Cuba: Race & Identity in the News

En la voz de Gloria Rolando  8/19/2010 Trabajadores: "El próximo miércoles 11 de agosto en el cine 23 y 12 será la premier del primero de los tres capítulos de la serie documental de Gloria Rolando sobre el Partido de los Independientes de Color. El día 12 estará en los cines Yara, Acapulco y en las principales salas de provincia Dice Gloria Rolando que este documental es un material didáctico. 1912: Voces para un silencio se trata de una revisión histórica, una aproximación al Partido de los Independientes de Color que nació, así explica, de su afición por regresar a las raíces, por rescatar un hecho en el que los cubanos fueron víctimas y victimarios."

Breaking the Silence  8/14/2010 Havana Times: "The premier of the documentary was a complete success and we await the public’s reaction in the cinemas. Surely it will make everyone consider the discrimination that still exists in our country, even though it doesn’t lead to such violence. The remaining chapters of 1912, Breaking the Silence are already eagerly awaited."

Race in Cuba: The Eternal 'Black Problem'  7/27/2010 The Roots: "The painful truth is that, in Cuba, the vast majority of the prison population is black or mixed-race. The most physically ruined parts of the cities are those where most black and mixed-raced Cubans, weighed down by spiritual burdens and secular misery, have lived for generations. They are also the ones who, in the economic and social climbing of the last few decades, are least represented ... and let's not mention certain attitudes, repressive attitudes -- in other words, the attitude of the Cuban police, where blacks are mostly concentrated at the bottom of the pyramid -- that treat dark-skinned persons with much greater rigor ... precisely because of the color of their skin. In its culture and idiosyncrasies, Cuba is a mestizo nation: a mix of spiritual and ethnic elements brought from Europe, Africa, China and neighboring Caribbean isles that contributed at a cellular level and can be seen on the skin, in the values and cultural expressions of Cubans. Cubanness is mestizaje. Nonetheless, the old prejudices live on in the minds of many people, while the social system, with its egalitarian laws, hasn't been able to liberate black people from the poorest margins of society. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the definitive answer to this problem demands new and more dynamic policies that, unfortunately, mostly depend on an island bereft of economic possibilities for white, mulatto and black Cubans so in need of improvements in their real and everyday life."

Race in Cuba: Yes, Virginia, There Is Racism on the Island  7/26/2010 The Roots: "Because Cuba is a top-down society -- especially under Fidel Castro -- the new anti-racism codes rained down without explanation and, more importantly, without process. People understood that racism was no longer tolerated but not how they participated in racist structures, how they were affected by the legacy of racism and, least of all, how light-skinned Cubans -- especially on the island -- benefited from those legacies. Because racism was banned and did not officially exist, where was the venue, the safe space, in which these things could be aired? If there was no racism by virtue of decree, didn't its mere mention in some way imply a revolutionary failure? Moreover, the lack of process meant that there was virtually no vocabulary -- particularly no revolutionary vocabulary -- with which to talk about racism in Cuba."

Cuba: Ciencia y Racialidad 50 años después (I)  7/23/2010 Blog de Esteban Morales: "En este trabajo, que consta de varias partes, trataré de caracterizar sintéticamente la producción intelectual cubana sobre el tema racial en los últimos 50 años, refiriéndome específicamente a aquellas producciones científicas, que desde la ciencia, abordan este tema en la Cuba actual, en su connotación relativa a los estereotipos raciales negativos y los prejuicios raciales. Me referiré a obras producidas en Cuba por autores cubanos, aunque mencionaré otras aunque hayan sido producidas fuera de Cuba, ya sea por cubanos o extranjeros."

SOLILOQUIO: Maceo o Martí  6/16/2010 Negra Cubana tenía que ser: "Primero, que si Maceo o Martí, cuál de los dos había aportado más a la independencia de Cuba. Un hombre, que se retiró luego de formar el acabose, dijo que el segundo había sido tan solo un periodista y poeta. El auditorio casi hirvió. Segundo, que si el panel debió hacer mayor énfasis en el pensamiento antirracista de Antonio, recomendación que celebro, la verdad."

“Raza y Racismo” hace su debate desde la Casa del Caribe  6/15/2010 Casa del Caribe: "El destacado académico cubano de las ciencias sociales, doctor Fernando Martínez Heredia, presentó este viernes en la Casa del Caribe el libro “Raza y Racismo”, una compilación de artículos publicados en un segundo volumen de “Antología de Caminos” en alusión a Revista del Centro Martín Luther King especializada en pensamiento sociológico. El primer volumen recoge los primos cuarenta números de la referida publicación. El libro consta de cuatro partes o capítulos: Pensamiento y Sociedad, donde aparecen artículos como “La cuestión racial en Cuba”, del propio Martínez Heredia, y “Aportes culturales y desculturación”, de Manuel Moreno Fraginals, así como valiosos trabajos sobre el tema de Fernando Ortiz, Walterio Carbonell, Ana Cairo, Esteban Morales y Yusimí Rodríguez, entre otros."

The fight against racism in Cuba goes viral  5/14/2010 The Grio: "Henry Gomez, a White Cuban living in Florida, noticed that some of the most outspoken voices against racism in Cuba are bloggers. So he founded Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty (BUCL). "We basically organize events, distribute press releases and try to obtain coverage to counter the official propaganda coming from the Cuban Government" states Gomez, a writer for Babalu, a website that he says is the most widely read English language blog about Cuba."

Interview with Esteban Morales, researcher of the University of Havana - Cuba: Racism, An Unfinished Issue  5/3/2010 Cuba Now 

Queloides - Raza y Racismo en el Arte Cubano Contemporáneo  5/1/2010 Universes in Universe: "Después de décadas de silencio oficial, las discusiones sobre "raza" y racismo han tomado un protagonismo en la Cuba contemporánea. Desde los años 1990, numerosos intelectuales - músicos, escritores, artistas plásticos, actores y académicos - han comenzado algo anteriormente impensable: denunciar la persistencia de la discriminación racial en la sociedad socialista cubana."

CONCIENCIA RACIAL Y LUCHA CONTRA EL RACISMO  4/27/2010 Blog de Esteban Morales 

Queloides: la cicatriz renovada del racismo en Cuba  4/16/2010 CubaEncuentro: "El día 16 de abril se inaugura en el Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, de la Habana, la exposición Queloides: Raza y Racismo en el Arte Cubano Contemporáneo (www.queloides-exhibit.com). La exposición reúne a doce artistas que, durante años, han proyectado, desde su obra, una preocupación sostenida acerca de la persistencia del racismo en la sociedad cubana y que han intentado discutir públicamente los efectos culturales y sociales de esa llaga, infamante e incómoda, de la cubanidad."

Queloides/Keloids: Raza y Racismo en el Arte Cubano Contemporáneo  4/10/2010 Negra Cubana 

Anthology on Race & Racism  4/3/2010 Havana Times: "...the book was presented for the first time on December 8, 2009 at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), coinciding by sheer chance with the publication in the Miami Herald of news concerning a letter by US Black intellectuals accusing the Cuban government of racism. I’m not being sarcastic when I use the phrase “by chance.” This anthology is the result of a compilation of texts that appeared in the magazine Caminos, in two complete issues devoted to the issue of race and racism, and in other writings that now appear in book form. One of the most attractive aspects of this anthology is that the authors of the individual segments are people of diverse generations and fields; and accordingly, they approach the issue from different perspectives."

Katrina Browne estrenará en Cuba documental sobre trata de esclavos  3/25/2010 Radio Guantanamo: "La periodista, que viaja en la goleta Amistad de visita en Cuba, dijo a la AIN que cuando descubrió que su familia fue una de las que más negros esclavos introdujo en los Estados Unidos, decidió emprender la investigación que la llevó a la costa oeste de Africa y a Cuba."

CUBA: Replica Slave Ship Drops Anchor amidst Debate on Racism  3/24/2010 IPS: "The issue is gaining visibility, which gives us hope that progress will continue to be made," Norberto Mesa, founder of the Cofradía de la Negritud (CONEG), a "brotherhood" or association of black people aimed at raising awareness about the problem, told IPS. According to CONEG, racial inequality is a growing problem in Cuba, where the latest census, from 2002, indicates that of a total population of 11.18 million, 7.2 million were white, 1.13 million black, and 2.78 mixed-race, based on self-identification. However, scholars estimate that the Cuban population is actually around 60 to 70 percent black or mixed-race. "We foment debate at the community level because we know that solutions will start to emerge, as a result of citizen participation," Mesa added, after a day of cultural activities organised by the Casa Comunitaria (community centre) in the Havana neighbourhood of La Ceiba. During the activities that day, the Cofradía awarded its annual prize to Eric Corvalán, a Cuban filmmaker who filmed the first documentary on racial discrimination in this country, "Raza" (Race). The 2008 film helped launch the fledgling debate on racism. "That was the message, the idea, but I am not satisfied. The debate should be at a national level," Mesa commented. CONEG wants a Cuban parliament commission to focus on the question of racism. It is also pushing for the issue to be included on the agenda of the next congress of the Young Communist League (UJC). "What could divide us is precisely the failure to deal with this problem," said Mesa, referring to the socialist government's official stance in the 1960s, when the Cuban revolution considered the issues of racism and discrimination solved, and saw any discussion of the matter as a threat to unity and social cohesion."

Vessel Amistad already in Cuba  3/23/2010 Cuba Headlines: "The impending Amistad visit seems to have been virtually unknown in Cuba before this week's formal announcement to the press. Still, it has triggered deep curiosity in the country, where many residents feel deep and close personal connections to ancestors who were enslaved (Cuba did not outlaw slavery until 1883) and where even an explicitly non-political interaction with a U.S. organization like the non-profit Amistad America provokes questions about the future of Cuba's fraught relationship with the United States."

CUBA: Goleta Amistad con vientos contra discriminación racial  3/23/2010 IPS: ""El tema va logrando mayor visibilidad, lo cual nos da esperanzas de que se puede seguir avanzando", dijo a IPS el fundador de la Cofradía de la Negritud, Norberto Mesa. Se trata de un proyecto que busca crear conciencia del "creciente proceso de agravamiento" de las desigualdades raciales. "Promovemos el debate en las comunidades porque sabemos que las soluciones irán saliendo a la luz con la participación ciudadana", añadió Mesa, tras una jornada social y cultural convocada en la Casa Comunitaria del barrio capitalino de La Ceiba. En esa ocasión, la Cofradía entregó su premio anual a Eric Corvalán, realizador del documental "Raza", que sirvió de soporte para promover la discusión en diferentes espacios. "Ese fue el mensaje, la idea, pero me siento inconforme. El debate debe ser a nivel nacional", comentó. Su iniciativa, comentó, aspira a que la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular (parlamento unicameral) se ocupe del racismo en alguna de sus comisiones y que ese asunto sea también parte de la agenda del próximo congreso de la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas. "Lo que nos puede dividir es justamente no tratar estos problemas", consideró, en referencia a las posturas oficiales de los años 60, cuando la triunfante Revolución Cubana consideró resueltos el racismo y la discriminación racial y que hablar de ellos podría resquebrajar la unidad y cohesión social."

EL DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE LA LUCHA CONTRA EL RACISMO: 21 DE MARZO.  3/20/2010 Afrocubanas: Por: Tomás Fernández Robaina - "Al igual que ya existe el Día Internacional de la Lucha Contra el Racismo, debemos apreciar la conveniencia de que tengamos también El Día Nacional de la Lucha Contra el Racismo en Cuba, que bien podría ser la fecha de la fundación del Partido Independiente de Color, o la de la muerte de Aponte, o la del comienzo de la columna y página Ideales de una raza, desde el Diario de la Marina, como las tres principales, pero no descartando otras posibles."

“Raza y Racismo” hace su debate desde la Casa del Caribe  3/20/2010 Casa del Caribe: "El destacado académico cubano de las ciencias sociales, doctor Fernando Martínez Heredia, presentó este viernes en la Casa del Caribe el libro “Raza y Racismo”, una compilación de artículos publicados en un segundo volumen de “Antología de Caminos” en alusión a Revista del Centro Martín Luther King especializada en pensamiento sociológico. El primer volumen recoge los primos cuarenta números de la referida publicación."

La Mujer Afrolatinoamericana y la Afrocubana  3/19/2010 Afrocubanas: "Entrevista a Inés María Martiatu, ensayista, crítica cultural y narradora. Por: Patricia Grogg."

Cuba, the corporate media and the suicide of Orlando Zapata Tamayo  3/4/2010 Links, Australia: "Curiously, AI has never mentioned the alleged political activities that landed Zapata in prison. The reason is relatively simple: Zapata never carried out any anti-government activities prior to incarceration. Instead, the organisation recognises that he was convicted in May 2004 and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "contempt, public disorder and resistance".[4] This sentence is relatively minor compared to the sentences, ranging up to 28 years, that were handed down to the 75 opposition figures convicted in March 2003 of "having received funds or materials from the US government to carry out activities that the authorities consider subversive and damaging to Cuba", as recognised by AI is a serious crime in Cuba and any country in the world. Here AI cannot escape an obvious contradiction: on the one hand these people qualify as "prisoners of conscience" and on the other it admits they committed the serious crime of accepting "money or materials from the US government". Unlike the 75, the Cuban government has never accused Zapata of accepting funds from a foreign power and has always considered him a common convict. Zapata had a serious criminal record. Since June 1990, he had been arrested and convicted several times for "disturbing the peace, two counts of fraud, public exhibitionism, injury and possession of non-firearm weapons". In 2000, he fractured the skull of Leonardo Simon using a machete. His criminal record does not involve any political actions. It was only after his imprisonment that his mother, Reyna Luisa Tamayo, approached government opposition groups, but she has never been bothered by the authorities.[6] "

Cuban dissident on hunger strike rushed to hospital  3/4/2010 Miami Herald: "Iglesias said he and dozens of other dissidents, as well as the four government doctors who have checked on Fariñas over the past week, also have urged him to abandon the hunger strike."

Cuba says dead hunger striker was common criminal  3/4/2010 Reuters: "Behind bars, he was recruited by dissidents to join their cause and did so in part because of "material advantages" bestowed upon Cuba's political opponents by "foreign embassies," Granma said."

Second Cuban Hunger Striker, Guillermo Farinas, On the Verge of Death  3/2/2010 Huffington Post: "Like many dissidents, 'Coco' Farinas used to believe in Fidel Castro's revolution. He risked his hide fighting in the isolated villages of Angola during the 1980s civil war in that African country. He was a member of Castro's elite troops, but in 1989 when General Arnaldo Ochoa was shot, accused of drug trafficking, Farinas began to have second thoughts and unanswered questions. He has a degree in psychology, and better than anyone else in Cuba, he knows the methods of the political police for breaking those who dissent. Since 1997 this big-eyed mestizo has been one of the heavyweight dissidents on the island. He writes as a freelance journalist, and an independent library is located in his house."

Miami manipuló el agradecimiento de la madre de Orlando a los médicos cubanos  3/2/2010 Kaos en la Red: "Paralelamente, en una conversación telefónica entre Yaniset Rivero, miembro de la organización contrarrevolucionaria, con sede en Miami, Directorio Democrático cubano, y el contrarrevolucionario Juan Carlos González, miembro de un grupúsculo en Cuba, se percibe la evidencia de que estaban más preocupados de cómo utilizar a la madre de Orlando en una campaña anticastrista antes de la preocupación de la salud del hijo. En la conversación Juan Carlos explica la dicotomía que le iba a proponer a Reina, “o hacer una conferencia o ir a ver a Orlando”, situando lo político por delante de lo humanitario. Los contrarrevolucionarios jamás han hecho público, dado que no pueden hacer uso político de ello, las afirmaciones de Reina sobre el excelente cuidado que tuvo su hijo en todo el periodo de huelga de hambre por el personal médico cubano que emitió por teléfono a la misma Yaniset Rivero. Como se puede ver en el video de Cuba TV, la Madre de Tamayo declaró a Yaniset como los médicos cubanos “vinieron a analizar la salud de Zapata y nos explicaron que era muy crítica, crítica, y que están haciendo todo lo posible para salvar a Zapata, que ya tenían preparado un riñón por si acaso le fallaba el suyo, que ellos van a luchar hasta lo último. Y estaban los médicos del CIMEQ, los mejores médicos, tratando de darle la vida a Orlando "."

Orlando Zapata: un delincuente convertido en mártir por los estrategas de la guerra contra Cuba  3/2/2010 Kaos en la Red: "El 23 de febrero fallecía el preso cubano Orlando Zapata tras 88 días en huelga de hambre. Los grandes medios de comunicación internacionales, sirviéndose de su control casi absoluto de la información, han llevado a cabo una gigantesca campaña de culpabilización del gobierno cubano, ocultando elementos informativos muy relevantes.En primer lugar, el motivo de su huelga de hambre: conseguir lo que los medios han calificado como “mejoras carcelarias”, en realidad privilegios sobre el resto de reclusos, como tener televisor, cocina y teléfono en su celda, algo impensable en cualquier centro penitenciario del mundo.En segundo lugar, su perfil personal. Frente al personaje fabricado por los medios -un humilde albañil y pacífico preso de conciencia- Orlando Zapata fue un violento delincuente común procesado, entre 1993 y 2002, por delitos como violación de domicilio, estafa y por las graves lesiones a un ciudadano tras un ataque con machete.En 2003 fue condenado a 3 años de cárcel, pero esta sentencia se amplió a 24 años por diversos cargos de agresión violenta a funcionarios de prisión.Al contrario de lo afirmado por los medios, Zapata no formaba parte del grupo de 75 personas detenidas en La Habana en marzo de 2003 por sus vinculaciones con el gobierno de EEUU. De hecho, este gobierno no incluyó su nombre en la lista de supuestos “prisioneros políticos” presentada a la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la ONU."

Comprender la problemática racial cubana  3/1/2010 Tercera Informacion: de Estaban Morales - "Los contactos con la economía de mercado, la reemergencia de las desigualdades y todo el deterioro económico y social, consecuencia de la crisis de los años 90, propiciaron su reemergencia. Podemos decir que hasta mediados de los años ochenta se había logrado tener acceso a niveles de igualdad social que enorgullecían a todos los cubanos, pero la crisis económica produjo retrasos y trajo serias consecuencias sociales que todavía no han podido ser resueltas; ello se junto con el débil e inespecífico tratamiento dado a la cuestión racial, diluida dentro de la lucha contra la pobreza, por lo que se presento la situación propicia que la hizo resurgir con la virulencia propia de un problema que dado como resuelto, en realidad no lo estaba."

Declaración del CIR sobre el fallecimiento de Orlando Zapata  2/28/2010 CIR: "La muerte el pasado 23 de febrero del defensor de derechos humanos y prisionero de conciencia Orlando Zapata Tamayo, tras una prolongada huelga de hambre en reclamo de sus derechos y del de los restantes prisioneros en Cuba tiene una connotación múltiple para la sociedad cubana. Ella merece también esta reflexión; más allá de la posición obvia de consternación y espanto de toda persona civilizada, consciente de que vivimos en el siglo XXI, ante el frío desprecio por la vida humana de las mentalidades autocráticas."

Blacks bear the brunt of Cuba's brutality  2/28/2010 Miami Herald: "Zapata's ordeal is being spun from the other side of the coin, too -- the predominantly white and U.S.-based, right-wing anti-Castro opposition who clearly stand to score political points from the case of a black martyr. Righteous declarations can be expected from organizations such as Democracy Movement, the Cuban American National Foundation, the Cuban Liberty Council and, especially, the Cuban Democratic Directorate. Many Cuban civil-rights activists accuse these groups of working to corral and control the new internal opposition forces on behalf of interests linked to Cuba's former Jim Crow oligarchy. That's why they see U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart's ``indignation'' over Zapata's death, as much as president Raúl Castro's ``regrets,'' as a double farce. A staunch supporter of the tiny, white elite of wealth that was overthrown in 1959, Diaz-Balart can cry crocodile tears, but during his time in Congress his right-wing, pro-embargo agenda has only hindered the ability of black Cubans to improve their lot." [Some observers credit Alberto Jones and Claude Betancourt's articles for this historic turn against the Miami Plantocracy, unprecedented, to our knowledge, in any statements by Black Cuban dissident groups.]

The shamelessness of the United States government  2/26/2010 Granma: "ONE out of every four prisoners in the world is in a U.S. penitentiary. The composition of these prisoners is profoundly racist: one out of every 15 black adults is incarcerated; one out of every 9 is aged 20-34 years; and one out of every 36 Hispanics. Two-thirds of those serving life sentences are African Americans or Latinos, and in the case of New York state, only 16.3% of prisoners are white. Every year, 7,000 people die in U.S. prisons, many of them murdered or suicides. For example, U.S. prison guards routinely use Taser guns on prisoners. According to a recent report, 230 U.S. citizens have died as a result of the use of these weapons since 2001. The report refers to the case of a county jail in Garfield, Colorado, accused of regularly using Taser guns and pepper spray on prisoners, and then tying them to chairs in extreme positions for hours at a time."

Dissident’s Death Ignites Protest Actions in Cuba  2/26/2010 NYT: "Freedom House, an organization that ranks countries on their level of freedom and considers Cuba “not free,” called Mr. Zapata the first prisoner in Cuba to die by starving himself since Pedro Luis Boitel, a student leader and poet, did so in 1972." [Freedom House is a CIA related organization which former director James Woolsey joined after his retirement.]

CUATRO SIGLOS DE INFAMIA (2)  2/25/2010 UNEAC: "Nota: en los slave auctions --venta de esclavos--, a menudo se situaba a la venta una familia, digamos, el padre, la madre y dos hijos pequeños. Cuatro esclavistas que llegaban a las ciudades costeras de este país desde colonias distintas compraban a los cuatro por separado y no volvían a verse jamás. Esa bestialidad sólo existió en este país. En los demás, la familia esclava con hijos pequeños tenía que que ser comprada como una sola unidad."

Death of Cuban prisoner of conscience on hunger strike must herald change  2/24/2010 Amnesty International: "He was subsequently tried several times on further charges of "disobedience" and "disorder in a penal establishment", the last time in May 2009, and was serving a total sentence of 36 years at the time of his death. "Faced with a prolonged prison sentence, the fact that Orlando Zapata Tamayo felt he had no other avenue available to him but to starve himself in protest is a terrible indictment of the continuing repression of political dissidents in Cuba," said Gerardo Ducos."

Commentary: Against the hijacking of a Cuban martyr  2/24/2010 McClatchy: "Certainly, I do not claim to speak on behalf of Cuba's majority. But I am surely not far from that majority's truth by stating that it can hardly be struggling for the re-empowerment of the tiny, white elite of wealth that was overthrown in 1959. It is that segregationist exiled elite that these so-called anti-Castro groups so distinctly represent. Orlando Zapata Tamayo is dead. He is now a people's martyr. But those who struggled with him and shared his aspirations must not allow this brave and principled man's legacy or memory to be hijacked; certainly not by those who before 1959 despised him for being black and continue to do so in spite of their hypocritical tears. Zapata's legacy belongs to Cuba's future, and not to that of its neo-colonial, segregationist and subservient past." [A historic turn against the Miami Plantocracy, which, to our knowledge, has never hitherto been rejected by any of the Black Cuban dissident groups.]

