Where there is power, there is resistance. Friday, November 27 marks a key chapter in the history of resistance to oppression in Cuba when a group of 300 artists and intellectuals organized a protest outside the Ministry of Culture in Habana. Protesters read poems and sang the National Anthem. In light of overwhelming pressure from inside and outside Cuba the Ministry of Culture was pressured to meet with representatives of the protesters for 5 hours to discuss topics such as the release of arbitrarily imprisoned activist Denis Solis, and end to repression and harassment of artists in Cuba and a public correction of a slander published by the official press against the San Isidro Movement. Across the island, activist of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and Cubadecide expressed their solidarity in street protests.
Since Fidel Castro’s speech, known as “Words to intellectuals,” in the summer 1961 (in response to the critical stance of the Lunes de Revolution intellectuals/artists)m the regime forcefully established a cultural policy that subjugated culture to the interests of the state/the Communist Party and the power elites.
Subsequently, artists, film directors and independent thinking who have criticized the regime have been the target of censorship, marginalization, harassment, expulsions from their workplaces, forced exile, acts of repudiations and invisibilization (erasing their work/contribution and names from all official reference, books, films, radio broadcasts, etc). The San Isidro Movement has decided to stand up for their rights and put an end to 60 years of censorship and repression of artists in Cuba.
