Identidades in English No 5, Abril, 2015 | Page 13

There has never been a moment in the
history of Cuba’s slave descendants that
their Associationism, through mutual
aid societies, has not been essential to
helping them raise themselves up while
concomitantly celebrating the spirit of
solidarity that has always characterized
them.
This always had been the case, ever
since the days of slavery till early in the
second half of the twentieth century,
when the revolutionary government
prohibited their existence falsely claiming that they were no longer necessary.
It also cunningly claimed that henceforth they would not serve to bring people together, but rather only to mark
prejudicial differences. Yet, one of their
identifying features, and one of elements that always and best guaranteed
their proper functioning, was their independence from any hegemonic influence.
These kinds of associations already existed by the decade of the 1880s, in the
nineteenth century, when there was still
slavery. Their members were the children and