbano’s article in
the New York Times, Del Risco points out some of the
risks that are sometimes concomitant with trying to
translate from other languages concrete realities about
another country with another history. He also expounds greatly on the work of Professor Alejandro de
la Fuente that was published in the very same newspaper. Del Risco’s criticism of de la Fuente’s use of
the concept of ‘economic justice’ is quite sharp: “the
adjective “justice” is hard to apply to a system that has
denied legal, social, economic, individual and collective rights to the entire population.” He goes on to argue, among other things, how perverse it is to confuse
[the oft cited, but false] redistribution of goods with
justice. Just one look at Cuban neighborhoods is evidence enough of officialdom’s distorted view of
things; readers will be reminded of this time and time
again in this and other articles in this issue.
The specific situation of black women and the challenges they face are another facet of the problem this
issue focuses on. Renowned female activists from different corners of the continent discuss the traumatic
link to racism that affects the female population, not

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only through race, but also class and gender. The articles by Simone Cruz, “Brazil: A Democratic Country
For Whom?”; Panamanian Cecilia Moreno, “AfroDescendant Women: Challenges for Racial and Gender Equality,” and Cuban Yaremis Flores “Elements
of Female Leadership” focus on the Western hemisphere, while “The Plight of Africans in Australia,” by
Christine Ayorinde goes back to the early presence of
Africans in Australia and the history of discrimination
and hard times they have had to endure till the present
time.
Since the problems faced by Afro-descendants are not
limited to just the simple shortcomings of governing
systems, but are also essentially political and very tied
to a lack of democratic freedoms and a nation-building
project that includes everyone equally, articles like
“Cuba: A Failed Future?” by Armando Soler, and Nilo
Cruz Preval’s “What Do We Need To Transition to
Democracy in Cuba?” deal precisely with these issues.
The first addressed the myriad shortcomings and deformations that plague Cuba, which if not controlled,
can go on and impede on a democratic future for Cuba.
The second touches a truly tender spot. Its author concentrates on common citizens and their difficulties
when trying to see themselves in the many new, reforming projects offered them. It is a call to the interests of people and communities in their proper perspective. His message is loud, clear, understandable,
embraceable and followable.
Given these circumstances, and all that uncertai