Mujeres, raza e identidad caribeña. Conversación con Inés María Martiatu  2/20/2010 Negra Cubana 

Disentir vs desacreditar: A propósito del tema racial  2/17/2010 Negra Cubana 

¿QUIÉN SE OCULTA TRAS EL RACISMO?  2/17/2010 UNEAC 

CUATRO SIGLOS DE INFAMIA  2/17/2010 UNEAC 

Raza, racismo, racialidad: encore une fois, again, wieder einmal  2/15/2010 Negra Cubana 

Only in Miami: Omara Portuondo Compared to the Ku Klux Klan  2/13/2010 Cuba Now: 'It seems that Mr. Prieres’ “school of thinking” does not admit that a Cuban figure as Omara Portuondo can freely sing in the United States. I guess that Mr. Prieres’ “environment” excludes the over 11 million Cubans living on the island. It seems to be an institution of poor education and thinking. According to Miami New Times magazine, the organization Vigilia Mambisa declared that Omara “is accomplice of the regime,” and anti-Cuban activist Emilio Izquierdo Jr. made this incredible comparison: “Brinign Omara Portuondo to Miami is like taking the Ku Klux Klan to Liberty City”. Perhaps Izquierdo does not know, or means nothing for him, but the Ku Klux Klan is a racist, terrorist organization founded in the US to kill, torture, or intimidate black, Jewish or other groups, including Catholics, peace activists, and unionists. Omara Portuondo is a Cuban woman of mixed race with unique voice and international prestige resulting from her huge talent. Comparing her to the Ku Klux Klan is like comparing Luis Posada Carriles to Bola de Nieve."

Programa de la Jornada Maceísta  2/6/2010 Negra Cubana tenía que ser 

Jerarquizar la identidad cultural  2/2/2010 Bohemia: "Según informó la musicóloga Cary Diez, vicepresidenta de la Uneac, las comisiones permanentes de trabajo de la organización han logrado construir un espacio de atención al cumplimiento de los acuerdos del VII Congreso, celebrado en abril de 2008, “tejiendo puentes entre instituciones y creadores, con altibajos en dependencia de cada temática y período”. Reconoció como “un importante suceso en el reciente período, la creación de la comisión contra el racismo y la discriminación racial”, entidad que conmemoró el aniversario 116 de la desaparición física de Mariana Grajales, la heroica caída en combate del lugarteniente Antonio Maceo, y presentó el libro Raza y Racismo, de la editorial Caminos. Un paso esencial para el próximo semestre, será la constitución de grupos de trabajo de dicha comisión en todas las provincias."

SOCIEDAD–CUBA: Racismo, un tema inconcluso  2/1/2010 Cuba a la Mano 

Race and Class in Cuba  1/24/2010 Jamaica Observer: "As luck would have it, my home in Kingston, Jamaica, was right next to the Cuban embassy, so I went there often. When I informed them excitedly that I wanted to study blacks in Cuba, I was told that I should go to Oriente, the Eastern part of the country, as that was where all of the blacks were. I would come to learn that this was an expression of the white Cuban tendency to claim that all blacks were descendants of Jamaican and other West Indian immigrants to Oriente. When I would protest that the Spanish had lots of slaves and that all of the blacks could not possibly be descendants of West Indian immigrants, known derogatorily as pichones (literally blackbirds), I was told that all of the ones who had come as slaves had inter-married, as the Spanish were so much less racist than the British. White Cubans expressed sympathy for the Jamaicans who were under the British, who did not mix with them, supposedly, and so the black population there was not able to dilute itself and move up the racial hierarchy."

Declaración de doce personalidades cubanas sobre racismo y sociedad en la Isla  1/22/2010 CIR: "Firman la declaración, Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Juan Antonio Madrazo, Lucas Garve, Jorge Olivera, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Leonardo Calvo, Eleanor Calvo, Yusnaimi Soca, Víctor González, Juan Antonio Alvarado, José Idelfonso Vélez e Hildebrando Chaviano."

Malcolm X and Fidel: 1990 Symposium in Havana  1/17/2010 www.brothermalcolm.net: With audio and video tracks. Includes presentations by Nancy Morejon, Kwame Toure, Rogelio Martinez Fure, Osvaldo Cardenas, and many others as well as a video of of Fidel talking to the delegates. Photogallery of Fidel - Malcom X meeting in 1960.

La educación para ser blancos en Cuba  1/9/2010 Blog de Esteban Morales: "Pero si al educar, dentro de una sociedad mulrirracial, multicolor, dejamos el color fuera de la educación, en la práctica estamos educando para el color que aun ostenta la hegemonia: el blanco. Sobre todo si tomamos en consideración, que aun existen otros asuntos que conspiran contra una educación equilibrada en cuanto al color."

El negrito retinto  1/9/2010 El Pais: "Sin himno, sin bandera y sin patria. Considerado como un provocador, el escritor Carlos Moore desvela en Pichón sus desencuentros con la burocracia comunista cubana."

¿Cubano de origen africano o afrocubano? (+ Videos)  1/7/2010 CubaDebate 

It’s Time to Address Racism in Cuba  1/7/2010 IPS: "In 50 years (since the revolution), women’s issues and homosexuality have been debated: why hasn’t racism?” asked the filmmaker. “It’s a revolutionary topic that concerns everyone, because there are black women, black homosexuals and black men.” “I think silence is worse. The longer nothing is said, the more the racism fermenting underground is rotting the entire nation,” singer/songwriter Gerardo Alfonso says in the documentary. According to Roberto Zurbano, head of the Casa de las Americas publishing house, to carry on “hiding” the issue would lead black people to think that “they belong to another country, and that there are two Cuba’s as there were in the 19th century, a black Cuba and a white one.” Another possible implication is that “the issue could become a political football, outside and inside the country.”

Racismo: El secreto sucio de los Castro  1/6/2010 Libertad Digital: de Nat Hentoff, Cato Institute

NEGRA CIMARRONA: La Tertulia de Juana  1/6/2010 Negra Cubana: "A principio de diciembre fui convocada a participar en la Tertulia de Juana (cuyo nombre procede de Juana Borrero), espacio de debate y reflexión que a propósito del género organizó mi amiga Yulexis. Un grupo de mujeres negras, entre las que se encontraban Daisy Rubiera, historiadora; Norma Guillard, psicóloga; Georgina Herrera, poeta; se encargarían de presentar, desde sus experiencias, la convergencia de la racialidad y el género. No se trataba de hablar de cómo las mujeres negras son discriminadas, lo cual es más que cierto, sino los puntos de contacto entre ambas aproximaciones teóricas. El propósito era tratar de evidenciar cómo el género tiene expresiones diferentes, en un mundo patriarcal hegemónicamente blanco, para las personas de una y otros expresiones fenotípicas."

Blasfemia: Ser afrocubano y patriota  1/5/2010 CIR: por Pedro Dupre

MUJERES, RAZA E IDENTIDAD CARIBEÑA  1/3/2010 UNEAC: Conversación con Inés María Martiatu.

Cuba speaks from its depths  1/1/2010 Islas: by a collection of dissident authors.

Movement in the Americas who Condemn Racism in Cuba  1/1/2010 Islas: by Darsi Ferrer

Racial Discrimination in Cuba: An Open Secret  1/1/2010 Islas: Islas is supported by NED funds. This article is by Jorge Olivera Castillo, Writer and journalist, Havana, Cuba

The Juan Gualberto Gómez Movement for Racial Integration  1/1/2010 Islas: Islas is supported by NED funds. This article is by José I. Vélez Hernández, National Coordinator, Havana, Cuba

Nueva condena al racismo en la isla  12/29/2009 El Nuevo Herald: "Emitida el 22 de diciembre, la declaración es la primera acción conjunta de miembros de diferentes grupos antirracistas denunciando la opresión racial en Cuba, según Victoria Ruiz Labrit, una activista en Miami que apoya a los grupos en Cuba. Entre los firmantes están el activista Jorge Luis García Pérez ``Antúnez'' y José Idelfonso Vélez, Coordinador Nacional del Movimiento de Integración Racial Juan Gualberto Gómez."

In Solidarity with the Real Anti-Racist Movement in Cuba  12/27/2009 Petition Online: Written by Professors August Nimtz and Gary Prevost

Denuncian racismo en Cuba  12/24/2009 Radio Marti: "Un grupo de 27 afrocubanos firmó un documento intitulado "La Mentira Indigesta", donde rechazan un artículo publicado el 9 de diciembre en el diario Granma acerca de la situación de los negros en Cuba. El texto de los 27 dice que los afrocubanos que viven en la marginalidad y por debajo del nivel de pobreza en Cuba saben lo duro que resulta ser odiado y menospreciado por el color negro de la piel."

Red de Bibliotecas Independientes “Baset” realiza encuentro en La Habana  12/23/2009 CIR: [The Independent Libraries have long functioned as USAID and Miami's mechanisms for recruiting dissidents.]

Cuban Color  12/23/2009 Cuba Now: interview with Esteban Morales - "We dealt well with the topic abroad. We were friends of blacks, natives and the vilified of the world, but here we had a climate of some social repression where even speaking about the topic might have led to accusations of racism and divisionism. We thought it was unnecessary, that is what something that we did not have to discuss, that it was going to be solved with the development of a deeply humanist policy. It has been demonstrated that even when capitalism ends, racism remains in the minds, in the institutions, in the way of life of the people.”

The Phantom Letter  12/23/2009 Havana Times: "A reply signed by eight Cuban intellectuals including De la Hoz had been published days earlier in Granma under the heading: “A message from Cuba to the African-American intellectuals and artists.” The reply ran without making known the contents of the declaration from the US that provoked such a response. It astonishes me that in this 21st century the newspaper should utilize such a misleading tactic, thus giving Cuban readers free rein to speculate about the reasons that may or may not have led the African American intellectuals in the US to dare produce such a declaration. ...What, then, could the ghostly declaration be talking about? Could it be that it’s grounded in the everyday life of black Cubans today?"

New Castro / Same Cuba  12/21/2009 Canada Free Press: "The presentation also revealed something that goes a long way towards explaining the Raul Castro regime’s confident entrenchment. Last year Cuba enjoyed record tourism revenues: 2.35 million tourists leaving $2.7 billion in military-regime coffers, and precious little else due to the regime’s tourist apartheid, where Cubans (especially darker-skinned ones) are strictly segregated at billy-club and gun-point from tourist areas, except as waiters, maids, bellhops, shoe-shine boys, foot masseuses, etc."

Raúl Castro admite la persistencia de discriminación por raza y género  12/21/2009 Diario de Cuba: "El general Raúl Castro reconoció este domingo la persistencia de la discriminación por raza y género en la Isla. Es "una vergüenza el insuficiente avance en esta materia en 50 años de revolución", admitió al clausurar la sesión anual de la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular."

Es preciso caminar hacia el futuro, con paso firme y seguro, porque sencillamente no tenemos derecho a equivocarnos  12/21/2009 Granma: por Raul Castro - "Las elecciones realizadas en el día de hoy por esta Asamblea para cubrir las vacantes en el Consejo de Estado, incluyendo dos vicepresidencias, una de ellas por primera vez ocupada por una mujer, que a su vez se desempeña como Contralora General de la República, constituyen además de un justo reconocimiento a la trayectoria revolucionaria y profesional de los elegidos, la expresión de la intención manifiesta de elevar la representatividad de la composición étnica y de género de la población cubana en los cargos de dirección. Personalmente considero que es una vergüenza el insuficiente avance en esta materia en 50 años de Revolución, a pesar de que el 65 por ciento de la fuerza laboral técnica se compone de mujeres y que la ciudadanía forma un hermoso arcoiris racial sin privilegios formales de tipo alguno, pero subsisten en la práctica, como expresara Fidel en la clausura del Congreso Pedagogía 2003, que aun en sociedades como la de Cuba, surgida de una revolución social radical, donde el pueblo alcanzó la plena y total igualdad legal y un nivel de educación revolucionaria que echó por tierra el componente subjetivo de la discriminación, esta existía todavía de otra forma. Fidel la calificó como discriminación objetiva, un fenómeno asociado a la pobreza y a un monopolio histórico de los conocimientos.Por mi parte ejerceré toda mi influencia para que estos nocivos prejuicios sigan cediendo espacio hasta ser finalmente suprimidos y se promuevan a cargos de dirección a todos los niveles, por sus méritos y preparación profesional, a las mujeres y los negros."

Blacks in Cuba - Why the delayed outcry?  12/20/2009 Miami Herald: The author, Ninoska Perez-Castellon, offers a tortured conflation of real issues of racism with the notion of "Tourism Apartheid," a strong version of the Caribbean wide penchant for gated resorts - "Like most of her colleagues, she ignores Cuba's evident apartheid. For Cuba's blacks, the humiliation is double. They are not allowed to stay in hotels reserved for foreigners, and the new slave masters seldom hire them to work in their exclusive installations."

We Stand With Cuba!: African Americans Express Solidarity With the Revolution  12/20/2009 PanAfrican Newswire 

En Camaguey, "cacique" de descendientes de aborígenes  12/18/2009 Adelante: "Francisco Ramírez Rojas, considerado como el "cacique" de una comunidad guantanamera de descendientes de aborígenes, expresó satisfacción por su visita a Camagüey, invitado a participar en un foro cultural. Residente en La Ranchería, de Caridad de los Indios, Ramírez asistirá hoy por la noche a la apertura de una muestra de obras de la plástica que insertan elementos de arte primitivo, como pictografías e ideografías. Los autores son el canadiense James K-M y los camagüeyanos Joel Jover y Osmany Soler. En su primera estancia en Camagüey, el campesino guantanamero, de 74 años de edad, añadió en el diálogo el orgullo por provenir de primitivos habitantes de la Isla. El interlocutor destacó también su adhesión a las ideas de Martí, de la Revolución, y reiteró el agradecimiento a todas las personas e instituciones que han divulgado la existencia de descendientes de indocubanos y los han apoyado."

Racist or Revolutionary: Cuba’s Identity is at Stake  12/18/2009 Defenders Online: by Ron Walters - "In the meantime, the Cuban government’s rejection of the concerns expressed by African Diaspora leaders who’ve long supported their revolution only intensifies the sense that it’s not interested in reforming racial practices there. Perhaps government officials believe the push to normalize relations with the U.S. government trumps its longstanding relationship with black Americans. This would waste a tremendous opportunity to complete the goals of fundamental social change envisioned by those who made the revolution, and those who supported it after its initial success."

Cornel West and James Early: Cuban Racism  12/18/2009 Tavis Smiley Show: Early recommends AfroCubaWeb as a source on what AfroCubans are saying about race and racism.

CUBANIA y RACIALIDAD  12/17/2009 Negra Cubana: "Tiene la cubanía una marca racial? La imagen siguiente pretende vincular identidad nacional y racialidad? Lo hace de una manera feliz?"

EL RACISMO CORRIENTE  12/17/2009 Primavera Digital: de Osmar Laffita Rojas. Reside en La Habana. Se ocupa de las Relaciones Internacionales del Partido Solidaridad Democrática.

El Blog de Dimas  12/17/2009 Radio Marti: "Dimas Castellano nació en Jiguaní, en 1943, y reside en La Habana. Es Licenciado en Ciencias Políticas, Diplomado en Ciencias de la Información, Licenciado en Estudios Bíblicos y Teológicos en el Instituto de Estudios Bíblicos y Teológicos, además de profesor de Filosofía marxista, periodista independiente; miembro del Consejo de Redacción de la Revista Digital Consenso y de la Junta Directiva del Instituto de Estudios Cubanos con sede en la Florida. Ha publicado trabajos en diversas revistas." [Vease El Blog de Dimas]

Reverse images: The acrimonious debate on race in Cuba  12/15/2009 SF Bay View: "But the original petition begs numerous questions including, who wrote the original petition? who is Dr. Ferrer? is there really a civil rights movement in Cuba or is the petition merely a grandiloquent expression of Afrogringoism?"

Comité Ciudadanos por la Integración Racial Declara  12/14/2009 CubaNuestra: "Los líderes y activistas del Comité Ciudadanos por la Integración Racial (CIR) y del partido Arco Progresista (Parp), queremos agradecer especialmente a los líderes afrocaribeños que han expresado su solidaridad con los militantes antirracistas cubanos, y demandado la liberación de uno de los miembros del CIR, el Dr. Darsi Ferrer, hoy encarcelado sin juicio alguno. Con satisfacción hemos leído la declaración firmada por Rex Nettleford, Vice Canciller Emérito, Barry Chevannes, profesor Emérito, Rupert Lewis, profesor de pensamiento político y Maureen Warner-Lewis, profesora Emérito, todos de la Universidad de West Indies que acoge a estudiantes de todo el caribe. También la carta del escritor nigeriano-jamaicano Lindsay."

Color cubano  12/14/2009 Trabajadores 

Color cubano  12/14/2009 Trajabadores: entrevista con Esteban Morales - "Tratábamos bien el tema afuera, somos amigos de los negros, de los indígenas y de los vilipendiados del mundo, pero aquí existía un ambiente de cierta represión social, donde incluso por hablar del tema podían acusar a uno de racista y divisionista; pensábamos que no hacía falta, que no había que discutirlo, que se iba a resolver dentro del propio devenir de una política profundamente humanista. Está demostrado que aún cuando termina el capitalismo, el racismo queda en la conciencia, en las instituciones, en el modo de vida de las personas”.

The Buena Vista Social Club: The Racial Politics of Nostalgia  12/13/2009 Northeastern Illinois University: by Tanya Katerí Hernández, published 2002

¿Racismo en Cuba?  12/13/2009 Trabajadores: por Omar Segura Montero

Action against Cuba  12/13/2009 ZZ's Blog: "While The New York Times understates dramatically both the funding and government dependence of DAI, it does reveal an interesting aspect of the story. The detainment occurred on December 5 with no public disclosure by the Cuban government. The fact that US officials felt compelled to announce the detainment, confessing the detainee’s activities and his employment, suggests that there will likely be more exposed in the days to come."

Carlos Moore, certero  12/10/2009 Cuba Nuestra: de Manuel Cuesta Morúa, La Habana

Cuban opposition pleased by African American support. By Professor Emeritus, David Covin.  12/10/2009 Cuba, Democracia y Vida: ""This letter is a very positive step, said Jorge Soca, because before no one wanted to talk about this. There has always been the notion that racism in Cuba did not exist but this is a lie", she added." [And that too is a lie, since racism in Cuba has been discussed for years, both in and out of Cuba.]

Intelectuales cubanos rechazan calumnias sobre racismo en la Isla  12/10/2009 Radio Havana: "Ya no saben que inventar aquellos que viven a costa de lanzar falsas acusaciones de violaciones de los derechos humanos en Cuba. Ahora les ha dado por decir que la sociedad cubana es racista y que por tanto, en la isla se discrimina a los negros y mestizos. El pasado día primero el diario norteamericano El Nuevo Herald, de Miami, publicó una declaración de supuestos intelectuales afroamericanos, en la que nuevamente se brinda una información tergiversada sobre la realidad cubana y tras la cual se esconde Carlos Moore, un individuo de origen cubano a quien le gusta presentarse como especialista en temas raciales."

Cuban opposition pleased by African American support  12/10/2009 Radio Marti 

LÍDERES AFROAMERICANOS DENUNCIAN RACISMO EN CUBA  12/10/2009 Radio Marti: quotes AfroCubaWeb.

African-Americans: Blacks in Cuba 'treated with callous disregard'  12/9/2009 CNN: "The revolution did deal an institutional blow to racism, but also incorrectly declared a centuries-old problem solved with just a decree or a law, said Cuban dissident Dimas Castellano. Police still stop blacks more frequently than whites, for example, he said."

De racismo, pregúntenle a Mandela  12/9/2009 Cuba Debate 

A missed shot on the wrong flank  12/9/2009 Granma: "A group of Cuban intellectuals, solely directed by our consciences and in a personal capacity, came together to share our point of view on the issue with African-American colleagues. Because this is about airing, in all seriousness and with arguments, human rights in our country, and about making it known that the statement issued in the United States is a missed shot on the wrong flank."

¿Hay racismo en Cuba?  12/8/2009 BBC 

Importante líder afronorteamericana retira su firma de la carta que acusó a Cuba de racismo  12/8/2009 CubaDebate: "Makani Themba-Nixon, directora ejecutiva The Praxis Project que aparece entre los firmantes de una carta de intelectuales y líderes afronorteamericanos que habían acusado a Cuba de prácticas de racismo y acoso de los ciudadanos negros, ha divulgado este lunes una nota en la que pide que su nombre no aparezca en ese documento."

Raúl presides over tribute to Maceo and Cuban internationalists  12/8/2009 Granma 

Makani Themba-Nixon, Praxis Project, withdraws support for the Acting on Our Conscience letter  12/7/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "Certainly, we should have thought this through more carefully when we signed on but my focus was to be of support to the groups involved -- and to aid an individual who was under attack. Unfortunately, this effort is being used by enemies of all of us to attempt to undermine a government whose efforts have proven critical to the uplift of Black people, despite its shortcomings. As a result, I am respectfully asking to withdraw Praxis' name from the letter. I'm not asking that you resend it or make any public statement to this effect. The letter is out and not much to be done about that. We will likely make a statement to friends expressing our love and solidarity for the signers but sharing our decision to pull back. Please feel free to share this note with anyone you deem appropriate."

Cuba’s Role in an African Genocide and Revolutionary Racism on the Island  12/7/2009 Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: "One of the deeds that the dictatorship in Cuba wants to keep hidden from the world and African Americans in particular, is its role in the mass killings in Ethiopia in the 1970s and 1980s. Beginning in late 1977, the first 5,000 of what would eventually number over 17,000 Cuban military personnel arrived in Ethiopia. By 1987 the Cuban presence had dropped to fewer than 2,000 personnel. During 1977-78, a conservative estimate of over 30,000 Africans perished as a result of the Red Terror unleashed by the Ethiopian Communists and their Cuban allies. Amnesty International concluded that "this campaign resulted in several thousand to perhaps tens of thousands of men, women, and children killed, tortured, and imprisoned." Sweden's Save the Children Fund lodged a formal protest in early 1978 denouncing the execution of 1,000 children, many below the age of thirteen, whom the communist government had labeled "liaison agents of the counter revolutionaries."

Message From Cuba to Afroamerican Intellectuals and Artists  12/6/2009 Cuba Now 

Racial Debate Enters US-Cuba Conflict  12/6/2009 Havana Times: article references AfroCubaWeb.

Getting Wise to Racism in Cuba, or Better Late than Never  12/5/2009 Kelly sans culotte 

Cuba Rejects Accusations of Racism from Prominent U.S. Blacks  12/5/2009 Latin American Herald Tribune: "So far, neither the original statement by the African-Americans nor Havana’s response has been reported by Cuba’s state media monopoly." [The reply is posted in Jiribilla and Cuba Debate.]

Claim of Cuban racism rejected  12/5/2009 Miami Herald: "Friday's reply was signed by eight government backers who regularly address black issues, but seemed to have official approval because the government press office distributed their statement. Victoria Ruiz-Labrit, a Miami supporter of black dissidents on the island, said she had received information from the island that government officials were pressing other black Cubans to sign the reply. Some refused and some signed, she said."

Racism fight in Cuba needs new thinking  12/5/2009 Miami Herald: "What we need now is new thinking -- an approach that does not back down on Cuba's decrepit reality but embraces all the disparate voices everywhere -- from 30-something white blogger Yoani Sánchez who speaks for her generation in Cuba to poor, drunk Pánfilo, the black Cuban who was sent to a mental hospital earlier this year to ``detox'' after he was captured on a YouTube video that went viral, complaining Cubans lack ``jama,'' slang for a meal. So thank you, thank you, thank you 60 times my fellow Americans. Welcome to the good fight for justice for all."

