200th anniversary of the assassination of Aponte to be commemorated
• Cuban intellectuals will also honor the Black and mixed race independence heroes massacred by the José Miguel Gómez government 100 years ago

Pedro de la Hoz

TWO centuries since the anti-colonial conspiracy organized by José Antonio Aponte, Cuba’s intellectual and artistic vanguard organization will present, over the course of 2012, a commemorative program honoring the patriotic and humanistic values held by the leader of Cuba’s first independence movement, which advocated for the abolition of slavery as well.

All of the associations and cultural institutions connected to the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), in collaboration with the group’s permanent Aponte Commission which works within the organization itself to eradicate all vestiges of discrimination and racial prejudice, will be organizing commemorative events. Aponte, an artist as well as a patriot, was summarily executed by colonial authorities April 9, 1812; then decapitated, so his head could be publicly displayed near the current intersection of Salvador Allende and Belascoaín in Havana.

The activities in fact began in January, with the Casa de Africa’s 16th International Social and Cultural Anthropology Workshop dedicated to Aponte and held at its headquarters in Havana’s historic district. January 21-22 the 1st National Aponte Memorial Encounter took place in Camagüey, during which organizations involved in the Slave Route project discussed the ramifications of Aponte’s conspiracy in the region and research studies addressing the issues of slave resistance and runaways, cultural heritage and ethnic roots, as well as the Caribbean influence in Camagüeyan traditions.

During the 2012 International Book Fair, on February 13, a roundtable discussion will take place in the Casa del ALBA, entitled, "200 years since Aponte’s conspiracy: African Cuban in the struggle for emancipation," with the participation of eminent historians and social scientists.

During the Book Fair in Havana and across the country, several books will be launched related to Aponte’s life and struggle, as well as others addressing another event commemorated this year, the centenary of the massacre of some 3,000 Black and mixed race Cubans by the government of José Miguel Gómez and racist organizations sponsored by the bourgeois white elite, during the armed rebellion of the Independientes de Color.

Heriberto Feraudy, diplomat, writer and president of UNEAC’s Aponte Commission, announced details of the plans and emphasized that the goal of the commemoration is not merely to accentuate the historic importance of past events, but to build consciousness around the need to combat persiting discriminatory and prejudicial attitudes.

Feraudy commented, "The central document for the Party National Conference [held January 28-29] is explicit and categorical as to the priority to be given to this issue by the political vanguard of the Revolution and the resolutions adopted by this forum of Cuban Communists will undoubtedly affirm the idea of struggling for full justice which is the essence of our socialism.

He pointed out that during the last legislative session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, a commission discussed the issue and, beforehand, in November, had held a related public hearing in Matanzas.