Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 7

being they were generating for the majority of
Afro-descendants. To this, one could add that the
problem steadily worsened due to the government’s unwillingness to deal with the issue and
create real policies; it has always done nothing
more than tout a triumphalist rhetoric, as a response to problems. Yet, the problem was not resolved in 1959 and resolution will not occur with
the stroke of a pen inspired by diplomatic accord,
for an issue with such a long history, which has
taken on different hues in each time period, and is
a cardinal issue for the future of the Cuban nation.
The increasing struggle against racist practices
and all its manifestations in Cuban civil society,
the fact that such racism has been unmasked in
Cuba’s interior as well as the international arena,
and the burgeoning healthy movement challenging these practices on a world scale have not gone
unnoticed by the government: from total silence,
manipulation, and repression of any attempt to
discuss the problem, the official response now includes warm reactions and official declarations
that acknowledge some of the problems. The creation of the Cuban Chapter of the Afro-Descendant Regional Articulation for the Americas and
Caribbean (ARAAC) was significant and encouraging for increased coordination of the entire Cuban anti-racist movement - one that enjoys total
autonomy, free of the control and conditions that
have characterized previous actions carried out
under official auspices. The proposals discussed
in meetings - having become little more than
words - were backed by recent declarations made
by Roberto Zurbano, one of ARAAC’s promoters. Yet, the unencumbered development of
ARAAC seems to worry the Cuban government,
as is suggested in “The Road to Justice and Equality,” by Leonardo Calvo Cárdenas. He analyzes
this ever-complicated phenomenon in the light of
the first ARAAC meeting in November 2014, and
affirms that if ARAAC doesn’t want to go down
in history as one more instrument of trickery and
manipulation, it should go from making declarations to becoming an authentic mechanism for
bringing pressure and integration; going beyond

ideological postulates, it must reach the community and demand that the authorities respect their
citizens and their commitments. Such is the way
- the only way - to progress towards deeply desired equality and social equity, to achieve the
necessary changes in thinking and ideas that lead
to a dead end.
The Forum on Race and Cubanness convened
shortly after the inaugural ARAAC meeting. The
fourth such gathering sponsored by the Citizens’
Committee for Racial Integration (CIR), which
was organized independently of the AARAC session, was not attended by any of the ARAAC promoters. This, despite active participation by CIR
members in the AARAC meeting. “A Forum for
Inclusion and Diversity” chronicles the forum and
some of the ideas that were shared therein. In addition to analyzing numerous economic, political,
social and cultural problems that are affecting Cubans, and Afro-descendants in particular, the forum made evident that this group is called to
recover its civil, political and media collective
voice in process of transition towards democracy;
Afro-descendants can and must create agency
from which they have been deprived for so many
years. This foretells a difficult but possible scenario of social integration; as such, it would be
extremely valuable to achieve consensus of all involved. As history has shown, Afro-descendants
must overcome barriers imposed by ideological
and political alignments that are often harmful.
The only way to achieve this is through committed work, willpower, and courage. The efforts of
the CIR and other civil movements have shown
that they have what it takes to break down these
barriers. It is our hope that this will be the case
with ARAAC as well. The ball is in their court.
Articles “Regionalism as a Political Strategy” and
“Santiago de Cuba: Race, Poverty and the Challenge of Hope,” by José Hugo Fernández and
Jorge Amado Robert, respectively, contain ample
evidence of the daily dilemmas that Cubans in the
island’s easternmost provinces (Oriente) face,
and the resulting increasing migration to the capital, where they must find their way with the

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