Cuba blasts US black leaders for charges of racism  12/4/2009 AP: "Cuba hit back Thursday at 60 prominent U.S. black leaders who challenged its race record, with island writers, artists and official journalists calling the criticism an attack on their country's national identity."

Nueva declaración de condena al racismo en Cuba, de personalidades caribeñas  12/4/2009 Cuba Puntos de Vista: from Jamaica's intellectual elite.

Envían desde Cuba mensaje a los intelectuales y artistas afronorteamericanos  12/4/2009 CubaDebate 

Debate racial llega al conflicto con Washington  12/4/2009 IPS 

Mensaje desde Cuba a los intelectuales y artistas afronorteamericanos  12/4/2009 Jiribilla 

ACTIVISTAS AFROAMERICANOS PIDEN FIN DE RACISMO EN CUBA  12/4/2009 Radio Marti 

Reclaman intelectuales de Jamaica a Cuba por encarcelamiento de Darsi Ferrer  12/4/2009 Radio Marti: "En una carta remitida a Raúl Castro, con fecha 26 de noviembre, los académicos Rex Nettleford, Barry Chevannes, Rupert Lewis y Mauren Warner-Lewis, unieron sus voces al pedido de su colega brasileño Abdias Nascimiento, a favor de la libertad de Ferrer, encarcelado desde el pasado julio en Cuba. En la carta, los académicos señalan que "lo que nos sorprende a todos es la mano fuerte del estado contra aquellos que se atreven a expresarse en contra del prejuicio racial continúo en la sociedad", cubana. Añaden que aunque la revolución cubana reclama haber liberado a cubanos blancos y negros de la explotación, lo cierto es que las actitudes, algunas abiertas y otras solapadas, que justificaron siglos de esclavitud de negros africanos, no han cedido con facilidad."

High-Profile Group Urges Cuba to Stop Racism  12/2/2009 BET: “This is historic,” Enrique Patterson, an Afro-Cuban Miami author, told the Web site. Although predominantly White Cuban exiles “tried to approach these people before, they lacked credibility. Now [African Americans] are listening.”

African-American group challenges Cuba on race  12/2/2009 Miami Herald: "While the African American signers support Cuba's right to sovereignty ``and unhesitatingly repudiate any attempt at curtailing such a right,'' the statement added they ``cannot sit idly by and allow for peaceful, dedicated civil rights activists in Cuba, and the black population as a whole, to be treated with callous disregard.'' ``Racism in Cuba, and anywhere else in the world, is unacceptable and must be confronted,'' their statement declared."

ACTING ON OUR CONSCIENCE - A DECLARATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE IN CUBA  12/1/2009 Carlos Moore: A letter organized by Carlos Moore

Líderes afroamericanos exigen a La Habana que ponga fin a su 'insensible desprecio' por los negros  12/1/2009 Cuba Encuentro: Cuba Encuentro receives high levels of NED funding.

Líderes negros condenan el racismo en Cuba  12/1/2009 El Nuevo Herald 

Denuncian racismo en Cuba  12/1/2009 InfoBAE, Argentina 

Subject: Prominent black Americans condemn Cuba on racism  12/1/2009 James Early: [Early responds to the articles about Carlos Moore's letter campaign among African Americans.]

Commentary: Is black America's honeymoon with the Castros over?  12/1/2009 McClatchy: By Carlos Moore "In a landmark "Statement of Conscience by African-Americans," 60 prominent black American scholars, artists and professionals have condemned the Cuban regime's apparent crackdown on the country's budding civil rights movement. "Racism in Cuba, and anywhere else in the world, is unacceptable and must be confronted," said the document, which also called for the "immediate release" of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, a black civil rights leader imprisoned in July. The U.S. State Department estimates Afro-Cubans make up 62 percent of the Cuban population, with many informed observers saying the figure is closer to 70 percent."

African-American group challenges Cuba on race  12/1/2009 Miami Herald: "The growing number of Afro-Cuban activists complaining about racial discrimination and casting their struggle as an issue of ``civil rights,'' rather than ``human rights,'' has helped to draw the attention of African Americans, said Victoria Ruiz-Labrit, Miami spokesperson for the Cuba-based Citizens' Committee for Racial Integration."

Prominent black Americans condemn Cuba on racism  12/1/2009 Miami Herald: "The statement was largely driven by Carlos Moore, a highly regarded Cuban author and black-rights activist living in Brazil who has long criticized racial discrimination in Cuba. Moore persuaded Abdias Nascimiento, a founder of Brazil's black movement and longtime Castro supporter, to send Raúl Castro a letter earlier this year denouncing racism in Cuba, then appealed to friends and contacts in the black community to add their support. "Without this historic figure, no one would have listened," said Patterson, who predicted that other high-profile black Americans will soon add their signatures to the statement."

Obama's ex-pastor doesn't like Cuba, either  12/1/2009 Uncommon Sense: by Marc Masferrer, the great nephew of that quintessential Cuban hoodlum, El Tigre Masferrer.

LAS NEGRAS SON LAS AUTÉNTICAS HEROÍNAS  11/30/2009 Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas 

Mariana de todos los cubanos  11/28/2009 Granma: "En cumplimiento de un acuerdo del VII Congreso de la UNEAC, comenzó sus trabajos una nueva comisión que aborda la lucha contra el racismo y los prejuicios raciales desde una perspectiva cultural. Como acción primera, una representación de la vanguardia artística y literaria acudió ayer viernes a rendir homenaje a Mariana Grajales, cuyo inclaudicable compromiso con la emancipación nacional y ejemplar entrega familiar, avalan a la heroína como madre de todos los cubanos."

The Race Problem in Today’s Cuba  11/24/2009 Havana Times: "I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several forums dealing with the problem of racism in Cuba. The most recent one was on November 18 at the Sacred Trinidad Episcopal Cathedral at the invitation of the Oscar A. Romaro Reflection and Solidarity Group. In it, a panel of experts made up of Gisela Arandia, Maria Ileana Faguada and Luis Carlos Marrero approached the problem from a historical angle and in its relation to the Catholic and Protestant churches."

LA DISCRIMINACIÓN DE GÉNERO Y RAZA EN CUBA  11/23/2009 Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas 

Cuban civil rights activist arrested  11/13/2009 Uncommon Sense: "Juan A. Madrazo Luna, the leader of a Cuban anti-racism campaign, was arrested Friday on a supposed charge of "resistance," according to a story posted at CubaEncuentro.com. As head of the party's Citizens Committee for Racial Integration, Madrazo is leading a "Citizens Empowerment" campaign targeting the racist practices of the national police. "El Arco Progresista (political party) asks anyone in the world who sympathizes with anti-racist causes to demand the immediate release (of Madrazo Luna), who does nothing but struggle in Cuba for the effective racial integration of all Cubans," party leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa said in a statement."

Challenges of the racial question in Cuba  11/11/2009 Esteban Morales Domínguez: published 10/08 "The way power is distributed in present-day Cuban society does not go beyond what existed prior to 1959; within society white dominance is still forcefully expressed, especially at the level of what is called the “new economy.” This is especially evident in the absence of blacks in the upper leadership levels of the state, government, and institutions of civil society in general, although not in the party structure. A recent example is that there is not one single black among the fourteen provincial chairs of People’s Power.  This is in complete contradiction to the leadership policy put forward by the Party in 1985, which is a long way from being realized in terms of racial representation. The matter is certainly much more complicated than the question of whether or not there might be blacks and mestizos in all the positions, but undoubtedly what is happening seriously affects the participation of nonwhites in the structures of power."

‘The Revolution Made Blacks Human’  11/3/2009 Havana Times: "This same comrade, who holds one of the most important positions at the paper and is a member of the Communist Party, had fought in the underground risking his life in the 1950s struggle against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship – despite his privileged position in our country as a “blanco hijo de ricos“ (white son of rich people)… The crowning point of my co-worker’s monologue was the moment he said that if he -the white son of rich people- had been able to sacrifice then blacks had to do the same, because “the Revolution had allowed blacks to become people.” I didn’t know if the guy had something else to add, because I cut into him calling him a racist, among other things. It turned into pretty ugly argument, over which he finally chose to retreat into his office."

‘The Revolution Made Blacks Human’  11/3/2009 Havana Times 

Rethinking Cuban History - 'Cubanidad' in the Context of the Americas  11/2/2009 Bildner Center: "In this talk, Professor Eduardo Torres Cuevas will address issues of race, religiosity, and social stratification (marginalidad). He will discuss the changing schools of thought regarding Cuban national identity as well as explore the connections between Cuba and the larger circum-Caribbean."

HELP FREE CUBAN RIGHTS LEADER  11/2/2009 Trinidad & Tobago Review: a plea from Carlos Moore

Carta abierta ao Raul Castro Ruz e ao Luiz Lula da Silva, 10/30/09, em Português  10/30/2009 AfroCubaWeb 

Dirigente histórico do Movimento Negro Brasileiro, ABDIAS NASCIMENTO, rompe com Cuba por causa da questão racial na ilha  10/30/2009 Geledés Insituto da Mulher Negra: has text of Prof Abdias do Nascimento's open letter to Raul Castro and Lula da Silva on Cuban dissident Dr.Darsi Ferrer, in Portuguese.

Petition on behalf of Dr Darsi Ferrer, Afro-Cuban activist..  10/30/2009 NaijaBLog: INTERNATIONAL PETITION ON BEHALF OF AFRO-CUBAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, DR DARSI FERRER, organized by Carlos Moore

Boom del tema racial? Sin el negro, Cuba no sería Cuba  10/26/2009 Negra Cubana: "Varios documentos relacionados con el tema racial, andan dando vuelta por la red cubana. Les comparto este, escrito porque quien, ante la desaparición de Color Cubano, lidera la comisión que ahora se ocupa de esta temática en el seno de la UNEAC. Este artículo contiene lenguaje sexista pero dada su importancia me permito reproducirlo."

Sin el negro, Cuba no sería Cuba  10/26/2009 UNEAC: "Recientemente el Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de nuestro país al recibir a un Canciller africano señalaba: “La Revolución Cubana no existiría, sin la solidaridad africana”. Y es que en las grandes batallas que hemos librado en el campo de la diplomacia, nuestros más seguros y firmes aliados han sido la inmensa mayoría de los estados africanos. En las batallas por los derechos humanos; en los temas económicos; en el marco de los Organismos Internacionales como la Organización de Naciones Unidas, el Movimiento de Países No Alineados y en el Grupo de los 77. En nuestra titánica e inclaudicable batalla contra el criminal e injusto bloqueo económico impuesto por los Estados Unidos, Africa siempre ha estado a nuestro lado, como ahora lo está en nuestro batallar incesante por la liberación de nuestros Cinco hermanos presos en las cárceles del imperio."

A message from Dr. Darsi Ferrer’s wife  10/22/2009 BabaluBlog: "My husband is an Afro-Cuban who today is languishing in a Cuban jail, trying to survive under infrahuman conditions and suffering cruel and degrading treatment, for dedicating his efforts to fight for the civil rights of our compatriots. Dr. Darsi Ferrer is a professional, not a criminal as he is described by the Cuban regime, he is a medical graduate, sensitive to the suffering of others and whose only crime has been that, inspired by the example of great men like Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, he has employed non-violent methods of civil disobedience to wake up the conscience of the Cuban people and to demand the respect of the fundamental freedoms and rights for all citizens of Cuba."

Carta a Granma  10/21/2009 Cofradia de la Negritud: "Estamos una vez más, compañero Barredo, frente a uno de los puntos problémicos heredado por una de las revoluciones --la cubana de 1959-- que más lejos llevó en América la demolición social del capitalismo neocolonizador y dependiente y que, sin embargo, hasta hoy, no ha podido independizarse de un canon patriótico eurocéntrico, en el que sólo los antiguos liberticidas, los señores de la propiedad y la riqueza o los entendidos en los valores librescos europeos pueden ser recordados como protagonistas de los actos libertarios y de la dignidad cívica."

Cuba's struggle against racism  10/20/2009 Green Left Weekly: by Roberto Jorquera, published 3/98

Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramirez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 10/18/09  10/18/2009 Uncommon Sense: Site in support of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, maintained by the great nephew of El Tigre Masferrer, Mark Masferrer. El Tigre was a Cuban paramilitary leader who went into exile and was jailed in a federal penitentiary for organizing the overthrow of the government of Haiti in order to use it as a base for attacks on Cuba.

LA MUJER NEGRA. SU REPRESENTACIÓN GRÁFICA Y LOS ESTEREÓTIPOS EN LA PUBLICIDAD  10/15/2009 Universidade de Brazilia: por Norma R. Guillard Limonta

Cuban Dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer on HUNGER STRIKE  10/13/2009 Babalu: "Cuban dissident and human rights activist Dr. Darsi Ferrer - serving time in castro's gulag for having "construction materials" in his home - goes on hunger strike. The following is a letter from his wife Yusnaimy Jorge Soca via Marc Masferrer."

Afro-Cuban Culture & US Chicanos  10/10/2009 Havana Times: "Lino’s doctoral degree focuses on one of several Afro Cuban cultural groups in Cuba, the Abakua. His depth and breadth of knowledge on this subject was indeed impressive. Lino emphasized that in his opinion, there is no one Cuban culture but rather a diversity of cultures often integrated at the individual level. Thus, at the dimension of religion, a Cuban might incorporate elements of Catholicism along with elements from more than one Afro Cuban religion (e.g., Abakua, Palo, etc.). According to Lino, even the “whitest” of Cubans might be strong disciples of an Afro Cuban religious sect. He also descried periodic gatherings or “congresses” of Afro Cuban groups that meet to exchange perspectives about their values and beliefs and confirm strategies for the transmission of their religion across generations. One of my questions for Lino addressed the explicit teaching of Afro Cuban history and cultures throughout Cuban schools. During the conference Agustin and I attended during our first two days in Havana, a Cuban professor named Maya had expressed her satisfaction at seeing how Cuban schools were now, finally, teaching the heritage of Afro Cubans. However, according to Lino, this was either news to him or it was not as widespread as Maya had inferred. This led to a discussion about a theme that emerged from during the conference as well - the continued prejudice and discrimination against Blacks in Cuba."

Población negra invisible  10/5/2009 Granma: "Si usted trata de buscar un dato sobre la población afrodescendiente es muy difícil. No existen estadísticas para saber qué está pasando, no existen indicadores específicos de sus niveles de mortalidad infantil o materna, o de nutrición", dijo a IPS la directora regional para América Latina y el Caribe del PNUD, Rebeca Grynspan, al explicar el concepto de "invisibilidad" manejado en el encuentro. "Solo podemos acercarnos vía territorial, porque muchos de ellos viven en regiones bastante identificables, y entonces podemos saber lo que pasa solo por una vía indirecta", afirmó. Pero los afrodescendientes también sufren una "invisibilidad de su aporte a Latinoamérica, de su aporte histórico, de sus movimientos, de su aporte cultural", de su influencia "en lo que hacemos, en lo que cantamos"…. "Coincidimos en la necesidad de poner de manifiesto la cultura de la población afrodescendiente, esos rasgos, esos modos y recursos del lenguaje, esa sabiduría comunitaria, que generalmente se conocen a través de la música y la danza", dijo al cierre del seminario. "Queremos ciudadanos que disfruten plenamente sus derechos, y creemos que el reconocimiento de los derechos culturales va a tener un impacto positivo sobre el resto de los derechos. Tenemos que seguir por ese camino", añadió."

Sobre Color Cubano  10/3/2009 AfroCubaWeb: de Gisela Arandia - "El Proyecto Color Cubano ha desaparecido como tal. Paralelamente se ha creado una Comisión orgánica de la UNEAC que será dirigida por el compañero Heriberto Feraudy, la cual se integra a la estructura de trabajo establecida por la organización. La decisión fue tomada por la dirección de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba y se llevó a cabo, luego de un proceso de análisis y estudio sobre el Proyecto, realizado por un grupo de trabajo evaluador, dirigido por Nicolás Hernández Guillén. El dictamen de ese trabajo tuvo en cuenta aciertos y dificultades, así como recomendaciones. En términos generales la valoración de ese grupo de trabajo argumentó el impacto positivo de Color Cubano, en un contexto social donde el tema prácticamente estaba ausente del debate público institucional."

Pánfilo, Rosa Parks, in vino veritas y la Guagua que no se detiene  9/26/2009 Derechos Humano Cuba: "El desespero de Pánfilo, el gesto cansado de este hombre doblemente victima de la carecía de los Cubanos de a Pie y de los Cubano Negros, no tendrá mucha repercusión. No habrá boicoteos, ni marchas, nadie pedirá la libertad de Pánfilo, ni demandara al gobierno Cubano que provea al pueblo Cubano, no el pan de cada día, sino la libertad de poder crear su propio pan. El gesto de Pánfilo se convierte en una broma masiva internacional, aun cuando todos los que nacimos allí sabemos exactamente la fuerte verdad que encierran sus palabras aceleradas por chispa’e’ tren,- “no hay iría, aquí lo que hace falta es jama”." [Pánfilo was apparently taken to a mental health facility after becoming a rap star, much like Walterio Carbonell.]

Ritual  9/26/2009 Las Leyes de Laritza: "De tan comunes, han dejado de ser noticia en un país contínuamente vigilado y controlado. Un ritual sin humo ni aguardiente para los santos. Con los mismos protagonistas: policías, ciudadanos de a pie -sobre todo jóvenes y negros- y conductores de vehículos privados o estatales. A cualquier hora y en cualquier sitio."

Jornalista cubano fala sobre o racismo na ilha  9/21/2009 Associação Brasileira de Pesquisadores(as) Negros(as): "Em viagem ao Brasil para participar de um congresso da Associação de Estudos Latino-Americanos (LASA, na sigla em inglês), realizado na PUC-RJ, no qual fez uma palestra sobre o racismo em seu País, o jornalista e cientista social cubano Raimundo Gomez Navia visitou a sede da Associação Brasileira de Imprensa, onde foi recebido por membros da Diretoria e pelo Presidente da Casa, Maurício Azêdo."

Interioridades de la Prisión Valle Grande  9/21/2009 Cuba Represion: Por: Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramírez, preso de conciencia.

Black and Cuban-American: Bias in 2 Worlds  9/13/2009 NYT: published 9/13/1997, 12 years ago.

Presentan libro Raza y racismo en la UNEAC  9/12/2009 UNEAC: "El libro Raza y racismo, de la Editorial Caminos, fue presentado el lunes 7 de diciembre con la asistencia de un numeroso público a la sala Villena de la UNEAC. La compilación de Esther Pérez y Marcel Lueiro es la segunda antología de textos aparecidos en la revista Caminos , del Centro Martin Luther King Jr.. En el panel, Raúl Roa Kourí se refirió a la valoración del Canciller de la Dignidad acerca de la figura de Antonio Maceo, mientras Fernando Martínez Heredia habló del volumen Raza y racismo. Al hacer un balance de la labor del Centro Martin Luther King Jr., Martínez Heredia lo calificó de “baluarte de la sociedad civil cubana, y por tanto, de su Revolución”. La presentación se inserta dentro del trabajo de la Comisión contra el racismo y la discriminación racial de la UNEAC. Miguel Barnet, presidente de esta institución, recalcó que no se trata del comienzo de una lucha por afianzar las conquistas de la Revolución, sino de la continuación de una tarea que siempre ha tenido la UNEAC. Raza y racismo incluye, entre otros, trabajos de Manuel Moreno Fraginals, Fernando Ortiz, Walterio Carbonell, Esteban Morales, Rogelio Martínez Furé, Natalia Bolívar y Carmen González."

Yoani e o racismo em Cuba  9/9/2009 VEJA, Brazil 

Dissidents Work for Racial Integration  9/3/2009 IPS: "The Citizens' Committee for Racial Integration (CIR) "will attempt to bring the issue out of the closed intellectual debates where it has been closeted for the past 15 years," said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the moderate dissident Arco Progresista, a coalition of small social democrat groups and one of the participants at the workshop, to which the foreign press was invited. In his view, alternative civil society organisations should seek ways to achieve the self-recognition of black people, who are not represented in proportion to their demographics and their cultural contribution to Cuba. "The CIR is pursuing recognition and racial integration, not conflict or racial pre-eminence," he said."

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissidents Work for Racial Integration  9/3/2009 IPS: "Dissident groups in Cuba are attempting to open up a debate on the problem of racism in the country, in order to promote "full integration" of all the island's citizens, without discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity or skin colour. To that end, a committee "without ideological affiliation or political goals" was formed this week at a workshop on the issue, to promote actions and initiatives to guarantee "a voice and a forum" for Afro-descendants on this Caribbean island, "with the responsible support" of all Cubans who are aware of the problem. The Citizens' Committee for Racial Integration (CIR) "will attempt to bring the issue out of the closed intellectual debates where it has been closeted for the past 15 years," said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the moderate dissident Arco Progresista, a coalition of small social democrat groups and one of the participants at the workshop, to which the foreign press was invited. In his view, alternative civil society organisations should seek ways to achieve the self-recognition of black people, who are not represented in proportion to their demographics and their cultural contribution to Cuba. "The CIR is pursuing recognition and racial integration, not conflict or racial pre-eminence," he said." [It is well known that Cuesta Morua - a descendant of the Morua widely regarded as a traitor to AfroCubans -- is a frequent visitor to the US Interest Section.]

Racism in Cuba & the Black Fellowship  9/2/2009 Havana Times: “In this same endeavor to rescue history, we have also taken into account the events that took place on November 27, 1871. On that day, in addition to the execution of the eight medical students, there was the murder of five black Abakuas who tried to prevent that injustice. It was an almost suicidal act, resulting in their murder. “But history has sidestepped these events and when people march nowadays to the monument dedicated to the eight students, not once has the heroism of those Abakuas been mentioned, except for in a speech delivered by Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, on November 27, 1961, during the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the martyrs. So, we decided to organize our own tribute parallel to the traditional one organized by the Federation of University Students (FEU)."

Reflota plan contra discriminación racial  9/2/2009 IPS: "Una carta de presentación de la iniciativa, hecha circular por correo electrónico, considera que no podrá haber un avance importante y sostenido en el aminoramiento progresivo de la desigualdad racial sin la ejecución "de una política social que tenga en consideración la desventaja históricamente acumulada de la población negra". En ese sentido, Coneg propone trabajar para que el Estado y la sociedad civil adquieran conciencia del asunto y por "asegurar la prestación de una efectiva atención a la defensa del respeto de los derechos de todo tipo de la población negra cubana". La misiva conserva la fecha de su lanzamiento inicial, en julio de 1998, por el ingeniero Norberto Mesa Carbonell, como "primer cófrade", aunque ahora se añaden las firmas de los "cófrades" Tomás Fernández y Tato Quiñones, investigadores y especialistas en el tema."

The Black Man: The Object of Others  9/1/2009 Islas: by Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Historian, philosopher and anthropologist, General Secretary of the Socialist Democratic Current, Havana, Cuba. Islas is NED funded. "The situation in Cuba is so-so. The discursive spaces opened up by Tomás Fernández Robaina and Tato Quiñones, who are pioneers in this area, are promising. Color Cubano, with Gisela Arandia; the Cofradía de la Negritud [the Brotherhood of Blackness], with Norberto Mesa; the Movimiento de Integración Racial [the Movement for Racial Integration], with José Vélez; or, more recently, the Ciudadanos por la Integración Racial [Citizens for Racial Integration] project, promoted by the Arco Progresista, which are closer to my position, all bear witness to the problem. There were also shining moments—when singer-songwriter Gerardo Alfonso tried to open up a space in the nineties, and both Elvira Cervera and Walter Carbonell went public on just how marginalized any attempt to culturally, politically, intellectually and academically explore the black issue in Cuba had become."

