October 20, Day of Cuban Culture
Celebrations of Cuban Culture Across the Island and Around the World
The Cuban Embassy in Canada celebrates the Day of
Culture
October 23, 2024.
In Cuba, since 1980, October 20 has been celebrated as the Day of Cuban Culture. This year, many events were held to honour Cuban culture across the country. Activities were also held around the world, including in Canada.
The activities organized to mark the Day of Cuban Culture
included film presentations, musical concerts, folkloric dance
performances, plays and readings. "The Day is an opportunity to
draw attention to efforts for the protection of heritage, while
showing school as a place of cultural integration and to
emphasize the role of Cuban culture as a symbol of resilience
and
diversity," the Cuban Ministry of Culture stated.
Radio Havana Cuba noted on October 12 that the Day of Cuban Culture "is an opportunity to pay tribute to those who, through the ages, have defended our identity [...] It is a tribute to the artists, creators, historians and intellectuals who have brought Cuban culture to every corner of the country, to inaccessible mountain communities or to prisons, making a right guaranteed by the Revolution a reality."
"From the outset, the Revolution's cultural policy was designed to encourage popular participation in cultural processes and to make the best of Cuban and world art available to the people," Radio Havana Cuba added.
In Cuba, festivities were interrupted by cross-country power outages that began October 17, caused by a breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas. The U.S. illegal blockade against Cuba has led to fuel shortages and difficulty in getting spare parts for the electrical grid.
Nonetheless, in Bayamo on October 20, the day's main event took place. It paid tribute to Perucho Figueredo, a lawyer, poet, and musician who was part of the forces fighting against Spain during Cuba's first war of independence. In 1867 Figueredo composed La Bayamesa -- the Hymn of Bayamo -- about that struggle. The song was first heard on October 20, 1868 at the Battle of Bayamo where the independence fighters, which included Figueredo, prevailed over the Spanish. The Day of Cuban Culture commemorates this historic date.
In 1902, La Bayamesa became Cuba's national anthem. A
translation of the lyrics of the National Anthem follows:
Hasten to combat, people of Bayamo!
Because the homeland looks proudly upon you;
Do not fear a glorious death,
To die for the homeland is to live.
To live in shackles is to live
Mired in shame and disgrace.
Now hear the sound of the bugle;
To arms, brave ones, hasten!
Also celebrated on this occasion was the 120th anniversary of the birth of the great Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), and the role of community art instructors trained to teach arts and culture in the schools and community-based projects across Cuba.
Bayamo, which is today the capital of Granma province, was the site of many key battles in Cuba's independence wars against Spain. It was also pivotal in the armed struggle led by Fidel Castro, that finally succeeded in freeing Cuba from foreign dictate with the overthrow of the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.
In his book Visiting Cuba,
Hardial Bains, founder and
leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) wrote
about the visit of a Party delegation to Bayamo in 1995. During
that trip, the delegation also visited La Comandancia, also in
Granma province to the south of Bayamo, which was the command
post of the Rebel Army in
the Sierra Maestra mountains. This visit took place during the
Special Period
when the Cuban people were facing great economic challenges as a
result of the collapse of their trading relations with the
former
Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, which intensified the
hardships caused by the U.S. blockade.
On the return from La Comandancia, the delegation met with
musicians of Quinteto Rebelde whose cultural contributions
became
integral to the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro in the mountains.
In the book Visiting Cuba, Hardial Bains conveyed what
the members of Quinteto Rebelde explained: "In due course, Fidel
Castro
suggested that they should join the battle with their songs and
music. In this way, they would not only inspire the guerrillas
in
the heat of battle but also strike fear in the hearts of the
enemy soldiers. The necessary equipment in the form of loud
speakers and a small generator were procured and the quintet
played its own important role during the revolutionary war. To
this day four of its original members, along with two new young
players, continue to play not only the old revolutionary songs,
but new ones as well. Just as the old songs tell of the heroic
exploits of the guerrilla fighters and describe the faces of the
enemy troops, so too the new ones are dedicated to the current
struggle of the Cuban people against the U.S. blockade [...]"
Quinteto Rebelde performing amidst other fighters
of the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra, including Fidel Castro.
Right: the group marks its 60th anniversary in May 2018.
Reflecting on the visit to La Comandancia, Hardial Bains wrote:
"What came to mind was that this world is not so orderly or so well-planned. Were everything to be organized ahead of time, taking care of the minutest detail, making sure nothing is left to the imagination, we would not be human. Even more so, what would be the need for human beings if the task of humanizing the environment were no longer there? Revolution, the mode of development of society, is not only unknown in terms of all its details, drama and splendour, but it cannot be organized to the hilt even if it were possible to know all the qualities in advance. What would a revolution bring to the world, if the sum is already known? When something new is being created, it is not possible to identify all the results beforehand. Preparations are made accordingly. We must learn as we go along, using theory and the highest achievements humankind has given rise to in the past, as our guide."
The role of culture in consolidating the Cuban Revolution brings to mind the words of Comrade Bains in summing up the Party delegation's visit in 1995: "If someone were to ask me what the word Cuba means after this visit [...] I would say that for me Cuba means the people of a new world coming of age, realizing their potential and the necessity to affirm themselves. Cuba means finding solutions to the problems facing the people under all circumstances and never giving up or succumbing to difficulties."
Cuba's Ambassador to Canada, His Excellency Rodrigo Malmierca
Díaz, addresses the gathering at the Embassy of Cuba in
Ottawa, which also featured musicians, poets and artists.
Cuba's Day of Culture is celebrated at the
Toronto Latin American Film Festival,
October 20, 2024.
Cuban education workers in Equatorial Guinea mark
the Day of Culture,
October 19, 2024.
Cuban embassy in Honduras celebrates the Day of
Culture, October 20, 2024.
Video: "Quinteto Rebelde, the Most Powerful Weapon in the Sierra
Maestra"
released on the group's 60th anniversary in May 2018.
(With files from Prensa Latina, Radio Havana Cuba, Visiting Cuba)
This article was published in
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/ITN2024/Articles/TI54411.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca