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Dear
graduates and relatives;
Students and teachers from Cuba’s Schools for Art
Instructors;
Members of the José Martí Brigades from Pinar del
Rio, La Habana, Ciudad de La Habana and Matanzas,
and those members who were unable to attend;
Members of the Young Communists League;
Artists, intellectuals and other guests;
Fellow Cubans:
We
had planned to gather for this ceremony exactly
one year after the first was held, on October 20,
to celebrate Cuban Culture Day on the day a new
crop of art instructors, educated in the schools
born of the creative spirit of our Battle of
Ideas, graduated, but unpredictable and powerful
hurricane Wilma obliged us to postpone this
much-awaited gathering until today.
Some
of you, from the eastern provinces, were already
in the capital when, two days before, we decided
to postpone this celebration because of hurricane
Wilma’s dangerous proximity to Cuba. I know that,
as a result of this, you have been in the capital
for over a week now. Surely, you understand that
we could not have sent you back home while that
complex meteorological situation was still
affecting us.
Today, 3,092 of the 3,879 students who began their
studies in the 2001-2002 school year graduate as
art instructors; the second year to graduate from
these institutions, which were opened on February
18, 2001 as part of a program aimed at graduating
30,000 art instructors over the course of 10
years.
Of
these graduates, 60.4 % are female and 39.5 % are
male. Most of them come from working-class
families.
These newly graduates, equipped with practical
skills and experience, were assigned to 3,048
educational institutions, including Cuba’s 26
polytechnic institutes specializing in
informatics.
With
this new group of graduates, Cuba has 6,318 art
instructors, which means that at least one art
instructor can be assigned to each of the 4,898
pre-schools, grammar schools, special education
schools, junior and senior high schools.
Thus, a marvelous avenue is opening leading to the
education of the youngest generations in the
appreciation and sensitivity towards the arts
while paving the way for the ambitious purpose of
attaining a widespread comprehensive general
culture for all of our people.
We want for our people to be
knowledgeable not only in the arts, but also in
history, science, economics, geography, the
environment and the most varied fields of
knowledge, and to have a profoundly humanitarian
conscience.
We
are pleased to know that from the two graduations
combined, 6,147 youths have decided to pursue
higher studies and that, of these, 3,555 will
pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Instruction.
These young people accumulate an immense amount of
knowledge that is essential to the lofty aim of
creating a society of justice where everyone is
given equal opportunities.
The
“José Martí” Brigade, created exactly one year ago
today, is a special source of encouragement for
these young art instructors, inspiring them to
continue with their education, to be disciplined
and organized and to commit themselves
wholeheartedly to their tasks. With the
establishment of its full structure, the Brigade
under the direction of the Council of State was
fully assembled this past May 19, on the 110th
anniversary of the death in combat of our national
independence hero.
The
revolution has given the Young Communists League
the huge political task, of contributing to the
success of the art instructors’ program, which had
a false start in the past but is fruit of our
dreams for a better and more educated society. The
Young Communists League is responsible for
coordinating the work of the “José Martí” Brigade.
It must ensure the quality of its work, that it
improves itself constantly and that its members
honor their commitments. Supporting the work of
YCL members who coordinate the Brigade efforts at
the municipal and provincial levels is a top
priority for this youth organization.
After a year of work, art instructors are working
with 480,526 children and adolescents at schools
and to 85,599 in art workshops. Efforts to enhance
artistic talent and cultivate art appreciation are
also undertaken by Cultural Centers, which
organize activities for 227,390 children and
adolescents; this figure will be more than
multiplied in coming years, when the contingent of
young people who today study to become art
instructors reaches all of the country’s schools
and communities.
Numerous anecdotes have been pulled together from
all over the country, telling of work experiences
during this past school year. They show just how
many possibilities to improve human beings are
opened up by the work and guidance of art
instructors who work in schools, correctional
centers, prisons and other social institutions.
Here are some anecdotes, told by the very art
instructors or their coordinators:
What
does Yennys García Betancourt have to say?
Specialty: theatre. ‘Fernando Cuesta Piloto’
National Urban School. Cienfuegos Municipality.
Well, I hadn’t included this one with a number of
other comments but as I’ve already mentioned it, I
can’t leave it out now; it was due to some words.
She said: “My school is in the heart of the
People’s Council of San Lázaro, many of whose
inhabitants” —this is where I disagree with Yennys
García Betancourt. I didn’t want to include this
comment, but the people who transcribed my notes
made a mistake; I had crossed it out and it made
it here anyway. She must be an excellent
instructor, but she said: “Many of its inhabitants
have a low educational level and criminal
backgrounds”. That’s a bit too much to say, I
disagree; I know our people and I know some are
more humble than others; but all Cubans had
extremely low levels of education before.