People Need to Believe in the Supernatural - Interview with Cuban anthropologist Milagros Niebla Delgado  8/24/2009 Cuba Now: translated by Susan Hurlich

La sexualidad y la belleza de la mujer negra, una aproximación desde Cuba  8/23/2009 Cuba Debate 

From Cuba: A Call to Action in Solidarity with Political Prisoners  8/13/2009 Directorio Democrático Cubano: Promotes campaign launched by Alfredo Domínguez Batista, José Daniel Ferrer García, Darsi Ferrer Ramírez, Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, Ernesto Mederos Arozarena, Juan Luis Rodríguez Desdín, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, Librado Linares García, Ariel Sigler Amaya, and Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

CUBA: Black Women Rap Against Discrimination  8/13/2009 IPS: "They are few in number, but women’s loud chants of resistance against sexism, racism and discrimination against sexual minorities have left an indelible mark on the hip hop movement in Cuba, a little more than a decade old."

Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba  8/5/2009 Google Books: Mark Sawyer, quotes Carlos Moore extensively.

Africa en la revolución cubana  8/5/2009 Jiribilla: publicado en 6/05

Tropical Babylon - Cuba is a melting pot of different cultures.  8/3/2009 CubaNow 

SUELI CARNEIRO: Ennegrecer al feminismo  7/28/2009 Negra Cubana: "En Brasil y en América Latina la violación colonial perpetrada por los señores blancos a mujeres negras e indígenas y la mezcla resultante es el origen de todas las construcciones de nuestra identidad nacional, estructurando el decantado mito de la democracia racial latinoamericana que en Brasil llegó hasta sus últimas consecuencias. Esa violencia sexual colonial es también el cimiento de todas las jerarquías de género y raza presentes en nuestras sociedades configurando aquello que Angela Gilliam define como “la gran teoría del esperma en la formación nacional” …

Raza y Nación ( I ): De la bio-raza a la bio-política  7/14/2009 Cuba Independiente 

A flor de piel (y 2)  7/8/2009 Las cartas de Tania: "Hacia fines de los 90, en los Festivales del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, anualmente celebrados en La Habana, antes de cada función el ICAIC proyectaba anuncios de las firmas patrocinadoras del evento. En el 2000 ese tipo de merchandising cesó, sin explicaciones. Pero se especuló que el motivo es la oposición del “máximo líder” a publicidad al estilo capitalista y, mucho menos, en las esferas culturales y deportivas, dos de las vitrinas propagandísticas del “inmaculado” sistema socialista cubano. La prohibición de esos anuncios coincidió con un comentario de Ana María Radaelli difundido en Juventud Rebelde en diciembre de 1999. La periodista criticaba la relevancia que en dichos comerciales se le daba a modelos blancos, rubios y de ojos claros, y apenas se reflejaba el componente étnico distintivo de los cubanos."

A flor de piel (1)  7/7/2009 Las cartas de Tania 

Académicos piden debate y acciones contra el racismo en Cuba  7/3/2009 AFP: "A 50 años de una revolución que proclamó la "igualdad'' en Cuba, manifestaciones de racismo no institucional preocupan a académicos y estudiosos que piden un debate abierto y acciones inmediatas para evitar que alcance proporciones mayores."

Prisioneros de su raza (2)  7/3/2009 Desde La Habana: por Iván García - "Las discrepancias por la tonalidad de la piel en Cuba no son sólo del blanco hacia el negro, aunque sea la más común. Van también del negro al blanco y del mulato al negro. Y lo que es peor, del negro hacia el negro. La raza negra está presa en su color de piel. Recibe metralla desde cualquier frente."

Race Matters in Cuba  7/3/2009 Havana Times: "Another of the recurrent questions is the posing of the racial question as if it were only of interest to black people and mestizos. White supremacy has not only pushed blacks to the periphery, but also those issues that could interest them. The statement “I don’t have anything to do with that, I don’t feel racism” alerts us that there are those who do not recognize that this is a concern for everyone, given that in the established relations of subordination there are those who hold the power and those who do not, generating inequities that are expressed in very diverse forms."

Prisioneros de su raza (1)  7/2/2009 Desde La Habana: por Iván García - "Si en algunos partidos los negros eran líderes era en el comunista. El PSP (Partido Socialista Popular) estaba dirigido por un mulato oriental, Blas Roca. Varios de sus políticos más destacados eran negros o mulatos: Jesus Menéndez, dirigente de los azucareros, asesinado en 1948; Aracelio Iglesias, portavoz de los obreros portuarios, tambien asesinado; Lázaro Pena, lider sindical; Salvador García Agüero, pedagogo, por muchos considerado el más grande orador cubano y el poeta Nicolás Guillén, un camagüeyano que se afilió al PSP. Más que débil, Blas Roca fue cobarde y entreguista en su política después de 1959. Sin concesiones entregó el mando de su partido a Fidel Castro y éste lo diluyó y fragmentó a su manera. Si alguna fuerza política hubiera podido clamar con énfasis por el problema de los negros en Cuba, ése hubiera sido el PSP. Porque en sus filas militaban intelectuales negros de primera y blancos de avanzadas ideas que estaban muy lejos de ser racistas. Pero bajaron la cabeza. Y a pesar de que Castro y su revolución han intentado eliminar barreras, la situación del negro sigue siendo un polvorín."

DECLARACIÓN DEL COMITÉ CIUDADANOS POR LA INTEGRACIÓN RACIAL  6/26/2009 Pro Libertad: "En la tarde del jueves 25 de junio un nutrido operativo de la policía política, junto a fuerzas auxiliares del Orden interior, impidieron el acceso de los miembros de la institución cívica al debate mensual que organiza la revista cubana de Cultura, Ideología y Sociedad, “Temas”, auspiciada por el Ministerio de Cultura. Bajo el espacio de “Último Jueves” el tema en esta ocasión fue “la Cuestión Racial en Cuba, discriminación, prejuicios y estereotipos”.

Cuba Dissidents Win Award but Not Obama Audience  6/25/2009 WaPo: "Five Cuban dissidents who have collectively spent decades in jail for their pro-democracy activities were given a top award by the National Endowment for Democracy last night. But, unlike in past years, their representative was not invited to the White House, organizers said. Carl Gershman, president of the endowment, said the organization asked two weeks ago whether President Obama could meet with Bertha Antúnez, the sister of one of the dissidents, who was picking up the award on their behalf. Gershman said he never got a response. It was the first time in five years that the president had not met with the winner of the Democracy Award, according to the endowment, which is funded by Congress."

La visita a Cuba de Olabibi Babalola Joseph Yaï: Reconocimiento de la UNESCO a Cuba y a intelectuales y artistas cubanos  6/19/2009 ONU Cuba: "El reconocimiento de la UNESCO y de sus países miembros a Cuba y a prestigiosos intelectuales y artistas cubanos por su infatigable labor cultural en beneficio de la humanidad expresó el Embajador Olabibi Babalola Joseph Yaï, Presidente del Consejo Ejecutivo de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, Ciencia y Cultura y Delegado Permanente de la República de Benin ante esa organización, en una ceremonia en la sede de la UNESCO en esta capital. El encuentro fue presentado por el Representante de la UNESCO en Cuba y Director Regional de Cultura para América Latina y el Caribe, Herman van Hooff, quien resaltó la importancia de la visita oficial a Cuba del Embajador Yaï y sus conversaciones con altos dirigentes cubanos, intelectuales y artistas. Asimismo, subrayó el gran agrado con que la institución acoge la presencia en Cuba de tan distinguida personalidad."

Cuba Elected to UNESCO Committee on Cultural Diversity  6/17/2009 Cuba Now: "During the election of representatives from Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Paris, France, Cuba got 61 votes and Brazil 57; for the Asian region, China and Laos were elected; Albania and Bulgaria were chosen to represent Eastern Europe, Jordan and Tunisia for the Middle East and Cameroon and Kenya were elected representatives for Africa. Canada and France were elected among the highly developed countries. Cuban ambassador to UNESCO, Hector Hernandez Pardo described Cuba´s election as an extraordinary result that proves the acknowledgement of the island´s consecration to the issue. Cuba obtained the majority of votes after Canada, which got 69 votes, said Hernadez Pardo who also noted that despite the failed and obsolete isolation policy practiced by Washington against the Caribbean nation, Cuba always had impressing support. The election of Cuba expresses strong support of the cultural policy of our country, he said."

Slave Route Museum Inaugurated in Matanzas, Cuba  6/17/2009 Juventud Rebelde: "The Afro América exhibition was opened during the inauguration featuring 105 educational posters and 14 African sculptures donated by Cuban artist Lorenzo Padilla."

Cuba Gives Continuity to the UNESCO Slave Route Project  6/17/2009 Periodico 26: "Olabiyi admitted feeling “excited to be in this part of Africa!” "

Concede la UNESCO a Cuba Medalla de la Diversidad Cultural  6/17/2009 Trabajadores: "Olabiyi entregó a Abel Prieto, miembro del Buró Político y ministro de Cultura, la Medalla de la Diversidad Cultural de la Unesco, en reconocimiento a la posición de Cuba contra los prejuicios y estereotipos que aún prevalecen debido al estigma de la esclavitud, y a una actividad cultural encaminada a distinguir el proceso de transculturación y mestizaje en nuestros pueblos. Al agradecer el gesto, el titular cubano de Cultura reconoció que tiene un gran valor, sobre todo porque el Museo se vincula con la filosofía del Consejo Nacional de Patrimonio de que un museo no es un almacén de piezas, concebidas como algo arqueológico que pertenece al pasado, sino que esas instituciones culturales deben verse como instrumentos educativos, vivos, en manos de la comunidad, de maestros y escuelas."

Slave Route Museum Opens On Tuesday in Matanzas  6/15/2009 Periodico 26: "The UNESCO official will also visit Old Havana, the House of Africa and the Museum of Guanabacoa, in the Cuban capital. His agenda includes meetings with representatives of the International Film School, the Center for Studies on Africa and the Middle East, the Yoruba Association of Cuba, the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana."

Haiti in Cuba: Vodou, Racism & Domination  6/8/2009 Havana Times: "The Haitians brought the Vodou religion to Cuba. The great anthropologist from Santiago de Cuba, Joel James, who studied that culture, says that hundreds of Haitian workers were massacred and literally thrown into the sea during the period prior to 1959. A strong xenophobia existed against them in Cuba, as well as anti-black racism, leading to events that could be characterized as genocide or ethnocide. They were the last card in that deck, however. The revolutionary triumph of 1959 put an end to such occurrences, although a certain degree of prejudice against the Vodou religion remained. This prejudice still exists, even among some of those who practice other belief systems of African origin."

Cultural Cimarronaje: Racial Politics in Cuban Art  6/1/2009 Upside Down World: article publised 10/9/2007 - "Excerpted from the new book Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, by Sujatha Fernandes (pp. 160 - 167)"

Invoking MLK and Rosa Parks in Cuban Exile Politics  5/30/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "Another exile platform extolling the virtues of Antúnez and Rosa Parks is the blog of Marc Masferrer, the nephew of El Tigre Masferrer, who maintains a page on Antúnez. El Tigre, a notorious terrorist and leader of his own private militia, actually spent time in a US federal prison for attempting to invade Haiti so he could use it as a base for invading Cuba."

Conferencia Mundial contra el Racismo, la Discriminación Racial, la Xenofobia y las formas Conexas de Intolerancia  5/30/2009 CIP, Cuba: Anti-Racism site by CIPRE, Cuba's Center for Press Information, includes info on Durban, 2001

EL RACISMO EN CUBA, TEMA DE DEBATE  5/28/2009 Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas: Site in Sweden by Cuban dissidents - "Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, Director de la Biblioteca Independiente “Eduardo Chivas”, ubicada en 23, # 710, Apto. 2 entre C y D, Vedado, ofreció en la tarde del 27 de mayo, un conversatorio sobre La Polémica del Racismo en Cuba, auspiciado por el Comité Ciudadano de Integración Racial, CIR."

El racismo en Cuba, tema de debate  5/28/2009 Revistas de Asignaturas Cubanas: "En este espacio se debatió la negativa del régimen a exponer públicamente el documental Raza, expuesto en una sola oportunidad en el Festival de Cine Latinoamericano; la difícil situación que atraviesa la Institución Color Cubano, a punto de desaparecer; se disertó sobre las causas del elevado índice de población penal negra."

Black Vs. White - Miami Remains The Same  5/27/2009 Miami New Times: "As much as I hate it when politicians play the race card when they are facing possible criminal charges, I can't just dismiss it either in the case of Spence-Jones. After all, Sarnoff is the city's only Anglo commissioner and Arriola is one of the most prominent Anglo Cuban Americans in Miami. Together they initiated a criminal probe into the city's only black, and only female, commissioner."

Cleared of Wrongdoing, Spence-Jones Speaks To Her Flock  5/27/2009 Miami New Times 

Color Cubano by Elíades Acosta Matos  5/21/2009 Progreso Weekly: "Acosta was chief of the Department of Culture of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba." A rank apology for the status quo that repeats a fundamental lie in the ibero spanish canon: "Nationwide, 65.2 percent of the population is white, but the number of mestizos increased by 4 points since the previous census." [Acosta, it is more like 65% afrodescendiente!]

A Sincere and Painful Apology to the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus  5/20/2009 Black Agenda Report: "None of the Afro-Cubans who are attempting to earn world prominence by opposing the Cuban government have ever offered an aspirin to our group or others engaged in similar humanitarian endeavors, which makes their purported platform questionable at best… These are the real battles for justice, equality and the future of our nation, that all Cubans and Afro-Cubans especially should be waging, not siding with those who castrated our independence in 1898 or those who enabled this massacre and kept us segregated, impoverished, ignorant until 1959 and today, are shamefully relying on the dark skin of some, willing to sell their intellect and soul to the highest bidder, by attempting to intimidate, blackmail or create a negative political scene against members of the CBC, who have courageously stood by their brothers in Cuba for the past 25 years. We will not be threatened by letter carriers, book writers, open mike AM Radio Talk Show hosts in Miami, New Jersey or California, or by Cuban-American politicians in State Houses and in the US Congress with their segregationist past here and in Cuba, attempting to silence members of the CBC, with worn out Jim Crow tactics."

«Me siento afortunado de haber vivido» - Carlos Moore, el investigador que luchó contra la manipulación racial del castrismo.  5/11/2009 Cuba Encuentro: "La segunda vez que lo vi [a Fidel Castro], fue en medio de la calle, en La Habana, y aproveché para decirle que no concordaba con lo que él decía, que el racismo había desaparecido en Cuba. Fui a parar ante el Comandante Ramiro Valdés; firmé una "confesión" negando que hubiera racismo en Cuba, y se me envió a un campo de trabajo en Camaguey. Fue en esa ocasión en que, para mi, terminó la luna de miel con el régimen."

Cuba: Arrestos y Represion en Placetas 5 de mayo de 2009 - "Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks"  5/11/2009 Directorio.org: [Villa Clara has a history of racism that the dissidents are responding to with their formation "Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks."] "Las imágenes, captadas en Placetas, Villa Clara muestran cómo Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Damaris Moya Portieles y Yaité Cruz Sosa, todas miembros del Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks, son interceptadas en la calle 7ma del sur, golpeadas y removidas de la vista de la cámara a la fuerza por oficiales uniformados y encubiertos de la Seguridad del Estado mientras se dirigían a la vivienda del destacado líder opositor Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez. Según declaraciones dadas al Directorio por las víctimas de esta agresión, después de los eventos capturados en las imágenes, las activistas fueron trasladadas a otra calle y allí fueron golpeadas y lanzados sus cuerpos contra los autos patrulleros, aplicándoles técnicas de estrangulación e inmovilización. Damaris Moya fue arrastrada por el pavimento y le partieron el labio superior, con mucho sangramiento. Donaida Pérez recibió patadas por las costillas por parte de los represores quienes le gritaron "¡Cállate negra!" Fueron llevadas a los calabozos de la sede de la policía política en Placetas y allí permanecieron durante tres horas en la celda #3 de ese centro represivo."

Nation and Multiculturalism in Cuba: A Comparison with the United States and Brazil  5/7/2009 George Zarur: "This economy gave rise to the local elite that led the country to independence from Spain." [Antonio Maceo and the largely black Mambi Army led the fight for independence, their victory was stolen by the Americans who re-installed the plantocracy.]

Sister of Cuban dissident 'Antunez' looks to sway lawmakers  5/7/2009 Miami Herald: "The sister of a prominent black Cuban activist delivered a sharply worded letter from her brother Wednesday to three members of the Congressional Black Caucus who met last month in Cuba with Fidel and Raúl Castro -- but no dissidents. Berta Antúnez's visit comes as efforts to open Cuba to travel and trade heat up on Capitol Hill, and Antúnez said through an interpreter she didn't want Cuban democracy activists to be overlooked. ''They were indifferent to the suffering of the Cuban people, but now the world gets to know who these people are,'' said Antúnez, who was accompanied to the Capitol by Anolan Ponce, a Miami board member of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, the leading lobby in support of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba."

Afro-Cuban dissident seeks US lawmakers' help  5/6/2009 AP: "Rush, and California Democrats Barbara Lee and Laura Richardson spent two hours talking with Castro on April 7 during a visit to the island. The three were part of a larger Congressional Black Caucus delegation that met with Castro's brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, and other officials about improving relations between the two countries. After his return, Rush said he takes "a back seat to no one when it comes to standing up for human rights - anyone's human rights." The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, pursued him for his efforts to seek justice for African-Americans and others, including his leadership role in the Black Panthers."

Antunez Letter to CBC Members  5/5/2009 Capitol Hill Cubans: "When we recall the fight and integrity of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, without whom you would still be giving up your seat on the bus and would not have the right to vote, we ask ourselves if the legacy of those who conquered the space of opportunity that you enjoy today, has been reserved only for political speeches and has ceased to be a commitment of your generation to justice and truth."

Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power  5/1/2009 Organization of American Historians: published 10/06

Rogelio Martínez Furé: Presencia de la cultura africana en los pueblos americanos y caribeños.  5/1/2009 Tricontinental: [publicado 11/04] "La presencia de la cultura angolana y africana en América, en las manifestaciones de las artes plásticas y danzarias, en los gustos culinarios, en las tradiciones y en el lenguaje de los pueblos americanos y caribeños, quedó demostrada en la magistral conferencia ofrecida por Rogelio Martínez Furé, reconocido africanista, fundador del Conjunto Folclórico Nacional de Cuba… Recordó un estudio de la música en un convento católico en México, cuyos cantos religiosos no eran comprendidos por los historiadores. No fue hasta analizarse la presencia africana como una tercera raíz, se descubrió que existía un coro de esclavas africanas que fueron internadas junto con sus amas convertidas en novicias y allí dejaron para siempre su huella. En cada momento de esta conferencia magistral del profesor Rogelio Martínez Furé quedó vigente su expresión: “Cuando no sabemos a dónde vamos, tenemos que saber de dónde venimos, porque la identidad es un río renovador que siempre llega al mar de la humanidad”. Y concluyó con un refrán angolano para argumentar la necesidad de tener en cuenta la dialéctica de la historia: “Hoy son hoy, mañana son mañana.” "

Race and Revolution: Cuba and Blackness  4/28/2009 Democracy Now: published in 4/200 - "KWAME DIXON: Well, we would have to put Cuba in—in terms of its attempt to deal with racism, I think that the Cuban government has made serious efforts to eradicate racism. They’ve put in tremendous amounts of money in education, health, etc. I think we know about that. I think the question is for other governments in the region. I think Afro-Cubans are in many ways—I can’t say better off, because that’s not the proper way to put it, but we can say that the Cuban government has taken race seriously, whereas the Colombians or governments in Ecuador or Peru or Brazil, Afro-Latinos are really mistreated and badly viewed in the society."

Politics of Color for Obama in Cuba  4/25/2009 CQ Politics: "But despite his reversal of Bush Administration policy toward Cuba travel, it more than likely will prove difficult to follow that with a quick end to the 47-year-old trade embargo. For one thing, Cuban leaders aren’t sure the country is ready for the embargo to be lifted. That’s why we see mixed messagescoming from the Castro brothers about opening a dialogue with the U.S. And Castro isn’t stupid. He saw what happened to the Soviet Union in the 1980s after it opened itself up to the West — its economy collapsed."

Líderes Internacionales Democráticos se Solidarizan con Activista Cubano Antúnez a 66 Días de Ayuno  4/23/2009 Directorio Democrático Cubano: "Una docena de líderes de países africanos encabezaron la lista de firmantes, entre ellos Eddie Jarwolo, director del Movimiento Nacional Juvenil para Elecciones Transparentes–Socios para el Desarrollo Democrático en Liberia; el juez Mukete Tahle Itoe de Camerún, el Secretario General de la Red Mundial para la Buena Governancia, una organización anti-corrupción; y Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Director Ejecutivo del Instituto para los Derechos Humanos y Ley Humanitaria en Nigeria, quien ha sido perseguido por su activismo en contra de la corrupción. “Le hago un llamado al gobierno cubano a sostener el concepto de la democracia multipartidista basada en la proliferación de diversos criterios políticos y alternativas comenzando por la tolerancia manifiesta a los políticos de oposición y muestras de preocupación y respeto por la dignidad de cubanos vulnerables como obligación del gobierno, ni como favor, ni como opción,” señaló Eddie Jarwolo."

Blacks ponder President Obama’s change in Cuba travel policy  4/22/2009 Westside Gazette, FL 

CARLOS MOORE: Putting context to Cuba's racial divide  4/21/2009 McClatchy: " Brought to light in 2008, the first comprehensive, officially-sanctioned document addressing the issue of race in Cuba under the Revolution, The Challenges of the Racial Problem in Cuba [2], paints a stark picture of the situation that exists even now in 2009 for the blacks. This graphic, 385-page document, supported by a bounty of hitherto unpublicized statistics, speaks of neglect, denial, and forceful resurgence of racism in Cuba under Communism. The publication shows a growing impoverishment of the population as a whole, but it emphasizes that black Cubans are disproportionately affected. The old segregationist Cuba is gone, according to this document, yet, somehow the country's leadership continues to be predominantly white (71%). A majority of the country's scientists and technicians are white (72.7%), even though both races have equal rates of education. The same whitening process affects Cuba's universities at the professorial level (80% at the University of La Habana). In the countryside, the land that is privately held is almost totally in the hands of whites (98%), and even in the State cooperatives blacks are almost nonexistent (5%). A robust percentage of able-bodied Cubans with jobs are white, whether male (66.9%) or female (63.8%). In contrast, the overall employment rate of blacks who are fit to work is startlingly low (34.2%). We are left to conclude that most able-bodied black Cubans are unemployed (65.8%)."

Cuba's Race Relations Seldom Discussed  4/15/2009 NPR: "President Barack Obama yesterday decided to loosen restrictions on travel to Cuba, and the ability of Americans to send money to family members on the island. The decision has met with widely divergent reactions. But largely unmentioned is the sometime complex racial dynamic between Cuban exiles, who are predominately white, and Cubans who remain on the island, 30 to 60 percent of which are of African decent."

