11th BIENNAL OF HAVANA
An artist-spectator encounter

Mireya Castañeda

The 11th Biennial of Havana (May 11 - June 11, 2012), under the banner of Artistic practices and social visions (Prácticas artísticas e Imaginarios socials), expands the site of creation onto the open spaces of streets, theaters and plazas, beyond the traditionally sacred environments of galleries and museums, in order to ensure spectator participation.

Approaching 30 years since its inception (the first edition was held in 1984), this is an event which opened doors for the investigation and dissemination of contemporary art emerging in Latin America and the Caribbean at that time, and later on from Asia and Africa. As its conception evolved, artists from Europe, the United States and Canada were incorporated.

For this year’s event, 178 invited artists from 45 countries, individuals or as part of 10 collective efforts, are presenting their works. A grand visual feast which attracts fans, experts, critics, curators and art collectors, among them 1,300 from the United States, according to Rubén del Valle Lantarón, president of the National Visual Arts Council.

In a brief dialogue at the Casa del Alba, one of the core Biennial sites, Del Valle emphasized the primary idea of drawing in the entire city. "It’s related to the number of proposals we receive and the commitment to not having a single central site."

He recalled that the last Biennial "invited Guillermo Gómez Peña, one of the world’s performance art greats, who said that one of the things which most impressed him was the openness, the diversity, of the event."

"On that occasion," he continued, "social visions were emphasized and we can see now how people are on the streets, following the projects."

Havana’s emblematic sites, the Malecón, the Prado, spaces within the Historic District and Vedado, along with more removed neighborhoods such as San Agustín, are bedecked with paint, sculpture, film, photography and the strength of the show, performance art in the open air or within installations.

As Jorge Fernández, director of the Wifredo Lam Center - which organizes the Biennial - stated during a press conference, "The emphasis is not on the traditional media, but on attracting viewers, venturing beyond discreet cultured sites, getting out onto the streets."

A basic summary wouldn’t be enough. Participating are figures of such artistic renown as Austrian Hermann Nitsch, who after presenting his performance Aktion135 at Advanced Studies Institute of Arts with the help of students there, was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Another icon of performance art is on hand, the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, who re-inaugurated the Miramar Theater with a screening of her film The Artist is Present.

Also among the international guests are the Russian-United States pair Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, who created, and fulfilled, great expectations with their Barco de la tolerancia, (Ship of Tolerance) a work for which 500 children crafted messages of peace and reconciliation on the ship’s sails. The Barco was erected in the garden of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza.

Making an equally strong impact is the installation Los viajeros silenciosos (Silent Travelers) by the Colombian artist Rafael Gómez. It will remind many of Sobrevivientes, the giant cockroaches erected on the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts by Roberto Fabelo, 2004 Cuban National Visual Arts Prize winner.

Gómez has crafted 600 ants crawling up the façade of the Fausto Theater on Paseo del Prado, and he did so according to the Biennial’s credo, sharing the experience with all those passing through this busy area.

The Biennial is much more than an art show, as exemplified by the collective project MAC/SAN, in the San Agustín neighborhood, which has united artists from Germany, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, France, Switzerland and the United States

They have ‘intervened’ in the community through the newly-named MAC/SAN Building, an abandoned, unfinished structure in the center of San Agustín. Lacking side walls and internal divisions, it now houses installations, sculpture and other interactive works on two levels.

Such communication is also occurring at the Pabellón Cuba, on busy Calle 23, where artists from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Spain, Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are presenting other works which promote participation on the part of spectators.

Within the Lam Center, focal point of the Biennial, is Open Score, which offers, according to its creator Jorge Pardo, "the communion of technology and art through robotics," which the artist described as "an example of the kind of work I do in my studio in California. A robot creates the pieces, according to a preconceived design, until the space is entirely filled."

A first for the 2012 Biennial is the project Detrás del muro, (Behind the Wall), a series of installations placed on the city’s Malecón, from La Punta to the Torreón de San Lázaro, with the participation of several artists, among them Cubans Arlés del Río, Donis Dayán Llago, Alexandre Arrechea, Inti Hernández, Esterio Segura, Marianela Orozco, Alejandro González, Adonis Flores, Humberto Díaz, Roberto Fabelo, Roberto Fabelo Hunt and Duvier del Dago, in as well as Puerto Rican Guillermo E. Rodríguez Rivera, José Ruiz from Spain and Cuban-Americans Rafael Doménech, María Magdalena Campos and Florencio Gelabert Soto.

Readers may wonder about the participation of Cuban-Americans. Rubén del Valle Lantarón explained in a gathering at the Casa del Alba, "It’s a very natural exchange, based on respect for diversity, part of the Revolution’s cultural policy, being inclusive, additive. For example, Jorge Pardo left Cuba at an early age and María Magdalena Campos, an artist who created much interest on the island in the 1980’s, is now a professor at a U.S. university. Both exhibit at the Lam."

Del Valle invited all to be sure and visit the Cabaña Fortress, Pabexpo, and the Hotel Nacional, to see "the largest exposition of contemporary Cuban art, displaying a good portion of the best being produced today." More than 100 Cuban artists are displaying their works at the colonial fortress, including the youngest and the well-established.

Exhibition sales at Pabexpo and the Hotel Nacional are being facilitated by the Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales. HB is located at the first site, consisting of works by more than 40 artists, ranging from those who emerged during the 1980’s to recent graduates such as Roberto Diago, Alexis Leyva ( Kcho), Moisés Finalé, René Francisco, Niels Reyes, Esterio Segura, Carlos Garaicoa, Felipe Dulzaides, Sandra Ramos, Fernando Rodríguez, Mabel Poblet, Carlos Quintana , Cirenaica Moreira,  Kadir López,  and the collective Los Carpinteros.

While exhibited at the emblematic Hotel Nacional is AB&C, Maestros de Generaciones, with works by Adagio Benítez, Cosme Proenza, Nelson Domínguez, Flora Fong, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Arturo Montoto, Ernesto García Peña, Eduardo Roca, Lesbia Vent Dumois, Manuel López Oliva, among another 25.

The Biennial has overtaken Havana, again breaking mindsets, reaching audiences with this century’s art, from all latitudes.

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U.S. blocking Cuba’s access to information technology

OBSTACLES preventing access to information technology and communications derived from the U.S. blockade of Cuba were denounced before the World Trade Organization in Geneva on May 16. Washington must be called upon to end its unilateral coercive measures, asserted Carlos Fidel Martín, from the Cuban embassy in Switzerland, during a symposium organized for the 15th anniversary of the Information Technology Agreement. The U.S. blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 50 years is hindering the buying and selling of these products and services on the world market, as well as electronic trade, a key instrument of support for international economic links, the diplomat stated, as quoted by Prensa Latina.

"These practices are contrary to international law and WTO regulations and also have extraterritorial ramifications," he noted.

Martín also confirmed his rejection of so-called plurinational initiatives or ones that are more restrictive in terms of the number of participants currently being promoted by certain industrialized countries, to the detriment of the fundamental principles of the Multilateral Trading System.

The previous week in Geneva, Cuban representative Juan Antonio Quintanilla, speaking at the 13th session of the Working Group on the Right to Development, a UN Human Rights Council subsidiary body, stated that the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of Cuban citizens’ human rights.

Quintanilla emphasized that the U.S. blockade is intensifying, despite reiterated and virtually unanimous demands for its elimination on the part of the international community.

He noted that direct economic damage inflicted by the restrictive U.S. policy stood in excess of $104 billion in December 2010, using current prices and very conservative estimates.

He added that this figure would increase to $975 billion if the depreciation of the dollar in relation to the value of gold on the financial market were to be taken into account. (AIN)
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World Health Organization
Homophobia is the disease we must cure

José A. de la Osa

FIVE years ago, in the month of May, the National Sex Education Center, known as CENESEX, began organizing days devoted to opposing homophobia, hoping to contribute to the education of Cuban society about the importance of respecting every citizen’s right to freely and responsibly express his or her sexual orientation and/or gender identity, as a reflection of equality and social justice.

With support from the Communist Party, the government and civil society have joined this important effort, celebrating International Day against Homophobia with academic, educational, artistic activities and public debates across the island, helping to promote respect for sexual diversity.

The date of the event, May 17, was chosen because, on this day in 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved an agreement eliminating homosexuality and bisexuality from its list of mental illnesses, an event described at the time as progress on the scientific and human rights fronts.

The term homophobia, as we know, refers to aversion, hate, fear, prejudice or discrimination toward homosexuals – lesbians and gays.

These ideas and sentiments extend to other non-heterosexual orientations and identities. There is biphobia when these attitudes are expressed toward a bisexual person who has an erotic orientation toward both genders and transphobia in the case of transgender individuals – transvestites and transsexuals.

Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are expressed around the world through a variety of practices which include the silencing of any mention of the targeted person, limitations on his or her development, verbal insults and even extreme physical violence.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is not officially recognized by all United Nations member states and, even today, around 80 countries still criminalize homosexuality and penalize homosexual acts between consenting adults with prison terms and even the death penalty.

CENESEX, led by Dr. Mariela Castro Espín, is a teaching, research and assistance institution addressing human sexuality, open to scientific investigation, the exchange of experiences and dialogue.

The Center’s mission is to administer the implementation of Cuba’s sexual educational policy, coordinating the participation of various entities and bodies which work in the areas of social communication, community development, education and sexual therapy, to contribute to the ability of human beings to express their sexuality in a full, healthy, enjoyable and responsible manner.

"Our efforts are directed toward opening spaces and broadening the needed dialogue throughout society to progressively modify concepts and attitudes, because we have inherited a very strong patriarchal, chauvinist and homophobic culture," according to CENESEX leaders.

They propose, "There is misogyny and homophobia in our society, even among people who consider themselves very revolutionary, who identify very much with the ideas of socialism, who, nevertheless, in everyday life, express discriminatory attitudes and not only in regards to gender and sexuality. So, if we do not discuss the problem, we will not advance as a society. We will not achieve a new society, with a new mindset."

Thus, the Center calls for collective reflection, looking to progress day by day, through communication, education and the exchange of ideas, to build an understanding of the just nature of the effort to root out all vestiges of discrimination in society, including that based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Twenty years after WHO removed homosexuality from its manual describing mental illnesses, Dr. Rafael Mazin, the Pan American Health Organization's Regional Advisor for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Comprehensive Care, states in an article, "Attempts to continue pathologizing non-heterosexual orientations, by both emphasizing their supposed abnormal nature and through attempts to rectfy them using so-called re-conversion therapies, represent a threat to public health and the essential rights of people, as well their very lives. Homophobia, in all its manifestations, should therefore be prevented and confronted decisively and energetically. Homophobia is what we have to cure."
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Settlement preserved
• Exceptional Trinidad slave quarters restored

Juan Antonio Borrego (Photos: Vicente Brito)

TRINIDAD, Sancti Spíritus.— Of all the slave quarters in the Valle de los Ingenios which existed during the height of the sugar industry in the first half of the 19th century – as of 1827, 56 mills operated in the valley, with an enslaved workforce of more than 11,700 – only those on the Manaca Iznaga plantation have survived.

The village, conceived as ‘decent’ lodging by the sugar aristocracy of the region, is, according to experts, the only remaining example of its type in Cuba and most of Latin America, a treasure bequeathed to the current generations of slave descendents who live on the site.

"The Blacks’ quarters are [constructed] of masonry and tile, arranged to form four streets," wrote Justo Germán Cantero, a wealthy planter and patron of the arts in the area, in his book Los Ingenios, published in 1857, an essential contribution to the history of the sugar industry in Cuba, well illustrated with lithographs by Frenchman Eduardo Laplante.

The Manaca Iznaga is almost cinematographic: the carts loaded with cane heading toward the mill, one of the most prosperous in the valley; the smoking chimneys, contrasting with the family home’s mansion-like airs; the bell tower, constructed to frustrate runaways and, to one side, as anonymous as its tenants, the perfectly symmetrical slave quarters.

Of that original village described by Cantero and depicted by Laplante, specialists have identified 16 surviving buildings in varying degrees of disrepair. Additionally, the Valle de los Ingenios and the city of Trinidad’s Preservation Office is including eight other houses, not specifically identified as having historical value, in the renovation project, conceived as a comprehensive restoration of the site.

The work involves significant improvements to the masonry walls of plaster, stone and brick, the roofs and trim, but at the same time includes the revival of the batey, which is of interest to tourists. Families living within the village, native or not, are participating in the project and will benefit from it.

The province’s restoration experts and architects, accustomed to working on mansions in the area with their arches and hardwood roofs, are facing unfamiliar challenges at Manaca Iznaga, where hammering nails into stone, installing a switch or concealing a wire require careful thinking and more than a little skill.

Beyond the historical importance of preserving such a unique site, Víctor Echenagusía, untiring researcher and specialist with the Preservation Office, emphasized other merits of the project which include, "the improvement in the quality of life of residents, who are learning to live in harmony with the environment, and the inclusion of the settlement as one of the Manaca Iznaga’s most significant features, which it very much is – essential to an understanding of the slave-based sugar plantation."
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Cuba in 1912: Armed uprising and racist massacres

Fernando Martínez Herera

ONE century after the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Cuban republic. The date of May 20, 1912 reflects the supreme aspirations of the community gradually created in Cuba and the epic of armed struggles and uncountable sacrifices which created the Cuban nation, culminating in the mass insurrection of 1895-1898, barely 15 years earlier. The Liberation Army defeated the colonial army, in spite of the huge Spanish military effort and the genocide which decimated the population. The Revolution established the Republic in Arms, trained hundreds of thousands of citizens, converted into Cubans all the sons and daughters of the land and made inevitable the establishment of a republican state.

For the Cuban people, May 20th was a symbol of their triumph, but at the same time it represented a profound frustration which postponed the major task of national liberation. The United States had militarily occupied Cuba, forcing the suspension of the Revolution’s institutions and reducing their achievements, and only left after establishing ties which converted the country into a neocolony subject to yankee arbitration with an economic system of liberal capitalist exploitation and a political system within which the accomplices of imperialism and the Cuban bourgeoisie predominated.

In 1909, General José Miró Argenter, chief of staff of Major General Antonio Maceo, leader of the Liberation Army, dedicated a chapter of his narration of Maceo’s campaigns to his brother, General José Maceo. Its end paints a horrific picture of the evil which ensued and the abandonment of the ideals of the Revolution. The last sentence is the cry of pain of one of the radical revolutionaries of 1895, "There are no more troops to acclaim the leaders, nor leaders to hoist the flag of the Revolution!"

The history of an era always contains more than one history. Taking into account the diverse composition of the Cuban population, the history of the social construction of races, and racism immediately arises. The new economic formation introduced at the end of the 18th century utilized more than one million African slaves or their descendants as a workforce in a little less than a century. The colossal sugar exporting business made Cuba one of the richest colonies in the world and brought with it revolutions in technology and the organization of labor, efficient business owners, modern forms of urban life and a sophisticated, Western and capitalist elite culture. But, simultaneously, it mercilessly exploited labor, destroyed lives and spurned the culture of a large part of the Cuban population, created an ironclad caste system and increased racism against the African-Cuban population, which developed into one of the traits within the national culture that was being formed.

It was not until 1886 that slavery was finally abolished. This was demanded by the development of a fully capitalist state and the advance of the country’s subordinated integration into a world system beginning its imperialist phase. But for the nascent Cuban nation abolition was, above all, the daughter of a political event: the pro-independence and abolitionist Revolution of 1868-1878. This has enormous historic importance, because colonialism and racism needed their victims to perceive themselves as inferior human beings and thus not aspire to achievements or creativity on their own part. But now, Cuban representation was closely linked to insurrectional patriotism, to winning independence and abolition.

In addition to the end of slavery, the 1880-1895 period saw processes and events of significance in relation to issues of race and racism. I will simply note that the majority of Black and mixed-race Cubans had to attempt to move from the bottom of society which was their place, through work, their own advancement and that of their children; also renouncing their own cultural practices considered barbaric – or backward – and the assumption of conduct and ends subjected to "white" cannons. Given the enormous economic, social and cultural disadvantages of the starting point, this was impossible or extremely difficult, but formally, at least, was a possibility open to all individuals. A certain number of Blacks and mixed race persons formed associations, identified themselves as such and tried to win individual or collective improvements. Faced with that, racism turned to "science" and Cuban academics debated whether Africans were inferior beings biologically or for social reasons.

But José Martí’s politics and ideas propitiated a different path and history. The new revolution had an incomparably greater reach and some extremely ambitious proposals. Many Blacks and mixed race Cubans participated in the organization of the revolution with Cuba’s national hero and his white colleagues, and they launched together the war, which soon became a huge popular wave which extended all over the country. In this battle, Cuba’s Blacks became Cubans who were also African. Their participation was massive and their conduct an example of sacrifice, heroism and discipline. The Mambí army was the first genuinely plurinational one in the Americas, in both its commands and troops. Those who had not been included among Cubans by the dominant 19th century thinking, those who were born and lived with the stigma of being permanent children, the possessors of dubious morals and traits of inferiority and dangerousness, won a new reason for pride: as protagonists in the glorious events of the creation of an independent homeland and the new republic.

The neocolonial bourgeois republic also failed to fulfill the revolutionary commitment in relation to the majority of African Cubans, and to end racism. Their material situation was almost the same as that of 1894, but the changes had been very profound. From 1899, demands for equal rights and opportunities were strong and expressed. The founding of the Independent Group of Color in Havana, on August 7, 1908, which shortly afterward became a political party, seemed to be another action of this kind. But that turned out to be the first act in a bloody drama.

The Independent Party of Color (PIC) was another result of the Revolution of 1895, which had dramatically increased political actors, transformed the content of politics and universalized the country’s citizens. But racism, deeply ruptured by the revolution, had regained ground within the framework of a social conservatism which completed the system of domination. Neither integrationist legality nor political demagogy changed that reality in essence. However, the PIC proposed to organize the struggle for effective equality and specific rights, utilizing the legal routes of the political system and freedom of expression. Its principal leaders were the veteran Evaristo Estenoz, Colonel Pedro Ivonnet —a Mambí hero of the invasion from the east of the island and the Pinar del Río campaign—Gregorio Surín and Eugenio Lacoste. The PIC had followers of a few thousand throughout the country, drew up social demands to benefit the entire poor and working population and maintained a patriotic and nationalist position.

The members of the PIC were acting under the new conditions of post-revolutionary retrogression, but many of them were as veteran as the presidents of the republic. It is important to note how sure of their legitimacy these fighters felt; it came naturally to them to promote confrontations, enter into negotiations, pressure, argue, organize; in other words, to act in social movements and politics. But the nationalist patriotism they shared was turned against them, manipulated by those very people who subjugated themselves to imperialism. For the people of all races, national identity came first and was decisive above any other; the issue of identity tended to be blind to racial and labor issues, and these issues were rejected when they appeared to weaken national unity. The PIC did not enjoy the support of the majority of Black and mixed race Cubans.

The bourgeois power attacked them relentlessly, because they threatened it on the terrain of its two-party, liberal-conservative hegemony by utilizing the rules of the system. Cynically accused of being racist, in 1910 the PIC was declared illegal through the Moruá Amendment to the Electoral Law, and leaders and activists were imprisoned for six months. Harassed and prevented from using the electoral route, they finally opted for an armed uprising on the symbolic date of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the republic, in search of winning the Party’s re-legalization. This means of pressure was not unusual in the political ambit of the period, and was utilized by many politicians during the first 30 years of the republic.

But the José Miguel Gómez government mobilized thousands of soldiers and paramilitaries against them, while a fierce press campaign demonized them. The massacre took place during the months of June and July: more than 3,000 defenseless non-whites were murdered, the majority in Oriente province, the principal theater of the uprising. There was no solidarity with them, they were abandoned in the fields of their homeland, victims of a terrible lesson which clearly fixed the limits that could not be passed by those from below in the Cuban republic. The official republic celebrated the great crime and immediately banished it to an oblivion, as did the majority of Cuban victims of discrimination and domination in that society, given the harsh reality of having to survive and aspire to some kind of social ascent.

To give a synthesis of the outcome of that horrific event. One, the massacre signed in blood the principle that the republic would not allow social diversity to be politically organized. The untouchable nature of the existing order was guaranteed in the name of national unity. Two, the armed uprising was an erroneous and disastrous PIC tactic, because it was unable to create the correlation of forces to oblige the government to negotiate, and thus remained at the mercy of its strategy. Three: the politicking of President Gómez and others, in an electoral year, was left aside, and the slogan, "The homeland is in danger," was used to justify the radical repression.

Four, the pressure of the United States and the reality of its impositions. Five, the PIC’s military organization was totally alien to that of the Liberation Army, although many commands and officers came from it. Six, it presented an opportunity for the comprehensive repression of a wide sector of campesinos in Oriente, in the face of the danger of their reaction to the plunder and impoverishment resulting from the capitalist expansion underway. Seven, the notable weight of racism in Cuban society during in that era facilitated the crime and its impunity.

The socialist Revolution of national liberation which triumphed in 1959 has achieved colossal advances in the lives of the Cuban people, their social relations, social organization, sentiments and political consciousness. The process has allowed us to discover the immense wealth which lies in our diversity and also how much remains to be done in order to advance on a number of terrains. One of these is the persistence of racism in our country, and the fact that many disadvantages confronted by groups of men and women are more marked in the case of African and mixed race Cubans. Thus, in addition to it constituting a restoration of the memory of our Cuban struggles, the commemoration of the Independents of Color movement and the massacre of 1912 is an incentive to struggle to win justice in the fullest of contexts.

Racism can only be defeated if it is fought as part of struggles that move beyond and are more ambitious than anti-racism. Socialist struggles in Cuba are obliged to be anti-racist. But at the same time it is essential to rigorously and effectively denounce and condemn racism and not to make concessions to it in the name of a belief that certain general changes will automatically lead to its bankruptcy and end. We must not be weak in the face of racism – and thus to a certain extent, accomplices – in the name of sectorial strategies or prejudices, in the perverse concealment of ills in the alleged defense of our society, or fall in line with accepting that the existing culture is the one and only possible.

And here, anti-racism and socialism come together again, because socialism is, above all, an unending succession of cultural changes, in the contexts of human betterment and transformations in social organization, which constantly secure more social justice, well-being for all, more effective, autonomous national sovereignty and people’s power.
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THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: SOMEONE KNEW IN ADVANCE
A coup d’état

Gabriel Molina Franchossi

ATTEMPTS to implicate Cuba in the Kennedy assassination continue, but in fact it was the consummation of a coup d’état plotted by CIA military chiefs and other U.S. ultra-conservatives.

The assassination not only affected the United States, but to a surprising extent Cuba and the rest of the world. Close to 50 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the dramatic event is still present in the contemporary world, and the CIA is attempting to postpone for another 25 years the declassification of certain documents concerning the crime committed November 22, 1963. Part of this strategy of concealment is the book Castro’s Secrets, by Brian Latell, CIA officer for Latin America from 1990-94. After participating in CIA operations against Cuba since the 1960s, he is trying to mask the most scandalous conspiracy of the 20th century.

President Fidel Castro was possibly the first statesman to denounce the assassination as a conspiracy, speaking on Cuban television the following day. "We can state that there are elements within the United States who are defending ultra-reactionary politics in all fields, as much in terms of international politics as in national politics. And these are the elements which stand to benefit from the events that took place yesterday in the United States."

The Cuban leader read one of the first agency cables: "Dallas, November 22 (UPI).—Police agents today arrested Lee H. Oswald, identified as president of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, as the main suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy." Four days later, on November 27, Fidel analyzed the Oswald as lone gunman theory and his alleged pro-Castro sympathies, which nobody was questioning at that point. He quoted Hubert Hammerer, Olympic shooting champion, who stated that it was highly unlikely that anyone firing with a repeater carbine fitted with a telescopic sight could hit a target three times in the space of five seconds, when firing at a moving target at a distance of 180 meters, traveling at 15mph." On the basis of his own experiences in the Sierra Maestra, with weapons fitted with a telescopic sight like the one Oswald was said to have used, Fidel added, "Once you fire at the target it is lost – due to the effect of the shot – and you have to find it again quickly (…) with this kind of weapon it is really very difficult to fire three consecutive shots. But, above all, difficult to hit the target like that. Almost impossible." (1)

The Cuban President analyzed how the most reactionary circles were pushing Kennedy toward war by with heavy campaigns, bills and resolutions in Congress pushing the government, because of what they themselves described in 1961 as the Bay of Pigs debacle, to the point of taking the world to the verge of a nuclear war in the October Missile Crisis. Fidel, then Cuban Prime Minister, also spoke about Kennedy’s stand on civil rights, such as ending segregation and racial discrimination, and the policy of peaceful coexistence he was promoting with Khrushchev. These actions had unleashed unforeseen forces against President Kennedy and made Fidel think that his assassination was the work of certain elements in disagreement with the U.S. leader’s politics, particularly in relation to Cuba, which they considered not sufficiently aggressive, given that Kennedy was resisting direct military intervention.

Fidel observed that it was obvious, "If Oswald was the real killer, clearly those behind the assassination were carefully preparing their alibis. They sent this individual off to Mexico to ask for a visa to Cuba. Just imagine… that the President of the United States was assassinated by this individual after just returning from the Soviet Union via Cuba. It was the ideal alibi (…) to plant the suspicion in the heads of the U.S. public that it was a communist or an agent of Cuba and the Soviet Union, as they would say." (2)

In 1978 it was demonstrated that Fidel was correct. The U.S. Congress Select Committee investigating the assassination concluded, "The committee considered the possibility that an imposter visited the Soviet Embassy or Cuban consulate during one or more of the contacts in which Oswald was identified by the CIA in October of 1963." (3) The Committee report came to the conclusion that it had nothing to do with Oswald, while Oswald was small and slight, "The subject of the photograph was described as approximately 35 years old, 6 feet tall, with an athletic build, a balding top, and receding hairline." (4)

Suspicions were aroused in part when the FBI showed Oswald’s mother the alleged photo of her son. She said that it wasn’t a photo of Lee, but of Jack Ruby, the man who killed him. In fact there was no resemblance, the Committee report added, the man in the photo was neither Oswald nor Ruby. The FBI agreed. In a memo to the Secret Service it recorded, "These special (FBI) agents are of the opinion that the individual of reference in the photo is not Lee Harvey Oswald."

Fidel had every reason to be alarmed by the insinuations and accusations, a typical CIA strategy. Even now, Latell is trying to banish suspicions about those really responsible for the crime, attempting to revive CIA lies implicating Cuba. He denies that there was any conspiracy on the part of those defending ultra-reactionary politics. The lone gunman theory is not only wielded in the case of Oswald in 1963, but also in relation to Sirhan H. Sirhan, the alleged killer of Robert Kennedy in 1968, at the very moment when the latter was elected to run against Richard Nixon, already a suspect in the Kennedy assassination. The truth has been slowly disclosed since then. The most recent details came to light in 2005, through the book by journalist David Talbot, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, with its sensational revelation that Robert was probably assassinated after he stated that, if he were elected President, which he was close to achieving, he would reopen the case.

Latell takes refuge in the discredited lone gunman theory of the Warren Commission, set up by Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination, when he succeeded Kennedy as President. One of the most recent and convincing refutations of this theory is a note sent by Oswald to Howard Hunt, also suspected of taking part in the assassination and the famous organizer of the Watergate break-in. Sent November 8, 1963, 14 days before the Kennedy assassination, it reads, "Dear Mr. Hunt: I would like information concerning my position. I am asking only for information. I am suggesting that we discuss the matter fully before any steps are taken by me or anyone else. Thank you. Lee

Harvey Oswald". (5)

Researcher Paul Kangas explains that Oswald’s note was obtained by writer and journalist Jack Anderson in New Orleans, where the "lone gunman" was living with Clay Shaw and Cubans Félix Rodríguez, Bernard Barker and Frank Sturgis, also investigated by the House Select Committee and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Anderson affirms on video that Hunt and Shaw asked Oswald to meet with them to plan the position he would take up in Dallas for the attack. When he received no answer from Hunt, Oswald told James Hosty, his FBI agent, that Hunt and a bunch of Cubans from the Miami CIA office were plotting to kill Kennedy in Dallas, on November 22, 1963. According to Kangas, Hosty sent a telex to FBI Director Hoover informing him about the assassination attempt and he passed it on to all Special Agents in Charge.

Judge Garrison states that Waggoner Carr, Attorney General of Texas, presented evidence in a secret session of the Warren Commission on January 22, 1964, revealing that Oswald was FBI secret informant No. 179 and had received a salary of $200 a month from the Bureau starting 1962. The evidence was given to Carr by Allan Sweat, head of the criminal division of the Dallas sheriff’s office and published by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Houston Post, and The Nation, but the Warren Commission did not call Sweat or the journalists who wrote the articles. Garrison admits that if Oswald was an FBI informant in Dallas and New Orleans, one could believe that his work consisted of penetrating organizations like Fair Play for Cuba and Guy Bannister’s group involved in the conspiracy to kill the President. "The question which tormented me and maybe tormented Oswald was: if the Dallas police, the sheriff’s office, the Secret Service, the FBI and the CIA were potentially implicated in the conspiracy, who were the authorities behind it all?" (6)

When Robert Blakey, chief counsel of the House Select Committee, discovered to his rage in 1990 that the recently deceased George Joannides (a CIA officer assigned by the agency to inform him about the Kennedy assassination) had concealed from him that he (Joannides) had worked closely with Oswald and the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil terrorist group in New Orleans, he called it an obstruction of justice. Now, he no longer believes anything the CIA told the Committee.

It is no surprise that the Warren Commission evaded discovering the truth; it was no coincidence that that it was headed by Congressman Ed Ford, one of Nixon’s men, Nixon also being a suspect. Allen Dulles, the omnipotent CIA director, manipulated the members appointed by Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency after Kennedy’s death, thanks to the effective coup d’état which was the assassination of the Kennedy brothers.

(1) Revolución newspaper, November 28, 1963.

(2) Ibidem.

(3) The Final Report of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Bantam Books, New York. 1979, P.320

(4) Ibidem.

(5) Granma, April 13, 2012, P. 9.

(6) Jim Garrison. JFK: Tras la pista de los asesinos, Ediciones B. Barcelona, 1988, Pp. 296-301. ................................................................................................................................................................

16TH CUBADISCO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
One of the great pleasures of my life
• Ernán López Nussa said, referring to his album Veinte pianos, winner of the Cubadisco 2012 Grand Prize

Michel Hernández

PERHAPS some people missed Ernán López Nussa’s presence during the International Cubadisco 2012 Festival gala awards ceremony held May 19 in the Karl Marx Theater, when his album Veinte pianos, which includes tracks from different stages of his career, was honored with the competition’s Grand Prize

The fact is that, at precisely this same time, the composer of ‘El blues de Wendy’ was finishing up his group’s tour in the city of Florence, in no less than the celebrated British musician Sting’s Italian home.

"This presentation was very special, not just because it was on the last day of the program, but also because it happened while I was at Sting’s house, and to my even greater surprise, he joined the trio to sing "Englishman in New York", Ernán wrote to this reporter via e-mail, before undertaking the long trip back to Havana.

The meeting with the legendary leader of The Police was intense and took on another dimension with the presentation of the Grand Prize which recognized Ernán’s recording as the most important in Cuba this year. He commented, "I see this disc as the beginning of a new stage in my life, more tied to teaching, to instruction, to the fervent desire for a better understanding, for everyone, of music, of art, of life."

The founder of the group Afrocuba and the composer of such far-reaching works as Habana Report, Ernán reported feeling gratified with the finished disc, in which he freely shares his knowledge, his conceptions and a very personal focus on musical creation, the same one he has defended since he took his first steps as a pianist in Cuban music. "I am super-satisfied. This is the work of many people, no doubt about it. All of us who participated in making the CD did so with the same effort and desire to make it a reality," he said.

Participating in the album released by Colibrí studios were 18 pianists who took Ernán’s works and returned them, creatively reflecting the infinite possibilities they contain. The CD is accompanied by a small book with tracks for children and youth composed by the prize-winning pianist, along with other pieces from his repertory specifically designed for conservatories on the island.

The artist continued, "The encounter with the musicians was spectacular. There were 18 talented pianists who recorded one after the other. It was, undoubtedly, one of the great pleasures of my life."

With the release of the album, Ernán shed light on one of the principal characteristics of his creative personality, reflected in his close collaboration with new generations of Cuban musicians. "I think that anything dedicated to the development of youth is always laudable. If all who participate make the effort to give their best, there’s no doubt that some kind of reward will always be forthcoming. •

Ernán Lopéz Nussa (Foto: Otmaro Rodríguez)

GRAND PRIZE CUBADISCO 2012; Veinte pianos, música de Ernán López Nussa, varios intérpretes (Colibrí)

EXTRAORDINARYGRAND PRIZE: Chucho’s steps, Chucho Valdés y los Mensajeros Afrocubanos (Colibrí)

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR: Ernán López Nussa

COMPOSER OF THE YEAR: Alfredo Diez Nieto

PRIZES BY CATEGORY

Contemporary Dance Music: Acabaíto de nacer, David Calzado y su Charanga Habanera (EGREM). Traditional Popular Music: La trova de siempre, Quinteto Criollo (Colibrí). Archival Music: Orígenes, Eduardo Ramos & Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC (Colibrí). Compilation: Hágase la luz, Frank Fernández & collaborators (EGREM). Anthology: Yolinho habanero, Yolo Bonilla (Bis Music/D’Isidor Records). Singer-Songwriter: La luz es música, Tammy López Moreno (Ojalá). Trova: …en tierra (Bis Music), Tony Ávila. Fusion Trova: Pi 3,14, Buena Fe (EGREM). Latin Music: Mala, Haila (Bis Music). Testimony: Las estrellas del folclor, Los Hermanos Arango (Bis Music). Reguetón: Hay kola loka pa’ rato, Kola Loka (Bis Music). Rap: Kminos, Coninuo (Escucha Records). Folkloric Music: Las estrellas del folclor, Los Hermanos Arango (Bis Music). Jazz: Travesía, Iván Melón Quinteto (Casa Unión).

Instrumental Music: Duetto, Germán Velazco & Jorge Reyes (Bis Music). Vocal Instrumental Music: Orozco Jamm, César Orozco & la Kamerata Jazz (Guataca Producciones). Fusion: Reverse, X Alfonso (Fábrica de Arte). Pop: Del viento soy, Adiané Perera (self-produced). Pop Rock: Bitácora, Extraño Corazón (Bis Music). Metal: La hora de la verdad, Escape (Ma’bulla / Brutal Beat Down/Agencia Cubana del Rock). Chamber Music: Nueve visiones, José María Vitier & collaborators (Colibrí). Concert Music: Integral de la obra de Carlos Fariñas para guitarra y laúd, Joaquín Clerch (Colibrí). Concert Soloist: El álbum de la ciudad celeste, Darío Martín (Colibrí). Opera: Canten los poetas. Música de Roberto Valera, Bárbara Llanes & Mayté Aboy (Colibrí). Choral Music: Entrevoces, Digna Guerra & the Entrevoces Choir (Colibrí).

Sound track: El premio flaco, Camerata Romeu, Amaury Ramírez Malberti (ICAIC). Children’s Music: Trocacuentos, Rosa Campo. (Bis Music) Instructional: Veinte pianos, Obras de Ernán López Nussa (Colibri). Stories for children: Los cazadores de cuentos/Cuentos de Pinar del Río, Kiki Corona, Élsida González & Caridad Martínez (EGREM). DVD for children: El concertazo de la Cucarachita Martina, La Colmenita (EGREM). First Works: Variaciones, Maykel Cuartet (Centro Pablo de la Torriente). Documentary: Revelaciones, Ileana Rodríguez (Colibrí). Making of: Más allá del ocaso, Léster Hamlet (Colibrí). CD/DVD: Veinte pianos, Ernán López Nussa and Ileana Rodríguez (Colibrí).

Graphic Design: Idania del Río and Carlos Merino for Sueños del pequeño Quin (Colibrí). Multimedia. Guille Vilar and Ediciones Cubarte for Aquí se enciende la candela (Cubarte). Audiovisual Concert: Javier Limón for Travesías (Casa Limón). Video clip: Alejandro Pérez for Angry boy /Sexto Sentido (Sexto Récords). Cover note: Natalia Bolívar for Las estrellas del folclor (Bis Music). Musicology notes: Ana Casanova for Violinesque (Colibrí). Recording: Giraldo García for Ay, la vida (Colibrí). Live recording: Jaime Canfux and Olimpia Calderón for Variaciones (Centro Pablo de la Torriente).
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Brazil seeking the truth

Laura Bécquer Paseiro

FULFILLING one of her electoral promises, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has established a Truth Commission, which is to investigate human rights violations in the country, including those committed during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). The Commission is headed by former Justice Minister José Carlos Dias and former Attorney General Cláudio Fonteles. It was officially constituted on May 16.

While the Truth Commission does not have the authority to punish those responsible for crimes – as it cannot supercede the 1979 Amnesty Law, which prevents legal proceedings against those responsible for murder, disappearances and acts of torture committed by the dictatorship – it can call witnesses under oath and have access to government documents. Moreover, it has two years to hear the testimonies of victims and witnesses, and analyze all the information it considers necessary to clarify the facts.

Its starting point is investigations undertaken prior to the Amnesty Commission, which studied formal requests for state apologies to victims of the military regime, and those of the Political Deaths and Disappearances Commission, responsible for acknowledging them.

With this initiative, the government hopes that an account of what happened during the years of 1964 through 1985 will act as a guarantee that Brazil will never relive a similar situation.

The measure was accompanied by the Access to Information Law, which obliges all spheres of public power to divulge information required by citizens in simple and direct language, with facilities for finding the information on Internet.

The legislation also establishes a 25-year confidentiality period for ultra-secret documents, 15 years for those which are secret, and five for reserved ones. These periods can only be renewed once.

Brazil has thus joined countries such as Argentina, Chile, Peru and Guatemala, where similar commissions have been created to reveal those horrific moments of their histories.

"This is a historic date for Brazilians. Two laws have been approved which deal with different, but connected, issues; they represent a decisive step in the consolidation of Brazilian democracy," affirmed Rousseff, who clarified that the objective is not to promote revenge against those who committed crimes, but to seek the truth.

This issue is one which directly touches the President, who personally experienced dictatorial repression. Rousseff was a member of the Palmares Revolutionary Armed Vanguard and the National Liberation Commando guerrilla groups. During this period she was known as the Joan of Arc of the guerrilla movement.

She was arrested in 1970 and subjected to sessions of torture for 22 days. Her imprisonment lasted for three years. "Nobody comes out of that unscathed," she confined herself to saying to the Brazilian Piauí magazine, a few months before she won the 2010 election.

Various political leaders suffered similar persecution during the dictatorship, including former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), who was imprisoned for standing up to the regime as a labor leader.

His predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002), was exiled in Chile, and singer-songwriters Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso took refuge in London.

The Truth Commission created in Brazil is fundamental to the new generations knowing their recent past, when thousands of people were incarcerated, tortured and murdered.