Neither Black, or White: Just Cuban
We Have All the Same Rights
g By Patricia Camacho Centelles
Malcolm X's biography became almost a best-seller among my fellow students. We discussed it frequently.
In Cuba, there has always been an interest in the black movement for civil rights, and especially after the triumph of the Revolution. It could not be otherwise. Since his 1953 courtroom speech "History Will Absolve Me," Fidel Castro was determined to turn Cuba into a country where everyone, regardless of skin color, had the same right to a free and better life.
The elimination of racial discrimination has been one of the basic principles of the Revolutionary Government in Cuba since its triumph in 1959. It’s been my experience that since my childhood, blacks and whites have grown up together, have been given the same educational opportunities, received the same health care and are entitled to work the same jobs with the same wages.
It should not be forgotten that one of the ideological bases of the revolution is the ideology of José Martí, the Cuban national hero, who in his revolutionary preaching always held as unwavering the idea that "man is more than white, more than black, more than mulatto.”
He fought tirelessly for eliminating the fear of the black people and achieving their full incorporation into Cuban society. Martí’s idea was only realized on Jan. 1, 1959, when Castro came to power and black Cubans had their full rights as citizens recognized; something no previous Government had taken into account.
Of course the American civil rights movement influenced Cuba, I would say, even emotionally. The fight against racial discrimination in the United States has been a topic frequently discussed in Cuban media, books, documentaries, and other materials.
The Cuban people responded with indignation before very unusual acts committed against human dignity of blacks in the most powerful country on Earth.
But we also believe such acts will never occur in the land where freedom fighters Marti and Maceo, Agramonte and Quintin Banderas, Fidel and Juan Almeida* fought together for a better country. g
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Personally, I do not see any change regarding the fulfillment of civil rights in Cuba, since I have always known that our government has as a sacred condition the abolition of discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation.
That is to say, all Cubans are equally entitled to the same social benefits, as education, health care, social security, to be protected by law and to have a full and decent life.
For us it is important to know that for the first time in history an African American is the head of the most powerful country in the world. But it is also true that much power is in the hands of a group of people [Cuban exiles] whose ideas keep Cuban-American relations at the same level of confrontation.
My generation thought it was almost impossible that there would be a black president in the States. So, President Obama's presence in the White House indicates it is possible that better things can happen, and we hope that this social and political change can have a favorable impact some day on the relations between the United States and our country.
Of course, there are still some people in Cuba who are racist, but neither the Cuban society nor the state accepts these attitudes: discrimination is fought at all levels.
Unity among all Cubans, no matter the color of the skin, religion or sexual orientation, is essential to the survival of our country, and it has been like this since the birth of the Cuban nation. g
Patricia Centelles has not experienced discrimination in Cuba. For her, Castro’s
promise for black Cubans has been met.