What Obama's Cuba move means for blacks  4/15/2009 The Loop 

Putting Afro In Cuba Tours  4/10/2009 Race & History: by Willie Thompson, published in 12/2002

Coddling Cuba - Why do the members of Congress rushing to befriend the Castros ignore the island's pro-democracy movement?  4/9/2009 WaPo: "Mr. García, better known as "Antúnez," is a renowned advocate of human rights who has often been singled out for harsh treatment because of his color. "The authorities in my country," he has said, "have never tolerated that a black person [could dare to] oppose the regime." His wife, Iris, is a founder of the Rosa Parks Women's Civil Rights Movement, named after an American hero whom Afro-Cubans try to emulate. The couple have been on a hunger strike since Feb. 17, to demand justice for an imprisoned family member. They are part of a substantial and steadily growing civil movement advocating democratic change in Cuba -- one that U.S. advocates of detente with the Castros appear determined to ignore." [Antúnez is largely unknown in Cuba, his fame is due to the exile drumbeats.]

CBC members praise Castro  4/7/2009 Politico: "Key members of the Congressional Black Caucus are calling for an end to U.S. prohibition on travel to Cuba, just hours after a meeting with former Cuban president Fidel Castro in Havana. “The fifty-year embargo just hasn’t worked,” CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Ca.) told reporters this evening at a Capitol press conference after returning from a congressional delegation visit to Cuba. “The bottom line is that we believe its time to open dialogue with Cuba.” Lee and others heaped praise on Castro, calling him warm and receptive during their discussion. But the lawmakers disputed Castro's later statement that members of the congressional delegation said American society is still racist."

A question about Cuba and Martin Luther King Jr.  4/6/2009 Uncommon Sense: "Cuban civil rights activists remember Martin Luther King Jr."

Racismo en Cuba, un tema controvertido  4/5/2009 Cuba Voz: "Es un choque silencioso entre las dos razas con matices gregarios, por lo general los negros prefieren asociarse entre sí aislándose de los blancos en actividades sociales comunes, en fiestas, reuniones de amigos, en el intercambio de tragos, y lo mismo se manifiesta entre los blancos. Cada uno por separado, pero sin llegar a una definida segregación al estilo de Atlanta año 1950. El racismo en Cuba no va más allá de un agudo prejuicio racial planteado en términos del "somos distintos"."

CUBA: Black Women Rap Against Discrimination  4/5/2009 IPS: published 8/07 by Dalia Acosta

Congressional delegation visiting Cuba - Congressional Black Caucus members to visit Cuba to review trade and travel  4/2/2009 AP: "Members of the Congressional Black Caucus will travel to Cuba on Friday in another sign of federal lawmakers' interest in easing a long-standing trade embargo and travel restrictions. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said the trip is designed to demonstrate to Cubans that the American people are interested in building a new relationship with them. "Diplomacy and a new way of looking at our foreign policy just makes sense," said Lee, chairwoman of the caucus. Visits to Cuba by members of Congress are hardly new, but some lawmakers believe the election of President Barack Obama presents a new opportunity to open up trade and tourism. Business and farm groups are backing the lawmakers' efforts. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate announced their support for legislation that would prevent the president from stopping travel to Cuba except in cases of war, imminent danger to public health or threats to the physical safety of U.S. travelers. An identical bill in the House has 120 co-sponsors."

Black revolution stirring in Cuba  3/29/2009 Trinidad & Tobago Express: "Nazma Muller [a Fidelista] talks to Carlos Moore."

La crise a accentué le racisme à Cuba  3/28/2009 Africulture: from 1/99 - "Entretien de Landry-Wilfrid Miampika avec Pedro Pérez Sarduy."

Cuban ambassador calls Moore an outrageous liar.  3/27/2009 Cuban Colada, Miami Herald Blog 

Black Cuban Female Blogger  3/24/2009 IPS: "Sandra Alvarez remembers. Her mother, a dressmaker, and her five siblings lived in the modest Havana neighborhood of Lawton. Her mother used to tell them, “You have to study because you’re black; your classes are twice as important for you.”

Mere propaganda, lies against Cuba  3/23/2009 Nation News, Barbados: "The publication of my letter of protest by THE NATION is much appreciated and I hope the newspaper will not publish, in the future, any more unpleasant articles like the one I am complaining about which does not correspond or identify with the traditional and magnificent relations and collaborations which exists between the Government and people of Barbados and the government and people of Cuba."

Plácido  3/22/2009 Jiribilla: Jiribilla devotes an entire issue to Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Plácido, at the 200th anniversary of his birth. He was executed in 1844 as a result of the so called "Ladder Conspiracy," in reality a figment of the ruling ibero-spanish elite.

On the Black Press in Cuba: A Historical Review  3/18/2009 Islas: published 5/2007

Tendencias racistas en Cuba  3/18/2009 Mestizos.Net: "En la actualidad, el desconocimiento acerca de la presencia negra en la prensa plana en Cuba es casi absoluto. Otro aspecto en la vida de la comunidad negra y mestiza cubana escamoteado por las tendencias racistas que abierta o subrepticiamente han manipulado la memoria de la vida socio cultural del país."

Open Letter to Carlos Moore from Pedro Perez Sarduy  3/18/2009 Norman Girvan: reprinted from AfroCubaWeb, but with some interesting responses.

Académicos piden debate y acciones contra el racismo en Cuba  3/7/2009 AFP 

El negro en la obra de Nicolás Guillén  3/7/2009 Cubarte: "Es muy sólida y resulta muy oportuna esta antología, fruto del estudio y la compilación de Denia, a partir de una búsqueda de las especialistas de la Fundación Nicolás Guillén para establecer todos sus textos referidos al tema. Poemas, artículos, discursos y cartas, fechados entre 1929 y 1982, nos permiten entrar en el mundo de la palabra de uno de los más grandes intelectuales que ha dado Cuba, desde una perspectiva particular que recoge el título: el negro en la obra de Guillén."

Autobiografía de esclavos: Equiano, Juan Francisco Manzano  3/5/2009 Cubarte: "Entre las muchas figuras de interés que intervienen en la trama de la película, muchas de ella históricas, me llamó la atención la del ex- esclavo negro Olaudah Equiano (¿1745?-1797), también conocido como Gustav Vassa. Según sus propias palabras, había nacido en Nigeria y muy joven fue vendido a un oficial de la Marina. Un dueño posterior, en Filadelfia, le permitió aprender a leer y escribir hasta que, con su trabajo, pudo comprar la libertad y convertirse en marino, lo que le hizo conocer lugares muy diversos. En Londres el movimiento abolicionista existente allí, al cual pertenecía Wilberforce, lo incitó a escribir su autobiografía, que tituló La interesante narrativa de la vida de Olaudah Equino o Gustavo Vass, el africano, escrita por él mismo (1789), que al ser publicada tuvo una gran repercusión. Esta obra se tiene como una de las primeras autobiografías escritas por esclavos, junto a las del “príncipe africano” J. A. Ukasaw Gronniosum (1772) y la del nativo africano residente en los Estados Unidos Ventura Smith (1798), todas publicadas también en Inglaterra."

El Maleconazo en La Habana 5 de agosto de 1994  3/4/2009 YouTube: [Video of the famous 1994 riot, said to be a race riot by Afrocubans.]

Del legado de Martí  3/2/2009 Granma: de Marta Rojas - "Sin embargo, entrañables amigos de la insurrección se prestaron a no dejar morir al Maestro. Uno de ellos, el cubano Rafael Serra Montalvo, hijo de negros libres, nacido en La Habana e inmigrante en Estados Unidos, fue de los primeros en hacer algo por la memoria de Martí. Serra había tenido la responsabilidad martiana en Nueva York de organizar La Liga, un grupo patriótico que se encargó de instruir a los emigrantes que carecían que no habían podido ilustrarse, en su mayoría cubanos "de color", para quienes Martí fue siempre El Maestro. Insuflado por el pensamiento de su amigo y jefe Serra sigue trabajando en Nueva York y el 16 de abril de 1899 aparece en La Habana el semanario político independiente "La doctrina de Martí" que él dirige, con un artículo de fondo del propio Serra titulado: " Nuestros Propósitos", de corte martiano profundo."

Analyzing pre-Castro Cuban racism through Cuban music  2/27/2009 Nelson Guirado: "Pre-revolutionary Cuban music is more reliable for this purpose because it wasn't a government propaganda tool. The songs I've assembled for this post are representative of the general themes in Cuban music in pre-Castro Cuba- not exceptions. I will use no other sources except the music, a story, and my own brain."

Presentan comisión por el bicentenario de Plácido  2/23/2009 Boletin Cubarte: "La Comisión para conmemorar el bicentenario del gran poeta cubano Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) fue presentada, durante el Foro Literario que se realizó en la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) con motivo de la Feria del Libro. Zaida Capote, vicepresidenta de la Asociación de Escritores de la UNEAC, informó que está presidida por la doctora Graziella Pogolotti y su Comité de Honor lo integran Esteban Lazo, Armando Hart, Abel Prieto, Eusebio Leal, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Iroel Sánchez, Cintio Vitier, Fina García Marruz y Carilda Oliver Labra. El programa por el bicentenario incluye, entre otras acciones la celebración de un coloquio internacional y un concurso de ensayos entre los días 14 y 23 de octubre de este año. Los intelectuales Salvador Arias, Fernando Martínez Heredia, Gerardo Fullera León y Daisy Cué disertaron acerca de esta polémica personalidad, cuya vida es un mito y sobre su obra se han emitido opiniones muy injustas."

Africa en America: las secuelas de la esclavitud  2/15/2009 Afrocuba.org: publicado en 2005, de Jesús Guanche, antropólogo cubano

Secuelas de la esclavitud  2/15/2009 Caribnet: publicado en febrero, 2006, de Jesús Guanche, antropólogo cubano, profesor de la Universidad de La Habana y miembro de la Junta Directiva de la Fundación Fernando Ortiz y del Comité Cubano de la Ruta del Esclavo.

Some Quick Comments on Carlos Moore's PICHÓN by Walterio Lord Garnés and David González López  2/15/2009 Walter Lipmann: "Walterio Lord Garnés [Havana, 1948] and David González López [Havana, 1947] are collaborators attached to the Centro de Estudios de África y Medio Oriente in Havana and to the University of Havana’s Cátedra “Amílcar Cabral” de Estudios Africanos. They have written dissertations at home and abroad and published works about African and Afro-Cuban cultures in Cuban and foreign publications."

Cuban Color  2/12/2009 Progreso Weekly: By Elíades Acosta Matos, former head of the Committee on Culture of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, unfortunately repeats the falsehoods of the last census - "Nationwide, 65.2 percent of the population is white, but the number of mestizos increased by 4 points since the previous census."

Carlos Moore on the Tavis Smiley Show  2/10/2009 Tavis Smiley Show: "Dr. Carlos Moore is an ethnologist and political scientist, specializing in African, Latin American and Caribbean affairs. He researches and writes on the impact of race and ethnicity on domestic politics and inter-state affairs. Following exile from his native Cuba for opposing the Castro regime's racial policies, Moore has lived and worked in many countries, including the U.S., Senegal and, his current base, Brazil. He holds two doctorates from the University of Paris 7, France and is fluent in five languages."

Identidad y justicia social  2/7/2009 Jiribilla: por Pedro de la Hoz, Prólogo del libro África en la Revolución Cubana. Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, 2008.

L’élection de M. Obama ravive le débat racial à La Havane  2/1/2009 Le Monde: Interview avec Manuel Cuesta Morua, descendant du famuex Morua de la Ley Morua, avec lequel Cuba a mis le Partido Independiente de Color hors la loi.

The Race Card: their last bastion in a lost war  1/31/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "After the strident failure of ten United States presidents to decapitate and overthrow the Cuban government through invasions, bio-terrorism, assassinations, isolation, economical warfare etc., they identified in the mid 1990’s what they labeled as their secret weapon, which consisted of a substantial demographic shift in favor of blacks in Cuba. A comprehensive destabilization project was conceived and enacted by the US State Department in which most leaders of counterrevolutionary groups in the United States should be replaced by blacks or mixed race Cubans, in order to contrast them with the Cuban government preferential treatment for those of Hispanic ancestry. Simultaneously, US-AID and front foundations who had supported salaried dissidents of Hispanic ancestry in Cuba, were suddenly sidetracked, made irrelevant or ignored, in favor of unknown blacks pulled out of nowhere, recruited and speedily turned into leaders of bogus Free Democratic institutions."

REALIDAD DE UN SUEÑO  1/15/2009 Asociación Pro Libertad de Prensa: por José Vélez, MIR - "Nos hace soñar en la certeza de que más temprano que tarde veremos a los cubanos y cubanas unidos en igualdad plena, sin fueros de privilegio por raza y color. Es un sueño pero lo haremos realidad. El Rev. Martín Luther King demostró que si es posible. Hoy Barack Obama es una realidad, el sueño de King hecho posible."

Islas: Vol 4, #11: January 2009  1/15/2009 Islas: "Silence and its Accomplices, Leonardo Calvo Cárdenas. Cuban Color: Untrustworthy Discourse, Juan Antonio Madrazo. Why are the Police Racist? Manuel Cuesta Morúa. Black is the Color of a Judge’s Robe, Camilo Loret de Mola. The Race Issue in Cuba: A Perspective, Cubabarómetro. An Epic Tragedy, José Hugo Fernández. Internalized Racism, Lourdes Chacón Núñez. Nappy Hair Searches for its Identity, Mara Michelle."

La "raza" y los silencios de la cubanidad  1/7/2009 Encuentro: Alejandro de la Fuente

CUBA: Racism - "Taboo, Complicated and Thorny" Issue  1/7/2009 IPS: "The persistence of racism in Cuba is disturbing to some of the island's thinkers, who are calling for a debate on the problem in this country, where equal rights have not guaranteed equal opportunities for all social groups. The first documentary on racial discrimination in this Caribbean island nation was filmed here in 2008, incorporating opinions from well-known artists and intellectuals that go to the heart of the controversy. "Raza" (Race), by young filmmaker Eric Corvalán, could serve as a starting-point to launch the long-delayed debate. "So far, racism has only been talked about in academia, among intellectuals. I think there should be an open, public discussion, even in parliament," the 36-year-old Corvalán told IPS."

It’s Time to Address Racism in Cuba  1/7/2009 IPS 

SOCIEDAD-CUBA: El silencio negro  1/7/2009 IPS: "La persistencia del racismo en Cuba inquieta a sectores de la intelectualidad, que piden abrir un debate sobre un problema presente en la vida cotidiana del país, donde la igualdad de derechos no ha garantizado la paridad de oportunidades para todos los grupos sociales. Este año se filmó por primera vez en esta isla caribeña un documental sobre la discriminación racial, con criterios de reconocidos artistas e intelectuales que apuntan a las zonas más polémicas del tema. "Raza", dirigido por el joven realizador Eric Corvalán, podría ser un nuevo punto de partida para iniciar la postergada discusión. "Hasta ahora se había hablado sobre el racismo desde la academia, los intelectuales, yo creo que debiera abrirse una discusión pública, incluso en el parlamento", dijo a IPS Corvalán, de 36 años."

Negros Cubanos con Acento  1/5/2009 Blog: Blog from Cuba

L'élection de M. Obama ravive le débat racial à La Havane  1/2/2009 Le Monde: "Alors que les Etats-Unis ont élu un Noir à la présidence, quarante ans après l'assassinat de Martin Luther King, qu'a fait Cuba en cinquante ans de révolution ?" demande M. Cuesta Morua. "Les Noirs américains sont une minorité, alors qu'à Cuba nous sommes majoritaires", ajoute-t-il. Les Caraïbes et le Brésil ont une population largement marquée par l'esclavage africain. Lors du recensement de 2002, 11 % des Cubains se sont déclarés noirs. Selon l'université de Miami, ils seraient plutôt 62 %."

Why are the Police Racist? By Manuel Cuesta Morúa  1/1/2009 Islas 

Carlos Moore letter to Raúl Castro  12/31/2008 Miami Herald 

Race-based clubs see revival in Cuba  12/29/2008 Miami Herald 

James Early: Carlos Moore's Outcast Vision and Dangerous Deceit  12/28/2008 CubaNews: "As I've previously mencioned, Moore and others are part of a recent trend to claim that Obama's election is some kind of threat to Cuba because Obama is Black and because, supposedly, this means that Cuban government can no longer say that the United States is racist. As I've mentioned more than once before, Cuba DOES continue to have racial problems, but they are both nothing compared to the racial problem which are widespread in the United States. Their origins and nature are quite different and it's extraordinarly disingenuous to try to conflate them as the group of people such as Carlos Moore, the Miami Herald, and others, all of whom have a long history of hostility toward the revolutionary government in Cuba, have been trying to do."

El renacer de las "sociedades de color"  12/28/2008 Nuevo Herald 

Cuba: persistencia de la problemática racial  12/22/2008 El Tiempo, Colombia: "En las instituciones formadoras de profesionales es posible reconocer el tratamiento del tema en trabajos de cursos, tesis de grados y estudios de posgrados. Ha sido precisamente la amplitud temática de la cuestión racial la que ha propiciado que sea encarada desde diferentes áreas de conocimientos, como la psicología y la historia, la sociología y la antropología. La intelectualidad cubana también ha realizado acercamientos reiterados que aportan al debate de este tema, entre los que se destaca el último congreso de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC), celebrado en abril de este año. Las revistas 'Temas', 'Caminos', 'La Gaceta de Cuba', entre otras, han dedicado números enteros a tratar la racialidad en relación con sus temáticas centrales: las ciencias sociales, la religión, el arte y la literatura. Otras, muestran un trabajo consolidado en la promoción y divulgación de estudios, investigaciones y ensayos de intelectuales extranjeros y cubanos, mientras en Internet es posible hallar publicaciones como 'Cubaliteraria' o 'La Jiribilla', que abordan esta problemática de manera recurrente. El proyecto Color Cubano, de la UNEAC, ha hecho múltiples actividades cuya salida fundamental ha estado en una comunidad centrohabanera muy humilde, La California (un "solar") cuyas características (el hacinamiento, la marginación, la escasez de recursos, entre otras) podrían generar procesos de exclusión social determinados por la complejidad de las relaciones sociales y económicas que en ella se suscitan. Color Cubano ha coordinado junto a la Sociedad Cubana de Psicología talleres vivenciales destinados a la población abierta, cuyo punto de reflexión principal ha sido el complejo entramado de relaciones raciales que se suscitan en Cuba. Dicha propuesta ha encontrado una singular acogida dada su novedad metodológica."

Curso de postgrado: Legados del Pensamiento Afro–Americano de la primera mitad del siglo XX  12/22/2008 NegraCubana: FECHA DEL CURSO: del 19 al 23 de enero de 2009 LUGAR: ICIC Juan Marinello DESTINATARIOS: Graduad@s de especialidades afines con las ciencias sociales y humanas TIEMPO DE DURACIÓN: 96 horas a tiempo completo. FECHA DE MATRÍCULA: hasta el 5 de enero de 2009 En el presente curso será analizada la operatividad del Pensamiento Afro–Americano en el contexto histórico de América y el resto del Mundo. Este tipo de pensamiento es promovido generalmente en Sociedades Post–Coloniales y Post–Esclavistas que tienen rasgos comunes y diferentes a la vez. Estados Unidos, Cuba y Brasil son las naciones modélicas para analizar este pensamiento tildado de subalterno. Una de las razones fundamentales es, precisamente, las experiencias de esclavitud vividas en dichos países que tenían varios matices caracterizadores. Y, sobre todo, se diferencian en lo referente a la manera en que tal sistema de explotación fue abolido en cada país durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX.

Negra cubana tenía que ser  12/22/2008 NegraCubana: "NEGRACUBANA, hija de esta tierra, de estas tradiciones y de la insularidad. También de mi bisabuelo chino y mi abuela africana. Soy mujer, mestiza, negra, caribeña... soy el producto de otros seres que me habitan y definen."

'Premio Tolerancia Plus 2008' para la actriz Elvira 'Tita' Cervera  12/21/2008 Encuentro: "Reconoció, asimismo, el modo en que Elvira Cervera ha conducido el debate, "evitando la politización de la lucha por la igualdad racial, sin sucumbir a las tentaciones y el manejo estrechamente político de este tema". Tita Cervera nació en Sagua la Grande, el 4 de enero de 1923. Es doctora en Pedagogía, profesora de Arte Dramático y actriz de larga trayectoria en cine, radio y televisión. Actuó en las películas Tres veces dos (2004), Santa Camila de La Habana Vieja (2002), Miel para Oshún (2001), Raíces de mi corazón (2001), Un Paraíso bajo las estrellas (2000) Operación Fangio (1999), En tres y dos (1985) y Cumbite (1964)."

Race-based clubs see revival in Cuba  12/20/2008 Miami Herald: "Known in Spanish as sociedades de color, these and similar clubs fell victim to Fidel Castro's drive, shortly after he seized power, to eliminate any aspect of Cuban society that emphasized racial exclusivity. But their spirit and mission have been enjoying a renaissance over the past decade. And the same revolutionary government that once opposed them now seems to welcome their comeback. In prerevolutionary Cuba, where blacks and poor, uneducated whites were denied access to good jobs and ritzy outings, the clubs served as centers to socialize and promote black racial progress. Many had libraries and offered night classes and sports instruction. Above all, the sociedades sought to dispel any negative stereotypes of blacks."

Why Cuba's white leaders feel threatened by Obama  12/18/2008 Carlos Moore 

Afro Cubans and Race  12/15/2008 Democracy Now: published 4/2000

‘Obama Effect’ Highlights Racism in Cuba  12/15/2008 New America Media: "Cuban authorities offered statistical analysis to bolster their view, which revealed the lengths to which Havana was prepared to deceive others even as it deceived itself. Of Cuba’s population of 11.2 million people in 2002, officials declared, 65 percent were white, 10 percent were black, and 25 percent were mulatto. This racial breakdown matched exactly the breakdown of members of Cuba’s parliament: 65 percent white and 35 percent people of color. The implication was as obvious as it was ridiculous: Cuba had achieved “perfect” racial representation between the people and their representatives. Europeans scoffed at such claims. In fact, most independent census reports of the Cuban nation puts the number of “whites” at anywhere from 20 to 35 percent; everyone else is black or mulatto."

Cuba: estadísticas y color de la piel - Esteban Morales  12/13/2008 Jiribilla 

El 'apoliticismo' de los negros cubanos por Enrique Patterson  12/12/2008 Analitica: "La posición de Sarduy --que por extraña coincidencia aparece en Miami en el momento de la presentación del libro del Dr. Moore-- pareciera congruente con los rumores que, según fuentes del movimiento negro interno en Cuba, lo relacionan con la destrucción de Walterio Carbonell."

Castro atiza un debate inexistente: la raza de Obama  12/10/2008 Encuentro 

Exponen acervo documental del Partido Independiente de Color  12/1/2008 A C N: "La muestra "Fuentes y Memoria. Partido Independiente de Color", valioso acervo documental que testimonia la historia de esa organización cubana, fue inaugurada hoy en la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (BNJM), de esta capital. Presidieron la apertura de la exposición, Eduardo Torres Cuevas, director de la BNJM; Fernando Rojas Gutiérrez, viceministro de Cultura, y Fernando Martínez Heredia, presidente de la comisión creada en Cuba para celebrar este año el centenario del Partido Independiente de Color (PIC). El conjunto bibliográfico, perteneciente al Archivo Nacional de la República y a la Red Nacional de Archivos Históricos, ilustra varias de las etapas del Partido, como su fundación, vida legal, protesta armada y masacre."

Why Castro regime fears Obama administration  12/1/2008 Miami Herald: "...reports from inside Cuba have reinforced my suspicion that, contrary to the sentiments of the streets, the Cuban regime is experiencing great discomfort with the turn of events in the United States. Anthropologist Maria Ileana Faguagua Iglesias reports a racist outburst toward Obama by a Communist Party official and former military officer: ''He will be the worst ever American president,'' said this apparatchik, ``because he is a Negro, and they are worse than the whites!'' What is eating away at Cuba's leaders? Very little makes sense without knowledge of Cuba's demographic metamorphosis from a white to a black majority in the space of half a century. The black population was 35-45 percent of the total Cuban population when Castro triumphed 50 years ago. Four years later, the panicky flight of some 15-20 percent of the island's white population, fearing the new regime's sweeping socialist reforms, left Castro at the head of a country with a de facto black majority. For the next five decades, the darkening shade of Cubans would increase steadily and create unanticipated problems for the social reformers who launched the Revolution."

Racismo, totalitarismo y democracia  11/15/2008 Instituto de Estudios Cubanos: Enrique Patterson

Barack Obama y la última barrera  11/6/2008 Miami Herald: by Enrique Patterson

A barrier for Cuba's blacks  11/5/2008 Miami Herald: published 6/07

Disparos sin escopeta - Entrevista con Esteban Morales  10/29/2008 Alma Mater 

Devotos Yorubas reaccionan a inauguración de templo ruso  10/22/2008 Blog al Dia: "Cabe preguntarse finalmente ¿por qué no se han dado pasos para la construcción de un Templo Yoruba en Cuba, que sea el centro de peregrinación y devoción de millones de practicantes de esa religión en Cuba? Llama la atención de que en esta dirección no se adelantan proyectos que reflejen públicamente la rica y extensa diversidad de la sociedad cubana. Los practicantes de estas religiones de origen africano necesitan, y deben trabajar, por lograr este nivel de reconocimiento público."

Etnia, origen y cultura. El que no tiene de Congo…  10/17/2008 Alma Mater: «Y, ¿qué tengo que decirle a la Universidad como artículo primero, como función esencial de su vida en esta Cuba nueva? […] Que se pinte de negro, que se pinte de mulato, no solo entre los alumnos, sino también entre los profesores...» Así exhortó el Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara a las nuevas generaciones, en el discurso que pronunció en la Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas, al ser nombrado Doctor Honoris Causa en Pedagogía, el 28 de diciembre de 1959."

Reflections on the Race Problem in Cuba  9/1/2008 Islas: Cuba: Intolerance versus Nation - Economics: A Crossroads and Challenge for Cuba’s African Descendents- An Anonymous Social Fabric: Exclusion, Difference, and Integration - The United States: Not as Racist as Cuba? Agujero - Negro [Black Hole] - The Shackles of Gratitude - Recurring Racism - Blacks in Cuba

El Partido Independiente de Color  8/5/2008 Granma: by Silvio Castro

"Brote de Intoxicación Alimentaria en Fiesta de Adolescente”./ “El racismo, amenaza subyacente”./ Por el Dr. Darsi Ferrer. Director del Centro de Salud y Derechos Humanos“  8/2/2008 Cuba Democracia y Vida: scroll down for Dr. Darsi Ferrer's article on racism, which includes results of surveys - "A cien años de la fundación de la Agrupación Independiente de Color, que nació por la inconformidad de algunos veteranos de la guerra de Independencia ante la discriminación a la que estaban sometidos los negros y mestizos, el racismo sigue siendo un grave problema no resuelto, que tiene consecuencias lamentables para gran parte de la población. Los cubanos viven bajo un régimen de apartheid que excluye a todos por igual. Los nacionales no tienen derecho a la participación plena de la vida en el país. Tal es el caso de las regulaciones que les niegan el acceso a determinadas instalaciones y servicios disponibles solo para extranjeros, o las prohibiciones que impiden la creación de empresas privadas, las restricciones a las libertades de opinión, movimiento y asociación, entre otras."

El significado de un Centenario  8/2/2008 Jiribilla:  por Fernando Martínez Heredia - "En la lucha contra el racismo existen profundas diferencias entre la posición oficial de la Revolución y las ideas que manejamos nosotros, por una parte, y lo que sucede en la práctica social, por la otra. Tiene gran importancia la dimensión histórica del racismo, como uno de los elementos que participó en la construcción de Cuba como realidad específica, es decir, en el nacimiento y primeros desarrollos de la cultura nacional, y el proceso histórico de las transformaciones, las derrotas y las permanencias del racismo en la cultura cubana hasta hoy. En la actualidad es vital que no nos conformemos con formar parte de una elite consumidora de las mejores ideas, satisfecha con el nivel “superior” que posee, sino que actuemos como institución en la lucha contra el racismo, con la mayor energía y eficacia posibles. ¿Por qué los debates del VI Congreso de la UNEAC, y los innumerables eventos, divulgaciones y conocimientos adquiridos sobre este tema en los últimos años no se generalizan, y no llegan a convertirse en sentido común? ¿Por qué no resulta posible llevarlos a la escala de la sociedad? ¿Por qué no pueden llegar a ser la guía de las instituciones y de las prácticas de nuestro estado para escolarizar e instruir a la población, para divulgar, para entretener educando? Cansa repetir que nuestro inmenso sistema educacional no es un lugar de formación antirracista, y nuestro sistema de medios de comunicación, totalmente estatal, tampoco lo es."

The Puerto Rican Experience - The Puzzle of Race and Politics  6/4/2008 Counterpunch: [closely parallels Cuba] - "Governor Rossello himself made the decision to use the entire U.S. census survey instrument without any modification in tune with the social, economic and political reality of Puerto Rico. The outcome, in an island with a strong African and Taino cultural and phenotypical influence, resulted in 80.5% of the population self-identifying as white. Therefore, Puerto Rico is “whiter” than the United States. The bureaucratic decision of former Governor Rossello basically enabled a “whitening” process that was accelerated by Puerto Rico’s colonial status. Since the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico, while it has not experienced a dramatically large black emigration (or received white immigrants to the island in large numbers) Puerto Rico’s “white” population has grown from 48.5% (1802) to 80.5% in 2000."

Hacia el centenario de la fundación del partido independiente de Color: Aproximación crítica a tres nuevas contribuciones  6/1/2008 Caribbean Studies: de Tomás Fernández Robaina - " Silvio Castro Fernández. 2002. La masacre de los Independientes de Color en 1912. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales - María de los Ángeles Meriño Fuentes. 2006. Una vuelta necesaria a mayo de 1912: El alzamiento de los Independientes de Color. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales (Pinos Nuevos). - Ricardo Rey Riquenes Herrera. 2007. Guantánamo en el vórtice de los Independientes de Color. Guantánamo: Editorial El Mar y la Montaña."

It's All About Vagueness - Puerto Rico, Obama and the Politics of Race  5/29/2008 Counterpunch: "Duany writes that Puerto Ricans have developed an elaborate racist vocabulary to refer to racially stereotyped characteristics. Kinky hair, for example, is referred to as “bad” (“pelo malo”). Meanwhile racial prejudice is apparent in folk humor, beauty contests, media portrayals, and political leadership. “In all these areas,” Duany says, “whites are usually depicted as more intelligent, attractive, refined, and capable than are blacks.” All of which is not to say that racism in Puerto Rico works in the same way as the United States. However, the island is hardly a “racial democracy” as some of the island’s boosters have claimed. Indeed, many Puerto Ricans deny their cultural heritage and physical characteristics and buy into an ideology of “whitening” through intermarriage with light skinned groups. Interestingly, a whopping 81% of Puerto Ricans called themselves “white” on the 2000 U.S. census."

Otra vez raza y racismo  5/26/2008 Caminos: "Con este tema, la revista Caminos del Centro Memorial Dr. Martin Luther King —recientemente presentada en la sede de esta institución, ubicada en la localidad capitalina de Pogolotti, en la capital habanera—, da continuidad no sólo a una edición anterior sobre el mismo tópico, aparecida en 2002, sino que ahora acoge nuevos acercamientos y reflexiones sobre un asunto afincado en los orígenes de la nación cubana . Ha animado también la aparición de este número de Caminos, el hecho de la creación de la Comisión para Celebrar el Centenario del Partido Independiente de Color (PIC), a la labor de cuyo presidente, Fernando Martínez Heredia, y de su secretaria, Leyda Oquendo, debe buena parte de la organización del dossier. Si bien la publicación de esta revista viene a llenar ciertos vacíos sobre raza y racismo en Cuba, el propósito de sus editores es contribuir a un debate necesario, a la vez, que dar fe -desde distintas miradas y expresiones de la sociedad cubana- de cómo se ve, se piensa y se siente el tema de la raza entre nosotros."

Raza y religión: entre República, brujería y civilización  5/26/2008 Cuba Literaria: publicado en 2005

Caminos magazine devotes its last issue to the ever controversial race question in Cuba  5/26/2008 Cuba Now: "Cuba’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center has published yet another issue of Caminos magazine, perhaps the only publication in the country devoted to socio theological thinking, which has become an unavoidable point of reference to understand different edges of Cuban social thinking."

Obama says he would meet with Cuba's leaders  5/23/2008 LA Times: "Sen. Barack Obama called today for "direct diplomacy, with friend and foe alike," saying he would meet with Cuba's Communist leaders in hopes of advancing democracy on the island. In a luncheon speech to the most powerful Cuban exile group in the country, the Illinois Democrat vying for his party's presidential nomination also said he would immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances. "It's time for more than tough talk that never yields results. It's time for a new strategy. There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans," he said, noting the prospects for influencing Cuba's political course by engagement and example. The annual Cuban Independence Day banquet of the Cuban American National Foundation cheered Obama's avowed commitment to fostering democracy in Cuba. But the audience showed its wariness of his talk of meeting with Cuban leaders. Mere handfuls applauded that statement from among the crowd of at least 500. Obama contrasted his plan to break nearly half a century of deadlock in U.S.-Cuba relations with the stated intentions of Republican rival Sen. John McCain. He said the Arizona senator "joined the parade of politicians who make the same empty promises year after year, decade after decade" when he promised Tuesday to maintain the status quo of refusing any dialogue with the Cuban leadership."

Los colores de la nación  5/17/2008 Jiribilla: "Con el tema "Raza y racismo", La Jiribilla, revista de cultura cubana, propone a sus lectores un acercamiento plural, polémico y multisemántico a una problemática poco tratada en nuestros medios de comunicación. Con toda intención se unen, esta vez, las revistas Caminos y La Jiribilla para dar a conocer una parte imprescindible de nuestra memoria histórica e identidad cultural, al tiempo que la inclusión de variados materiales —que van desde artículos hasta fotos, letras de canciones y documentos inéditos— abre nuevas oportunidades para contribuir desde el pensamiento y la cultura a la lucha contra las manifestaciones de racismo aún presentes en la Cuba actual."

Raza y racismo  5/17/2008 Jiribilla: [issue devoted to race and racism] - "Con toda intención se unen, esta vez, las revistas Caminos y La Jiribilla para dar a conocer una parte imprescindible de nuestra memoria histórica e identidad cultural, al tiempo que la inclusión de variados materiales —que van desde artículos hasta fotos, letras de canciones y documentos inéditos— abre nuevas oportunidades para contribuir desde el pensamiento y la cultura a la lucha contra las manifestaciones de racismo aún presentes en la Cuba actual."

Raza y racismo - Los colores de la nación  5/17/2008 Jiribilla: "Con el tema "Raza y racismo", La Jiribilla, revista de cultura cubana, propone a sus lectores un acercamiento plural, polémico y multisemántico a una problemática poco tratada en nuestros medios de comunicación. Con toda intención se unen, esta vez, las revistas Caminos y La Jiribilla para dar a conocer una parte imprescindible de nuestra memoria histórica e identidad cultural, al tiempo que la inclusión de variados materiales —que van desde artículos hasta fotos, letras de canciones y documentos inéditos— abre nuevas oportunidades para contribuir desde el pensamiento y la cultura a la lucha contra las manifestaciones de racismo aún presentes en la Cuba actual. Ha animado también la aparición de este dossier, el hecho de la creación de la Comisión para Celebrar el Centenario del Partido Independiente de Color (PIC)."

¿Guerrita de razas o masacre racial?  5/17/2008 La Jiribilla: foto de Evaristo Estenoz, "director de Previsión, el órgano de prensa del Partido Independiente de Color," y de Pedro Yvonet, "uno de los líderes del Partido Independiente de Color"

Cómo surgió la cultura nacional (capítulo 1)  5/17/2008 La Jiribilla: de Walterio Carbonell, 1961

Documentos del Partido Independiente de Color  5/17/2008 La Jiribilla 

José Martí: apuntes sobre su antirracismo militante  5/17/2008 La Jiribilla: por Leyda Oquendo

Raza y Racismo  5/17/2008 La Jiribilla: edition devoted to "Race and Racism"

Reporte de Cubanacam Press al 10 de Abril de 2008 “DETENIDO PONENTE DE TALLER CIENTÍFICO”  5/3/2008 Cubanacan: "Según José Vélez Hernández presidente del Movimiento de Integración Racial (MIR), el Taller Académico “Las Distintas Formas de Intolerancias en Cuba”, es una actividad programada para conmemorar el 40 aniversario del asesinato del Dr. Martin Luther King. Madrazo Luna en su condición de anfitrión y expositor principal, resultó conducido, en primera instancia, a la unidad de la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR) localizada en calle Zapata y C, de El Vedado y posteriormente trasladado para la sede policial del municipio Marianao. Refirió la fuente que Madrazo Luna, antes de ser liberado, fue interrogado y amenazado por un mayor del Departamento de Enfrentamiento a la Actividad Subversiva Enemiga o # 21, del Ministerio del Interior, quien dijo nombrarse Mario. Este oficial le expresó que los únicos autorizados a hablar de racismo, en Cuba, eran los revolucionarios."

PA’RRIBA LOS PELOS - Sobre el discurso racial en el rap cubano  5/1/2008 Esquife: [one of few sites in Cuba to reference AfroCubaWeb, though we hear that many people access us] - "El rap, como género musical que tiene el lenguaje como vehículo de expresión de sus ideas y que se alimenta de la realidad circundante, denuncia desde su postura social esos remanentes del racismo que otrora imperara en Cuba. Dentro del universo creativo del rap la racialidad tiene un peso importante, en tanto se erige como elemento identitario de los raperos. En sus textos se evidencia, en primer lugar, un intento por validar los derechos del negro, su lugar en la sociedad y su función en la construcción de la identidad del cubano. Las composiciones de rap están plagadas de elementos que identifican al negro y contribuyen a mantener su estereotipo. Entre ellos figuran la nariz ñata, el pelo ensortijado, los labios gruesos y la música (específicamente, la conga y la rumba). Se hace una remembranza de los tiempos de la esclavitud a partir de la alusión al palenque, el mayoral, el cimarrón o el látigo y, a menudo, se trabaja el espacio de la loma o el monte como el lugar donde el sujeto encuentra protección y tiene su hábitat natural, alejado de la sociedad en que se siente y es discriminado."

Gandhi, King, and Marti: Brothers in Thought - Conference at Florida International University  4/28/2008 Free Cuba Foundation: "The FREE CUBA Foundation (FCF) at Florida International University invited all those persons interested in non-violence and the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jose Marti to attend the conference held at the FIU campus on the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination on January 30, 2008 and now we are preparing a final conference on April 3, 2008 on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination."

A 'Splendid' War’s Shameful Side - The finale of the Spanish-American war, rooted in misunderstanding and racism, still reverberates.  3/31/2008 Newsweek: "Thanks to Cuban insurgents, the Americans landed unopposed in Cuba and Spanish relief columns were pinned down and kept from the fight. But the Americans gave the Cubans little credit for the ultimate victory against the Spaniards. Incredibly, the American commanders barred the rebel army from attending the Spanish surrender ceremony in Santiago. Ostensibly the reason was to safeguard against reprisals, but the greater motivation, revealed by letters and diaries of the time, appears to have been the disdain with which the Americans regarded the Cubans as a mongrel army. The Spaniards (an all-white force) wanted to preserve their honor by surrendering to the Americans in Santiago. In the end most of the Spanish soldiers scattered elsewhere around Cuba, where there were no American forces, surrendered to the Cuban rebels without suffering recrimination. The vanquished Spanish soldiers were allowed to keep their arms and embark for Spain. But the Americans disbanded and disarmed the victorious Cuban army. America refused to end its occupation of Cuba until 1902, not until the American commanders were satisfied that the Cubans were sufficiently "civilized" for self-rule. (But the republic's constitution allowed Washington to send in American troops at any time.) Black officers and leaders were purged as uneducated and uncultured. Slavery had been abolished only in 1886, and blacks had not attained the social standing of whites, despite the egalitarian philosophy of rebel heroes like José Martí, who preached that there was no such thing as race, only humanity. Eager to appease the Americans (and get them out of the country), many Cubans became embarrassed and confused and lost sight of their own progressive principles. Before long, the Cuban leaders were guilty of their own racial prejudice, violently suppressing a political party formed by discarded and disenfranchised black veterans in 1908."

Afro-Cubans keep close watch on island politics  3/23/2008 LA WAVE: WAVE is a Black paper in Southern California with a circulation of 9.5 million - "On the face of it, Alberto Nelson Jones shouldn’t be one of Fidel Castro biggest fans."

Viejo periodismo  3/16/2008 Juventud Rebelde: "Fue así que se enteró del contenido de un informe del jefe de la Secreta al ministro de Gobernación en el que daba cuenta de que el millonario periodista Antonio San Miguel, el norteamericano Frank Steinhart, propietario de la empresa de los tranvías habaneros, y Juan Gualberto Gómez estaban detrás de la insurrección de los Independientes de Color, capitaneada por Estenoz e Ivonet, y habían financiado el alzamiento."

Afro Cubans and Race  3/8/2008 Democracy Now: published 4/00 - "Democracy Now! producer Maria Carrion recently spent time in Cuba and recorded a series of conversation by Afro-Cubans on race and racism."

Venezuelan activist lectures on social issues  2/29/2008 Daily Collegian: ""I'm not Chavista, I'm not Bolivarian, I'm a revolutionary," Garcia said. According to Garcia, this social movement evolves around racial and economic inequality in Venezuela. "The problem of racism [in Venezuela] is that is under the veil of racial mixture," Garcia said. Education, according to Garcia, is the solution to the country's problems. That is why the Afro-Venezuelan movement has made it a priority to implement more African elements in the school curriculum. "We went to the ministry of education to demand our participation," Garcia said. These demands were discussed with Cuban instructors that came to Venezuela to implement a new school agenda. Garcia admitted that the Cuban instructors had strategies, methods and objectives that should be included in the Venezuelan school system. However, when the question about the content that should be taught came up, disagreements arose. "The Cubans thought the issue of racism should not be included," Garcia said. After a month and a half of deliberations, Garcia said that they had won their petition. Garcia expressed that the Afro-Venezuelan contributions needs to be included because, "[Professors] are the first reproducers of racism," according to Garcia. According to Garcia, one of the mistakes made during the Cuban revolution was ignoring of the racism issue."

Desafíos de la problemática racial en Cuba  2/13/2008 Jiribilla: "La aparición del libro Desafíos de la problemática racial en Cuba (Fundación Fernando Ortiz, 2007), del economista y politólogo, Esteban Morales Domínguez, constituye de por sí un hecho trascendente dentro del campo de las Ciencias Sociales cubanas de hoy. El retraso de un estudio que, además de la perspectiva histórica, incluyera un análisis de la cuestión de la raza en la Cuba revolucionaria, ha postergado un debate que se ha realizado mayormente fuera de la Isla o hacia el interior de nuestra sociedad civil. Esta aproximación científica contribuye a legitimar la importancia de asumir el tema racial dentro de las agendas investigativas institucionales y dentro del diseño y puesta en práctica de las políticas sociales y culturales en el país."

New book focuses on racial issues in Cuba - Its author, Esteban Morales, scrutinizes the topic of race relations in the island from colonial times to present day.  2/4/2008 Cuba Now: "Economist, political scientist and essayist Esteban Morales Domínguez has repeatedly stated, in several articles and interviews, that lack of cultural knowledge and ignorance, among other factors, have played an important role in helping silencing and omitting racial issues in Cuba, rendering the topic unworthy of public debate. The publication of his book, Challenges posed by racial issues in Cuba, recently launched at Fernando Ortiz Foundation in downtown Havana, has opened one more space to fight back apathy and indifference, thus promoting awareness among those who still consider that the Negro issue does not call for assessments or scrutiny."

Resumen de actividades dentro de Cuba en conmemoración del Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos  12/10/2007 Directorio Democrático Cubano: "La Habana. 10 de diciembre de 2007. Un grupo de activistas de derechos humanos, encabezados por el Dr. Darsi Ferrer, efectuaron una marcha pacífica a las 11 a.m. en conmemoración del Día de los Derechos Humanos en el parque situado en Calzada, entre D y E, en el Vedado frente la oficina regional de la UNESCO para América Latina y el Caribe. (Fuente: Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Centro de Salud y Derechos Humanos."

Antonio Maceo: The Bronze Titan  12/10/2007 Granma: by Fidel Castro

BUCL.org Joins Dr. Darsi Ferrer to Protest Apartheid-Like Policies in Cuba.  12/7/2007 Business Wire: "Dr. Darsi Ferrer is the Director of the Juan Bruno Zayas Center for Health and Human Rights in Havana, Cuba, whose mission is to ensure the policies of international agencies that guarantee health-related rights of all persons are recognized and adhered to in Cuba. Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty is a confederation of blogs and websites that pool resources and ideas for use in campaigns to raise awareness of the Cuban reality."

BUCL.org Joins Dr. Darsi Ferrer to Protest Apartheid-Like Policies in Cuba.  12/7/2007 Business Wire: "In Cuba, apartheid is not racial, but political," says Henry Gomez of BUCL. "The political system keeps foreigners and Cubans separate. For instance, many public accommodations that are open to tourists and high-level Communist bureaucrats are off limits to everyday Cubans." ...Regarding Cuba's current system, Dr. Ferrer states, "The current constitution supposedly recognizes the rights and freedoms of the Cuban people. The penal code characterizes apartheid as a felony. In practice, both are systematically violated by the established public policy." Dr. Ferrer continued, "People around the world were horrified with the ghettos of South Africa. It is time to condemn the apartheid suffered by the Cuban people."

Darsi Ferrer from Cuba y los Elefantes  12/7/2007 You Tube 

Attacking Tonyaa Weathersbee  12/2/2007 AfroCubaWeb: "Tonyaa Weathersbee is a columnist for the Florida Times Union out of Jacksonville. A member of the prestigious Trotter Group of African American columnists in the US, she has maintained an interest in Cuba and issues of race & identity there. In September, 2007, Tonyaa Weathersbee wrote an article about a recent trip she took to Cuba, One Race, Two Countries. A group of 4 Cuban Americans attacked her for this article in a letter to the editor, Cuba is no paradise for blacks, 11/07, citing a few myths that are common among Cuban Americans. AfroCubaWeb columnist Alberto Jones comments on this attack in A Failed Revisionist attempt To Mask Cuba’s Tragic History, 11/07."

Miami Protesters Say: Jail Killer Cops!”  12/1/2007 Socialist Action: "Rage over the deaths of four unarmed Black men by Miami cops over a 19-day period has sparked angry protests against police brutality. The rash of deaths began on Oct. 25 when a young Haitian man, Gracia "BG" Beaugris, was shot three times while walking home with his father's laundry. While Miami officials promise an investigation, the state attorney's office has not convicted a single cop involved in the death of an African American in 20 years, despite many such cases. No indictments in the recent deaths have been filed."

Cuba is no paradise for blacks  11/29/2007 Florida Times Union 

Racismo, totalitarismo y democracia  11/9/2007 Encuentro: de Enrique Patterson - "Recientemente, La Jiribilla, publicación cultural online del régimen, publicó el artículo "El tema racial y la subversión", firmado por el Dr. Esteban Morales. Más allá de las omisiones, mentiras y descalificaciones (entre ellas, la demonización de quien escribe), resulta interesante el intento de re-abordar ¡por fin! el tema racial, aunque sea desde los paradigmas de las ya desgastadas ideología y práctica "revolucionarias". El reconocimiento, leve y tangencial, de los descalabros del régimen a la hora de lidiar con la tradición racista y discriminatoria indica la dificultad del poder para seguir negando la existencia de semejante flagelo en el seno del llamado régimen "socialista"."

Seeing the people, not Cold War politics  11/5/2007 Florida Times-Union: by Tonyaa Weathersbee, a member of the Trotter Group, an association of Black US columnists. This article discusses Alberto Jones, whose columns appear on AfroCubaWeb.

Acerca del negro en Cuba: logros y quimeras  10/24/2007 LASA: PDF, published in 2000.

The Open Wound: The Scourge of Racism in Cuba from Colonialism to Communism (Perfect Paperback), Arawak publications; 1st edition (April 18, 2007), 248p by Iván César Martínez  10/17/2007 AfroCubaWeb: "The chapters of The Open Wound follow a historical sequence tracing the devastating effects produced by this ideological political system on the psyche, the habits, the cultural and aesthetic values, the patriotic and revolutionary behaviors and the material life of the Cuban people. The work aims to demonstrate how for five centuries Cuba s darker-skinned population have not achieved real freedom, and to explain why the different moments in this long period -- colonialism and slavery; abolitionist period with colonial rule; republican-subordinated independent era; anti-democratic dependent regimes; and the period of communism or totalitarian socialism -- have not been able to solve the race-color problem so entrenched in the Cuban elite ideology of White supremacy. The work is also intended to serve as a tool to eradicate this terrible scourge by demystifying the so-called color-blindness of Cuban society and showing clearly the existence of a hierarchical color-structure of power that has never changed and that keeps the majority of the population -- Cubans that have been sentenced for the crime of having been born with a darker skin color -- at the bottom of the society, permanently excluded and reined in."

Black Cubans are still faced with racism  10/15/2007 Dallas Morning News: published 9/98 - "What the two stories illustrate, say Cuban authorities, is that while Mr. Castro and his government greatly improved the lives of blacks by ending official discrimination, informal racism survives in this heavily black nation. Only now, they say, is the mostly white Cuban leadership coming to grips with that reality. A special commission is assessing the problem. "There is no official racism here anymore," said Mr. Adlum, a retired diplomat. "But there is still a culture of racism. The mistake was to think that just by having everyone integrated, racism would fade away.""

Tourism and the Negrificación of Cuban Identity  10/15/2007 Transforming Anthropology: published 10/06

Cultural Cimarronaje: Racial Politics in Cuban Art  10/9/2007 Upside Down World: Excerpted from the new book Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, by Sujatha Fernandes

Entrevista con Eugène Godfried: Una llamada para el dialogo sobre la masacre de 1912  10/5/2007 AfroCubaWeb: con comentarios de Osvaldo Cárdenas, antiguo jefe del Seccion del Caribe del Departamento de las Americas del Comite Central.

Interview with Eugène Godfried: Call for dialog on the 1912 Massacre  10/5/2007 AfroCubaWeb: with comments by Osvaldo Cárdenas, former head of the Caribbean Section of the Department of the Americas of the Central Committee.

LOS RAPEROS: RAP, RACE, AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY CUBA  10/5/2007 University of Texas: published in 2004 - "This dissertation explores the emergent movimiento de hip hop cubano (the Cuban hip hop movement) as a critical site to examine the interplay of race and social transformation in contemporary Cuba. Following Cuba’s post-1990 economic crisis know as the “special period,” the ethnographic investigation centers on the ways young Afro-Cubans are utilizing the expressive cultural space of rap music and broader hip hop “culture” to performatively fashion new kinds of transnationally engaged black identity and related race-based social critique. The author suggest that through such transnationally informed identity processes a new generation of Afro-Cuban youth are positioning themselves in strategic response to the shifting dynamics of race and class in a socialist Cuba increasingly shaped by the interpenetration of global capital and related free-market transformations. In a post-“utopian” Cuba characterized by economic dollarization, expanding tourism, rising social stratification, and – significantly – resurgent levels of racial inequality, the author’s analysis seeks to understand how these emergent subjectivities and the social critiques they invoke pose challenges to, as well as contribute to a current reconfiguring of nationally-bounded constructions of race and corresponding ideologies of national non-racialism. He additionally draws attention to the evolving negotiated relationship between Cuban hip hop as a new, potentially oppositional identity-based social phenomenon, and the Cuban state as it attempts to institutionalize hip hop within a prescriptive, socially homogenizing frame of revolutionary national culture. In turn, Cuban rap has come to occupy a unique site of racially-positioned critique within revolutionary Cuba, serving as a key actor in an evolving black public sphere predicated on the assertion of black political difference within a previously configured non-racial Cuban national imaginary. The author proposes that Cuban hip hop in this capacity represents a critical manifestation of, as well as an active social agent within the shifting transnational complexities of national racial formation in Cuba today."

Cuba: Raza y República  10/3/2007 Jiribilla 

Tourism reviving racism in Cuba  10/1/2007 Chicago Tribune: published 5/18/01, still topical!

Cuba, the Melting Pot  10/1/2007 Morning Star: "PEDRO-PEREZ Sarduy remembers the day in 1959 when Che Guevara came to the central square of his home town Santa Clara. "The square was packed," he relates. "We were all excited and avid to see and hear this hero of the revolution. At the front of the crowd were the white Cubans, behind them were the mixed race people and the blacks stood at the back. That's the way things were." "

Cuba’s Racial Democracy: What Now?  10/1/2007 New School: by Alejandro de la Fuente

Eugene Godfried Calls on Fidel Castro for Reflection and Action concerning the 1912 Massacre: YouTube Video  9/26/2007 AfroCubaWeb 

Guerra de Razas (Negros contra blancos en Cuba),  9/25/2007 AfroCubaWeb: published in 1912, this is a free PDF download - "Written during and right after the 1912 Massacre by reporters "embedded" with the Cuban Army, this piece of propaganda informs the public about the noble campaign against the "racist revolution."  The Epilog contains a list of those who partook of the Banquet celebrating the victory in Parque Central, la Habana, under the statue of Jose Marti, whose son, "Coronel Jose Martí y Zayas-Bazán," was one of the presiding Jefes."

Los Independientes de Color, Habana, 1950, de Serafin Portuondo Linares  9/25/2007 AfroCubaWeb: rare and classic text available as a free PDF download - "Linares was a member of the Communist Party and was roundly criticized by his party upon publication for not following a Marxist class analysis. Instead he analyzed the event as a racist slaughter, basing himself on primary sources. The Communist Party organ, Fundamentos, blamed the US and also the Independientes themselves whom it categorized as petty bourgeois and anarchists."

The Discourse on Racism in Anti-Castro Publications, 9/07  9/22/2007 AfroCubaWeb: "Here we track issues of race and identity in the anti-castro groups based primarily out of Miami."

Afro-Cuban Identity in Pre-Revolutionary Cuba: The Dynamic Ethnie  9/10/2007 College of William and Mary Monitor: published in 2001

El tema racial y la subversión anticubana  9/9/2007 Rebelion: "En esta tarea de manipular el tema racial en Cuba como objeto de subversión política, están vinculados individuos como Enrique Patterson, quien relaciona el tema con los asuntos de la gobernabilidad o del potencial político contestatario, que según este individuo está presente en la población no blanca en Cuba. Enrique Patterson fue profesor de Filosofía en el Dpto. de Marxismo Leninismo de la Universidad de La Habana. Abandonó el país en 1990 y reapareció poco después en el Congreso de LASA en Washington, haciéndose acompañar de dos funcionarios, al parecer, del Dpto. de Estado. No resultando difícil inferir quien pagaba sus gastos y con que propósitos lo habían llevado al Congreso. Ahora vive en Miami y se dedica a escribir sobre la problemática racial en Cuba, con una línea de pensamiento que lo vincula directamente a los propósitos del Gobierno Norteamericano. En similar tarea manipuladora se halla Ramón Colás, que lidera en Missisipi un Proyecto de Relaciones Raciales. O la Revista Islas, que hasta hace poco buscaba conexiones para lograr producciones sobre el tema racial desde dentro de la Isla."

El tema racial y la subversión anticubana  9/8/2007 Jiribilla: "Los negros de Cuba luchan todos los días en los espacios abiertos, que ya son muchos, sin dejarse engañar por aquellos, que lo primero que tendrían que hacer sería superar la republiqueta racista, modelada a imagen y semejanza de los años cincuenta en Cuba, que le han construido a los negros cubanos de Miami, la extrema derecha cubano-americana. Dejando prácticamente a la inmensa mayoría de los negros que allá viven, en el mismo lugar que ocuparon en la Cuba neorrepublicana, solo que casi 50 años después. Y ni siquiera hablar de que puedan los negros prosperar en cuanto al acceso al poder. El poder allá, es sólo para los blancos ricos, como lo fue en Cuba antes del triunfo de la revolución."

Cuba: Gender, Sexuality, and Women Rappers  9/4/2007 Upside Down World: Excerpted from the new book Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, by Sujatha Fernandes - "When I first visited Cuba in 1998, women's presence in hip-hop was still negligible. At concerts I would come across male rappers with their gold medallions, Fubu gear, and mindless lyrics about women, cars, and guns, the latter two hardly a reality for most young Cuban men. Over the years, there have been important changes in gender politics within Cuba, particularly in rap music, and women within the genre feel empowered to speak of issues such as sexuality, feminism, as well as gender roles and stereotyping."

Red Against Black by Myles Kantor  8/20/2007 Front Page Magazine: "In addition to sharing heroic dissidence, Esteban Cardenas, Enrique Patterson, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, and Oscar Elias Biscet are black Cubans. The latter commonality is significant given the recurrent myth that Fidel Castro has enhanced black Cubans’ quality of life. "[B]lacks are demonstrably better off under Castro than they were under the Batista dictatorship," Randall Robinson writes in Defending the Spirit. Economist Jude Wanniski similarly claims that "Fidel made life better for black Cubans." In addition to brutalizing these and other Afro-Cuban dissidents, Castro’s totalitarianism subjugates Afro-Cubans as a whole; there is no Afro-Cuban exemption from "illegal exit," "disrespect," "illicit association," and other repressive policies. Afro-Cubans are enslaved, muzzled, and terrorized no less than white Cubans. In fact, there is evidence that Afro-Cubans are more acutely repressed. Prohibitive emigration, for example, has applied with greater intensity to Afro-Cubans. Patterson notes, "I am certain that because of my race, I was the first member of the group [the Democratic Socialist Current] that the political police went after.""

Race in Cuba  8/17/2007 History of Cuba 

U.S. blind to true colors of Cuba's problems - by DeWayne Wickham  8/17/2007 USA Today: published 5/30/02, still highly relevant. Dwayne Wickham is dean of the Trotter Group, an association of Black columnists.

Professor West, What About Castro’s Leftwing Victims?  8/14/2007 Front Page: published 2/12/02 - "Patterson’s being a black Cuban also didn’t endear him to the regime; black dissidents refute Castro’s propaganda that the Cuban Revolution has benefited them. "I am certain that because of my race," Patterson notes, "I was the first member of the group [CSDC] that the political police went after.""

LOS RAPEROS: RAP, RACE, AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY CUBA by Marc David Perry, B.A., M.A.  8/13/2007 University of Texas: published 12/2004, 335 pages. This is a PDF, 930kb.

Afro-Cubans in Cuban Society  8/13/2007 Wayne Smith: published 12/1999. Wayne Smith was head of the US Interest Section in Havana under President Carter.

Sociedad Abakuá es tan fuerte en Cuba como en África,dice investigador Norteamericano  8/13/2007 WDS 

`La Gaceta' Discusses Cultural Influence Of Blacks In Cuba  8/12/2007 World History Archives: published 4/99

Black skin and Cuban leadership  7/17/2007 Jamaica Gleaner: by Ramon Colas, founder of the Independent Libraries of Cuba - "To be sure, the Cuban authorities would much rather blacks stay far away from investors and joint venture companies. This, in turn, brings about a situation in which investors (largely white) absorb these same attitudes and become complicit in an evil that affects millions of non-white Cubans. In the political realm discrimination is no less pervasive. Within Cuba's power structure, few blacks share the privilege of leading. Of the National Assembly's 600 deputees, only 18 per cent are black. A similar situation exists at the provincial and local levels. The executive is worse yet. When Cuba's leaders travel abroad, they could pass off as a Northern European delegation save for the black faces carrying the luggage or guarding the entourage. Unfortunately, the military is no different. That institution's leadership is made up of white officers. The three chiefs of the army are white; so are the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the police, the navy, and the air force. Similarly, the military's control over economic activities is all channelled through non-black officers. Only the low-ranking black soldiers remind us that Cuba is, after all, in the Caribbean."

Pro-Castro Columnist Compares Black Exiled Dissident to Maid  7/17/2007 Miami Herald Blogs: published 3/06 - "Andres Gomez, the leader of the pro-Castro group Antonio Maceo Brigade who lives in Miami, writes in a Cuban government publication that anti-revolutionary activity is undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the United States. He singles out for ridicule Bibliotecas Independientes, or Independent Libraries, a group that promotes literacy and the development of civil society in Cuba. Writing in cubadebate.cu, a Cuban government web site, Gomez uses the race of Ramon Colas, the group's leader, as part of his criticism. "This organization, whose only visible member includes a little Negro who travels a lot, whose style and mannerisms remind me of maids in Cuba before 1959, always dressed in their white uniforms -- seems to ignore, just like his masters, that in Cuba, for example, during the last 15 years, they celebrate annually a national book fair." Colas said it's the only time he has felt any "racism'' since he came to Miami about 5 years ago from Cuba. "He is using a series of offensive and racists words against me that you would never get away with using against African Americans," Colas said of Gomez… "It's not racist, really, it's an estimation of mine of what he is," Gomez said Wednesday. "It's not racist in the least. He is like that. And I maintain what I said. In any case, he'd be a shame to his race.""

With More Lives than a Cat: Walterio Carbonell  7/15/2007 Islas, Florida 

New attitudes on once-taboo race questions emerge in Cuba  6/26/2007 McClatchy Newspapers: "But listen to some blacks, particularly those born after 1959, and the failures of the revolution also become clear. “Everyone is not equal here,” said Ernesto, 37, as he dodged traffic on a Havana street. Tall and athletically built, he once hoped to be a star soccer player. He now gets by selling used clothing and said he’s continually hassled by police just because he’s black. In recent years, a new attitude has been emerging quietly, almost secretly, among Afro-Cubans on what it means to be black in a communist system that maintains “No hay racismo aqui”—there’s no racism here—and tends to brand those who raise the issue of race as enemies of the revolution. “The absence of the debate on the racial problem already threatens ... the revolution’s social project,” Esteban Morales Dominguez, a University of Havana professor who is black, wrote in one of his several little-known papers on race since 2005. Black filmmaker Rigoberto Lopez also broached the sensitive topic in a TV appearance in December, saying that while the revolution had brought about structural changes toward racial equality, “its results do not allow us to affirm that its goals have been achieved in all their dimensions.” Afro-Cubans familiar with the situation say black and white Cubans also have been establishing a small but growing number of civil rights-type groups. The government has not cracked down on such usually illegal activities, but neither has it officially recognized them."

LOS NEGROS, LOS OLVIDADOS EN EL ''PARAISO SOCIALISTA'' CUBANO  6/20/2007 La Nueva Cuba 

A barrier for Cuba's blacks  6/20/2007 Miami Herald: "New attitudes on once-taboo race questions emerge with a fledgling black movement"

An American in Cuba - Nationality trumps race, and color still matters. But everyone struggles together.  2/21/2007 LA Times: "Yet color does matter here; a common history of slavery assures that. Digna Castañeda, a diminutive, decidedly black woman who teaches history at the University of Havana, said both countries have the infamous one-drop rule, though it is differently applied. "In the U.S., one drop of black blood makes you black," she explained. "But here in Cuba, it's the reverse — one drop of white blood makes you white." Which is to say, people with any bit of black ancestry like to identify themselves as white or mulatto, not black. This color aversion is awfully familiar to me. But Cuba's law is that there is no institutional racism. It is officially and culturally a mestizo nation. Still, I wonder: Where do they draw the line between mulatto and black? At what point is whiteness undetectable and blackness inarguable? And who draws that line?"

Cuba to Present African religions´ Dossier  2/9/2007 PL: "A dossier on the African religions and different theological books are among some of the innovations the editorial Caminos will launched at the 16th International Book Fair, announced sources of that headquarter. Caminos is attached to the Martin Luther King Memorial Center (CMMLK) will provide the readers with new titles."

Why black cubans support the revolution  11/9/2006 Socialist Action: published 9/94

Cuba y las tinieblas del racismo  10/10/2006 BBC Mundo: "La revolución cubana mejoró su situación, según afirmó Nicolás Hernández, presidente de la Fundación Nicolás Guillén, "gracias a las políticas educativas generales y al fin del racismo institucional". Gracias a estas políticas "se gradúan por primera vez en el país de forma masiva profesionales de la raza negra" pero aclaró Hernández que "todo ésto no es suficiente, hace falta la eliminación de las desigualdades sociales". La mayoría de los camareros en el sector turismo que tienen acceso a propinas son blancos. "Hay elementos educacionales y culturales sobre los que nosotros no trabajamos lo suficiente, comenzando por nuestra propia historia, en nuestras escuelas se estudia la mitología griega pero no la africana", aseveró Hernández. Por una u otra razón lo cierto es que los negros cubanos aún se encuentran en una situación de desventaja respecto de sus compatriotas blancos, tanto a nivel social como económico e incluso educativo. Nicolás Hernández reconoce que la proporción racial de los estudiantes universitarios es desventajosa para los negros, y el disidente Manuel Cuesta Morua afirmó que éstos son apenas el 3% de los alumnos de la universidad. Algo similar ocurre en el turismo donde los negros y los mestizos ocupan apenas el 5% de los cargos dirigentes según explican investigaciones del Centro de Antropología y reciben 1,6 veces menos propinas que los blancos... La historiadora y antropóloga María Iliana Foabada cree que "lo primero que hay que hacer es enfrentar que somos una sociedad racista, que reproducimos el racismo y que lo hacemos en todos los niveles". En lo que todos los entrevistados coinciden es en segundo paso "el debate abierto y la educación teniendo claro que todos sin excepción debemos pasar por esa educación" afirmó la historiadora."

South Africa: Overt Racism Gives Cuban Ideal a Sinister Hue  9/23/2006 Business Day, South Africa: "I HAVE lived in the US on and off for the past three years and have yet to experience racial profiling, or what people of colour in America know as walking/driving/breathing while black. I spent three weeks in Cuba in 2000, and was subjected to racial profiling five times -- all in one day. I am sure, then, that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) -- who swear by Cuba and all it stands for -- will understand why a leftist like me is not as enthusiastic as they are about that socialist island. I had my love of Cuba mugged out of me by racism."

Macua  8/15/2006 ArchivoCubano: "Escribir acerca de los Macua, etnia de donde proceden los últimos esclavos traídos a Cuba, es tan importante como sería hacerlo de los Yoruba, Mandinga, Arara, Ibo, Gangá, Carabalí, etc. "

Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power  8/6/2006 PBS  

De la Africanía en Cuba 1-5 Heriberto Feraudy Espino  8/1/2006 ArchivoCubano  

Yoruba: Un acercamiento a nuestras raíces  8/1/2006 ArchivoCubano  

África y los afrodescendientes necesitan acciones concretas de solidaridad  7/22/2006 Jiribilla: "Para Cuba, para los cubanos, África es algo muy entrañable. Es uno de los nutrientes de nuestra identidad y de nuestra cultura. Más de un millón de africanos fueron llevados a Cuba por la fuerza, después de haber sido arrancados de sus tierras de origen: provenientes de diferentes etnias, yorubas, congos, carabalíes y otras, trabajaron bajo el látigo, en el infierno de los cañaverales en beneficio de los hacendados de la Isla y de la Metrópoli colonial. Cuba, como nación, surgió de la mezcla de africanos, españoles y chinos. Las sublevaciones de esclavos y el cimarronaje nutrieron nuestra vocación por la libertad. Nuestras guerras de independencia contaron con la participación masiva de afrodescendientes, que dieron además brillantes jefes a nuestro Ejército Libertador."

El afrorrealismo: una nueva dimensión de la literatura latinoamericana  7/22/2006 Jiribilla  

Miradas comunes en Bahía  7/22/2006 Jiribilla: "Las ropas y los trazos fisionómicos de los participantes en la II Conferencia de Intelectuales de África y la Diáspora exhiben convergencias de identidades africanas. En la subida de la escalera rodante, un profesor de Historia de una universidad norteamericana, nacido en África, parece un ogá concentrado. En la cola del café, dos señoras africanas ostentan túnicas que podrían aparecer en las fotos del antropólogo Pierre Verger. En las mesas de discusión, un antropólogo bahiano discute con un ponente angolano y apenas una ligera variante de la entonación separa a ambos. En el pasillo, un mozambicano intenta identificar puntos comunes con un colega de Cabo Verde. El maestro keniano asiste a todo lamentando no poder dominar el portugués. El agente de seguridad, de terno oscuro, puede ser confundido con un embajador. La bahiaza de la recepción, con su imponente vestido amarillo, pudiera ser una sacerdotisa de Benin”. Reproduzco estas líneas de la crónica final del encuentro, escrita por el colega Paulo Reis en el diario Correio da Bahía, porque de algún modo resumen sucintamente la atmósfera de un Congreso donde las miradas de uno y otro lado del Atlántico se entrecruzaron hasta hallar puntos comunes no solo en la historia trágica que insertó el perfil africano en América, sino en la necesidad de construir un mejor mundo imprescindible para todos. Cuba estuvo presente en esas jornadas. Los representantes de la mayor isla antillana encontraron en Bahía un clima muy parecido al que predomina en las Fiestas del Fuego de Santiago de Cuba."

Natalia Bolívar: África no renace, ocupa su lugar  7/22/2006 Jiribilla: "Si feliz estuvo Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui de que la llamaran para participar en la II Conferencia de Intelectuales de África y la Diáspora, muy contenta integró la delegación oficial cubana presidida por Abel Prieto, ministro de Cultura. Aún ríe satisfecha de los intercambios, incluso, antes de viajar. Como la mayor parte de lo que acontece en la vida de esta investigadora, la invitación del gobierno de Brasil para que participara en la conferencia, la tomó por sorpresa, mucho más cuando desde hace años amasa el sueño de conocer el gigante sudamericano. Se dice que en la II Conferencia de Intelectuales de África y la Diáspora se abogó por el renacimiento del continente negro. En tu opinión, ¿qué significa tal empeño? No estoy de acuerdo con usar la palabra renacimiento, porque renacer es volver a nacer. Desde que supuestamente el continente africano fue descubierto por los portugueses en el siglo XV, ha aportado a los llamados países desarrollados inmensas riquezas que van desde minas de diamante hasta toda la cultura. Europa, EE.UU.… han expoliado a África sin darle siquiera una pieza para sus museos. África no renace, África está buscando su espacio en la cultura, en la humanidad… Lo que ha influido ese inmenso continente se puede ver como uno de los miles de ejemplo en Picasso. Fue en el museo del hombre donde se inspiró en las grandes piezas, expoliado desde África por los franceses. Con esa impronta que recibió, Picasso copió las máscaras en “Las señoritas de Avignon”, obra que marca su tránsito de lo clásico a toda esa otra expresión que consiguió en sus obras posteriores. África lo que está haciendo es tomar conciencia de qué es y cuánto le deben."

Africa, Diaspora Debates in Brazil  7/13/2006 PL: "The meeting began yesterday with speeches by Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil, and Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal, among others, as well as by the president of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konare. Today´s session includes the long-awaited participation of expert Natalia Bolivar, as special guest to the round table talk "Religion and Culture in Africa and the Diaspora." "

The Center for Pan-African Development and Miami CopWatch Statement on Liberty City "Terror" Arrests  7/1/2006 Marguertite Laurent: "On the day of the Liberty City raids, the story of a former director of the right wing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a federally recognized not-for-profit organization based in Miami, admitting to planning terrorist acts against a sovereign state, failed either to draw national attention or merit "above the fold" coverage on the front page of Miami's newspaper of record. A sub-committee of the CANF board of directors moved beyond the "discussion stage," demonstrating their capacity to carry out terrorist plots by purchasing boats, a helicopter and caches of weapons and ammunition for the purpose of executing the plot. The admission only confirmed commonly held suspicions about the CANF's violent intentions and the government's indifference towards those intentions."

Cuban Official Gets 12-Year Prison Term  6/22/2006 AP: "It was demonstrated that Robinson Agramonte, in the open process of his ideological weakening and with abuse of his position, forgot his high responsibilities and the integrity demanded of a revolutionary cadre and used his influence to obtain benefits," Granma said. It offered no specifics on what benefits were obtained or how Robinson used his influence to get them. Cuban officials had once pointed with pride to Robinson as an example of the island's young black leadership. Robinson, now 49, is from the eastern city of Santiago — Cuba's second-largest city — and had been the party's first secretary for the Santiago Province since 1994."

Cuban leaders expel member  4/29/2006 Sun Sentinel: "Cuba's Communist Party leadership said Friday it has expelled one of its younger Politburo members for repeatedly failing to overcome "errors" such as abuse of authority and arrogance. Cuban officials had once pointed with pride to Juan Carlos Robinson as an example of the island's young black leadership. Robinson, now 49, hails from the eastern city of Santiago, Cuba's second largest city after Havana, and had been the party's first secretary for the Santiago Province since 1994. But the Communist Party's daily newspaper, Granma, said Friday that Robinson had become "a lamentable and unusual case of the inability of a political cadre to overcome his errors."

El triángulo invisible del siglo XX cubano: raza, literatura y nación  4/15/2006 Temas: PDF, 225kb, by Roberto Zurbano, Ensayista, Casa de las Américas

Mi Cubanidad  3/11/2006 Un Bohio: published 10/05, nice column - "My worldview was tinted by that dogmatic brain-washing (heavy on the bleach) until 26 March, 2000 when I had the good fortune of encountering the indomitable Dr. Alberto Jones, a generous Guantanamero, in the historic chapel of my alma mater. Dr. Jones is a fascinating man whose energy belies his actual age. A defiantly and politely proud patriot, he also takes great pride in his Jamaican ancestry. I have taken great pride in passing along quite a few of Dr. Jones' columns and essays over the years. Among the things I am grateful for about our friendship, the one thing that stands out the most is the opening of what is an ever-increasing devotion to freethinking and truth seeking. A price tag cannot ever be put on that gift and I will be ever grateful for it. The times when I have heard an African-American express any opinion about Fidel Castro, most of the time, the opinion that is expressed is one based on that individual’s perception of a certain significant level of respect he or she has for the Cuban leader. This perception of Castro is often muddied by the incessant and confusing demonizing of him and his initiatives as practiced by both this country’s corporate media and successive administrations in Washington, D.C. Thus, the question that logically follows is “what are we missing about Castro when it comes to skin color?”"

Cuba: My words speak for themselves  2/17/2006 The Royal Gazette, Bermuda: "WITH regard to Cuba, I have always made clear that there are some policies and programmes emanating from its Revolution which I agree with – and many others that I do not support. Despite the distortions some correspondents have engaged in, there remains a written record of my Commentary essays in this regard. My words speak for themselves. However, I will speak to the position of black people in Cuba to the extent that there does indeed exist a degree of political oppression in that country. But I don't believe they are singled out for oppression – from what I understand Afro-Cubans do not experience greater indignities than do any other Cuban population groupings. The long-term future of the Castro Revolution is an issue that the Cuban people themselves will have to resolve. However, it is interesting that Cuba's black population gained the most from the Revolution. Cuba, before the Revolution, had a far higher degree of racism as far as the black Cuban was concerned than exists there now. And, by the way, no matter what my detractors say about Cuba's own so-called form of "apartheid", you will never hear Nelson Mandela making critical comments about Fidel Castro because of the role his military played in the fight against South Africa when they invaded southern Angola – another conflict which I was able to follow in real time through the medium of short-wave radio. These days it is worth noting that black Cubans enjoy a demographic advantage mainly because, in the main, it is white Cubans who have fled to Florida and other jurisdictions. And I fully expect that we will see a renewal of racial conflict in Cuba if and when the exiled Cubans ever return to that country. Another interesting fact is that Central Intelligence Agency, in a study about supposed weak spots in the island nation, has concluded that the strongest support for the current Cuban government lies within Cuba's black population. This conclusion stands in marked contrast to some of the comments made recently in this paper concerning the nature of the Cuban society."

Negroes with Guns: Robert Williams and Black Power  2/7/2006 Independent Lens: "NEGROES WITH GUNS: Rob Williams and Black Power tells the dramatic story of the often-forgotten civil rights leader who urged African Americans to arm themselves against violent racists. In doing so, Williams not only challenged the Klan-dominated establishment of his hometown of Monroe, North Carolina, he alienated the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, which advocated peaceful resistance. For Williams and other African Americans who had witnessed countless acts of brutality against their communities, armed self-defense was a practical matter of survival, particularly in the violent, racist heart of the Deep South. As the leader of the Monroe chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Williams led protests against the illegal segregation of Monroe’s public swimming pool. He also drew international attention to the harsh realities of life in the Jim Crow South. All the while, Williams and other protestors met the constant threat of violence and death with their guns close at hand."

Hablemos del racismo, y en específico el de Cuba  11/28/2005 Cuba Nuestra 

Miss Parks and Robert Williams  11/15/2005 University of Texas: "Nine years before her own passing, Rosa found her way to the small community of Monroe, North Carolina to speak at the hometown funeral of a man who unlike Rosa was often vilified by the civil rights movement as a dangerous radical who threatened to jeopardize the meager gains of the civil rights movement. She told the mourners of a close friend of Malcolm X that the work of a fiery defender of the world's oppressed should go down in history and never be forgotten."

We support Cuba because Cuba supports Blacks and Africa - Response to Chabot Cuba Conference report  11/9/2005 SF Bay View: 'The problem is, when you speak of Cuban realities - or realities in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil etc. - who is Afro-Cuban and who is not? When I first went to Cuba in 1974, years after the first waves of gusano defections to Miami, I was informed by reliable medical authorities that so many whites had left that by then fully 80 percent of the Cuban population was susceptible to sickle cell anemia. In other words, Cuba was becoming darker by white political default. Furthermore, throughout Cuban history - and throughout the histories of all the previously mentioned former Spanish and Portuguese colonies - peoples of African descent of many gradations of color have populated most of the economic and political categories - with the general exception of the very top, of course - so that a veneer of color has enshrouded all Cuban society."

Chabot Cuba conference faces a challenged Afro-Cuba  10/19/2005 SF Bay View: "The panelists reported that the income gap between Black and white Cubans widened during the "special period" (1990s) after the fall of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S. economic blockade. Remittances - money sent by Cubans in the United States to their families in Cuba - go mostly to white Cubans, 30 to 40 percent. Only 5 to 10 percent goes to Black Cubans. White families received 58.3 percent of total income in 1999, while Black families received only 4.3 percent. This income gap reproduces the race and economic stratification system of the past and is a predictor of the position of Afro-Cubans in the future. Twenty percent of the audience was African North Americans, who met with other African North Americans and Alberto Jones on Sunday to explore a remittance program for Afro-Cubans and to educate and organize African North Americans to put an end to the U.S. blockade and travel embargo against Cuba."

Katrina's Window Into Slavery's Past — and Present  9/21/2005 Village Voice: "Rebecca J. Scott's Degrees of Freedom is a fascinating and well-written piece of comparative history, but it's not exactly written for a mass audience. Its subtitle, however, says that it should be: "Louisiana and Cuba After Slavery." Scott (see photo) is a University of Michigan law and history professor who spent years trying to understand what happened after the Civil War — and after the Spanish-American War — to the hundreds of thousands of slaves working in the huge sugar-cane industries of Louisiana and Cuba. Those who are rebuilding New Orleans would do well to capitalize on what's inside Scott's suddenly extremely timely book. With the Bush regime in power, that's unlikely to happen. But here's a question posed and analyzed by Scott: After slavery, how did the African Americans fare, compared with the African Cubans? I'll be more simplistic than Scott: Since slavery officially ended, the African Americans have been treated worse, and this was apparent long before Fidel Castro was even born."

Primer graduado estadounidense de la Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina - "Como afroamericano, aquí en Cuba me siento libre"  8/27/2005 Rebelion 

SECRET CUBAN DOCUMENTS ON HISTORY OF AFRICA INVOLVEMENT  8/4/2005 National Security Archives: originally published in 2002.

Racismo en Cuba  6/7/2005 Arrebatus:  Manifestaciones del racismo en Cuba: varias caras de un viejo mal

Manifestaciones del racismo en Cuba: varias caras de un viejo mal  6/1/2005 Consenso: Consenso is the dissident PARP party organ.

S.O.S. El Racismo que se lleva dentro  6/1/2005 Consenso: By Manuel Cuesta Morúa. Consenso is the dissident PARP party organ.

Miscelanea II of studies dedicated to Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969): an online machine-readable transcription  5/13/2005 NY Public Library: includes ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES -- Fernando Ortiz -- (1943) [English translation]

Race and Ethnicity in Cuba  5/8/2005 Indigenous People of Africa and Americas 

The complexity of some Cuban roots  5/5/2005 Progreso Weekly: "Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories is the visual autobiography of one family that confronts questions of Diaspora, class, immigration and identity. It highlights the historical journey of a black Cuban family, revealing that the Cuban-American experience is more complex, racially and ideologically, than is popularly understood."

Manifestaciones del racismo en Cuba: varias caras de un viejo mal  4/1/2005 Consenso 

IX aniversario de la Fundación Martha Jean Claude  3/27/2005 Jiribilla 

Dos momentos de la esclavitud blanca en Cuba  3/6/2005 Cubarte: "El 6 de marzo de 1854 el puerto de La Habana estaba singularmente animado con la llegada de la primera partida de colonos gallegos que, bajo la consigna de un proyecto denominado "Salvación y progreso para España y Cuba", venían contratados supuestamente para trabajar la tierra en la Isla…. La naciente empresa, fruto de la tozudez y ambición del diputado a cortes gallego Urbano Feijóo Sotomayor, bajo los sellos de legalidad y el respaldo del gobierno colonial, escondía los más crueles y bajos intereses, pues sometió a aquellos infelices al trabajo esclavo, como a los antecesores grupos de culíes chinos que habían empezado a arribar a Cuba desde 1847 y los bozales de origen africano."

CUBANS FOUGHT FOR US INDEPENDENCE  3/1/2005 Cuba Now: "The facts are almost unknown: Cuban Creole officers, NCOs and soldiers, members of the Mulatto and Black battalions, organized in Havana, fought under the Spanish flag in the War of Independence of the so-called Thirteen Colonies."

Links of Cuba and Africa highlighted at Havana launching of book by Sankara  2/28/2005 The Militant: "In this book, We Are Heirs of the World’s Revolutions, Pathfinder presents five speeches by Thomas Sankara between 1983 and 1987 in which he expresses clearly and firmly his revolutionary ideas, not only in defense of his people but of all the exploited of the world,” said Ulises Estrada in opening a meeting held here February 10 as part of the annual Havana International Book Fair. Estrada is the director of Tricontinental magazine, published by the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL).Some 70 people attended the event, which presented Somos herederos de las revoluciones del mundo, the recently published Spanish-language translation of the booklet. It was one of many book launchings organized throughout the fair, which took place February 3-13. Thomas Sankara was the central leader of the 1983-87 popular revolution in the West African country of Burkina Faso."

El pueblo, en andas, despidió a Lázaro Ros  2/9/2005 AIN 

Robert F. Williams and armed self-determination  2/2/2005 SF Bay View 

You can't break the ties between us  1/15/2005 Cuba Now: An interview with Danny Glover

Presencia de la cultura africana en los pueblos americanos y caribeños  11/26/2004 Tricontinental: "La presencia de la cultura angolana y africana en América, en las manifestaciones de las artes plásticas y danzarias, en los gustos culinarios, en las tradiciones y en el lenguaje de los pueblos americanos y caribeños, quedó demostrada en la magistral conferencia ofrecida por Rogelio Martínez Furé, reconocido africanista, fundador del Conjunto Folclórico Nacional de Cuba."

Cuban Rastas gather surreptitiously  8/13/2004 Dallas Morning News: "A great many Rastas are in jail," said Eligio Flores Ruíz, 32. "The government doesn't accept us. They say we're a threat to the revolution. They're bothered by the fact that we're free thinkers." Government supporters deny that and say what bothers them is that Rastas break the law – they smoke marijuana."

Dialogue with Founding Leaders of Guantanamo’s Social Club ‘La Nueva Era’  8/6/2004 AfroCubaWeb: by Eugène Godfried

Dialogue with Juan Cruz, Past President, ‘Marianao Club Social’ - La Havana  8/6/2004 AfroCubaWeb: by Eugène Godfried

The African Cuban Diaspora’s Cultural Shelters and Their Sudden Disappearance in 1959  8/1/2004 AfroCubaWeb: by Eugène Godfried - "Thus, it is a deliberate choice to employ the method of interviews with distinguished personalities who were directly involved in the activities of those ‘Sociedades de Negros’, ‘Societies of Blacks’. Nowadays, we depend on oral history to be able to look into this past in order to comprehend the present Cuban society. It is also high time that grassroots sections among cultural workers and activists in Cuba themselves speak their mind to brothers and sisters all over the world. In so doing, a longstanding silence around this eye – catching subject will be transformed into a vibrant exchange between Cubans and friends from all around the world."

José Martí and Racism: His Visit to Curaçao  7/25/2004 AfroCubaWeb: Eugène Godfried

José Martí y el Racismo: Su Visita a Curazao  7/25/2004 AfroCubaWeb: Eugène Godfried

‘We must say No to the politicians’ An interview with Antonio Castañeda, Babalawo and president of the Yoruba Society of Cuba  7/22/2004 Progresso Weekly 

CARTAS A JUAN GUALBERTO GÓMEZ  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: incluyendo "Protesta de los cubanos de color de Key West"

EN EL FIEL DE LA PATRIA  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: "Nicolás Guillén, que compartió noches de tertulias habaneras con Juan Gualberto, destaca su don de conversador, su sentido del humor y pone de relieve "la máscula tarea de fraguar nuestra nacionalidad (…), su penetración política para fijar el verdadero papel que correspondía al negro cubano en la lucha contra España"."

GALERÍA de fotos -- Juan Gualberto Gómez  7/15/2004 Jiribilla 

JOYA DE NUESTRA HISTORIA  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: Juan Gualberto Gómez - "Votó contra la Enmienda Platt todo el tiempo, incluso, cuando se produce el chantaje por parte de Estados Unidos que amenazó la soberanía cubana, si no se aprobaba la Enmienda. Jamás se avino al chantaje, como sucedió con otros cubanos. Mantuvo su actitud patriótica, la defensa de sus ideales, de sus principios, que no eran más que los ideales y principios de José Martí."

JUAN GUALBERTO GÓMEZ Y LA RAZA DE COLOR  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: "Para la década del 40 del siglo XX había un gran nivel de frustración por el silencio que con respecto al tema negro existía. Una manera de enfrentar este silencio fue la aparición de biografías de los negros y mulatos más sobresalientes de Cuba. Por eso la editorial de Ciencias Sociales, como una manera de rendirles tributo ha decidido reeditar la biografía: Juan Gualberto Gómez: un gran inconforme."

JUAN GUALBERTO GÓMEZ, ANTIPLATISTA Y ANTIMPERIALISTA  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: "Cuando el 20 de mayo de 1902 se proclama la República de Cuba, en muchos pechos quedaba la huella más amarga, la de la Enmienda Platt. Junto al ex presidente de la República en Armas, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt y otros patriotas, Juan Gualberto Gómez encabezó la batalla de la dignidad, en nombre del pueblo de Cuba."

UN PATRIOTA ENTERO  7/15/2004 Jiribilla: "El 11 de junio de 1892 José Martí elogia en Patria la entrada de Juan Gualberto a la Sociedad Económica: “Él quiere a Cuba con aquel amor de vida y muerte (...). Él tiene el tesón del periodista, la energía del organizador y la visión distante del hombre de estado”."

Race and patriotism in Afro-Cuba  6/23/2004 SF Bay View: "Most of us met the anthropological research team called Project Orunmila in Regla, Cuba, 10 minutes from Havana. I spent the last day alone with this family-run document recovery, transcription and dissemination project that also operates a farm to provide financial support. I had earlier misunderstood the extremely important work of this group and unjustly accused them of insufficient rage at the historical and contemporary color prejudice still extant in Cuba, as though rage and alienation are the only appropriate responses. I clearly undervalued the depth and significance of their work and the African originated materials they are diffusing in Cuba and beyond. I quote from an annotation on one of their volumes, called “Awo Orunla Dice Ifa”: “This book is the widest and most complete compilation of the complex panorama of legends that once belonged to the Yoruba people of Nigeria and that are still standing in Cuba and in different areas of the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc.), the USA and several Latin American countries (Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil). The work is organized according to the Oduns of Ifa. All writings are therefore placed in corresponding order. This leads the user to a better comprehension and understanding of the panoramic vision of the mythological world of Ifa. It relates an organized knowledge about the men’s event as individuals, the way of thinking of those men, and about the society in which they live.” Sponsorship is needed for Project Orunmila to continue publication. The project may be reached by email at proyecto@orunmila.net or adeyeri@orunmila.net; by phone at 97-0677 (the home of Elsa, a neighbor) or by writing to Camilo Cienfuegos #109 e/c Oscar Lunar Y Nico Lopez, Regla 12 C.P. 11200, Ciuidad de la Habana Cuba."

La Fundación Cultural Martha Jean-Claude en la Feria Internacional del Libro y el bicentenario de la Independencia de Haití  6/22/2004 Tricontinental 

Marginación y carnaval: la imagen del negro en la fotografía cubana  6/13/2004 Tel Aviv University: [Hay que señalar que tomaron muchos retratos de negros en el siglo XIX, y que tenemos algunos en AfroCubaWeb.]

POR EL RESCATE DE NUESTRAS RAÍCES  6/3/2004 Jiribilla: "Cada año, desde 1997, la fiesta internacional del Disco cubano ha sido dedicada a un país determinado. Esta, su VIII edición que se está celebrando desde el 23 hasta el 30 de mayo, está dirigida al Caribe al que nos unen ancestros, historias, mares, arte, cultura y en especial la música, que es la expresión más diáfana que enlaza nuestros pueblos. Por tal motivo, conversamos para La Jiribilla con Richard Mirabal Jean Claude, director de la fundación Martha Jean Claude, de la hermana República de Haití."

African-Americans Challenge US Blockade on Cuba  5/26/2004 Cuba Now: "The Virginia-based African-Awareness-Association announced that a delegation of African-Americans will organize a freedom ride (on bus and aircraft) to Cuba next July to challenge US travel restrictions."

Cuba's Desire For Equality Ignores Obvious  4/19/2004 Washington Post: "There is no doubt that many black people know they are somehow stuck at the bottom of Cuba's social and economic ladder. Still, they find the concept of cooperation over competition appealing. For many, Castro's quest for a nonracial, egalitarian society is nothing if not noble. Nevertheless, race problems cannot be solved until they are acknowledged. History is replete with examples of what happens when a nation -- in the strong embrace of an iconic, charismatic or even tyrannical leader -- attempts to gloss over ethnic and racial differences among its citizens: When the leader dies, so does the unity."

Cuba: Race Problem Cannot be Solved Until it’s Acknowledged  4/15/2004 Black America Web: "EDITOR'S NOTE: When U.S. voters go to the polls in November to pick a president, Florida — and its heavy concentration of Cuban Americans — may again play a central role in determining who wins. Nowhere will this contest be more closely watched than in Cuba, whose fate may be determined by the election's outcome. More than 90 percent of Cubans in South Florida are white; over 60 percent of the people in Cuba are black. In this series, BlackAmericaWeb.com examines the role that race plays in Cuba — and in the tug-of-war between the government of Fidel Castro and Cuban exile leaders in Florida."

Cuba's Rastas: the religious, the philosophical and those making a fashion statement  4/11/2004 Jamaica Observer: "Long dreadlocks stuffed into trademark red, black, green and yellow tams (knitted caps), which sometimes carry a symbol of an Afro-Cuban religion or even a US flag, Bob Marley t-shirts and camouflage pants - that is the typical look of Cuba's young Rastafarians, a growing urban presence. The Rastas of this socialist island nation are mainly found in Havana and tend to be young Afro-Cuban men from poor neighbourhoods, who seem to carry Reggae music in their blood. "People don't look on us kindly," Yosvany Reyes, a 27-year-old craftsman, told IPS. "In Cuba, people don't know very much about what being a Rastafarian means. They generally think we're dirty drug addicts or bums who just wander around the streets not doing anything." "

Maceo un combatiente de las ideas  1/9/2004 Tribuna de la Habana: "En un cálido elogio, publicado en Patria el 6 de octubre de 1893, Martí subrayó la valía intelectual de Antonio Maceo afirmando que este serviría a la Revolución " con el pensamiento más aún que con el valor". Con semejante frase el Maestro quiso significar la impresionante cultura del bravo general en las cuestiones de la política y la guerra."

DIVERSIDAD, IDENTIDAD Y POLÍTICA CULTURAL  12/19/2003 Jiribilla: "No se puede tratar a las culturas populares extrayéndolas de su contexto, ni imponiéndoles una folclorización banal para poderlas exhibir, que desvirtúe su esencia popular, ni tratándolas a partir de parámetros técnico-artísticos abstractos, que no funcionan en un contexto donde la creación no emana de prácticas académicas, sino de la tradición que se traslada, y se recrea, de padres a hijos."

'Black Cuban Forum'  11/10/2003 CubaNet: published in 2/00, discusses an organization which got $40,000 from NED/CIA last year. CubaNet got $64,000.

Organizaciones financiadas por la NED contra Cuba  11/10/2003 Jiribilla: published in April, relevant today! Note the "Black Cuban Forum"