We
didn’t know a thing about anything in the past;
30% of us were illiterate, 90% semi-illiterate,
and we were very far from something like what we
are witnessing today, a phenomenon that is so
impressive, so exciting; we were very far from
something like what we witnessed several weeks
ago, I mean, the graduation of doctors from Cuba
and other countries; the creation of the Henry
Reeve contingent, whose members, more than 1,000
in number, are now in the two places where the
most trying and dramatic catastrophes of recent
times have occurred: one, in response to the
hurricanes, in Guatemala, the other, in response
to the earthquakes, which resulted in the deaths
of more than 50,000 people and injured more than
80,000 others, 90% of whom are suffering traumas
due to fractures of the upper or lower extremities
or other parts of the body.
It
is easy to enumerate the dead and injured, but one
must think of the terrible sorrow and suffering of
those victims, those human beings directly
affected by the tragedy.
All
of you surely remember the day when, while
participating in the graduation ceremony, I
stumbled and fell; I wasn’t paying attention, I
was looking at you, there in Santa Clara, when I
fell and shattered my knee-cap in eight pieces,
and the upper part of my right arm, where I had
something a bit more serious than fissures, what I
thought I had at the time; that was perhaps the
most serious and most trying injury. I remember
how I suffered. Before then, I knew of this kind
of suffering through others; but I went through
the experience myself, and that is why I speak
with so much passion when I recall so much
suffering and so much sorrow caused by these
catastrophes (Applause).
Let
me continue commenting on what comrade Yennys
said, which is very interesting. She said: “At
first, I was a bit afraid at having to work with
children of such peculiar backgrounds. I started
with a group in the fourth grade, described as the
school’s most difficult group. I would never have
expected and was overwhelmed by the affection the
children showed me”. Just imagine this girl, she’s
practically a girl. I remember very well how we
chose the students for the program. They were
students completing their junior high school, and
were going to enroll in a special 4-year senior
high school program, to live as boarder students
in the art instructors’ schools created that year,
in the course of that one year.
I
remember the program, when we discussed each and
every subject, until it was up and running and,
and of course, as you would expect, as it’s with
everything, it is still being improved. The
students were very young; generally speaking, you
are the youngest graduates we have.
I
remember, for instance, the graduation of social
workers. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like
when we meet with them because, not counting all
of their relatives, you need more than two
stadiums or sport complexes, if you will, a
coliseum like this one, with capacity for 15,000
people, to house them, and they also constitute an
immensely powerful force that is already having a
huge impact on our society. What a force! No one
dare underestimate these young people, much less
the nouveaux riches and the thieves, because they
will help eliminate a number of evils that still
plague our society, as we try to build a better
world closer to the people than it has ever been
over the course of history.
Let
no one think they are stupid, or illiterate, or
ignorant, because it is they who are working and
who today are ensuring that our country earns
hundreds of millions of dollars that were lost or
squandered; and I would go further because,
including electricity, and all sources of energy,
including many other things, the sum which our
country will have available shortly is much higher
than the one I mentioned, and no hurricane will
stop us.
One
has already passed and is now forgotten or, better
said, it was crushed by the work our people are
carrying out. And there was the other that turned
Havana into Venice, and the world was getting
nervous, while thousands of Cubans made use of
every available resource to restore normality in a
matter of days. In the meantime, planes were
carrying brigades belonging to the Henry Reeve
contingent south-west, to Guatemala, or
south-east, to far-off Pakistan, to reach regions
that are 3,000 or 4,000 meters above sea-level. We
are talking of the Himalayan mountain side, whence
Mount Everest emerges, a symbol of that summit
which the peoples of this world, our people
included, aspire to reach in the social field and
in terms of justice, a summit which no one has
reached, not in millennia. But I do believe that
today, at a time when we face more difficulties
than ever, no other country in the world is as
close to that peak as ours is.
Neither nature nor the empire will be able to
crush our people’s spirit, nor prevent us from
reaching our goals.
I’ll
continue with what that young girl said, she’s
practically a little girl. That is why we cannot
be critical, not in the least, if she used a
certain phrase because she didn’t write it for
publication, she didn’t write it for anyone else,
those who transcribed it for potential inclusion
in a speech were in such a rush, perhaps, that
they didn’t even notice what it said. It’s not
important, anyway.
She
said: “I started with a group in the fourth grade,
described as the school’s most difficult group. I
would never have expected and was overwhelmed by
the affection the children showed me”. The
children from that neighborhood, which is probably
very poor and must have areas where living
conditions are very hard.
Hassan must remember it, because he visited the
city’s poorest quarters with medical students
during the first years of the Battle of Ideas; he
visited those places in search of testimonies and
to help tens of thousands of children, and we
would receive news about these places every day.
She
continued to say: “…and they were so taken with my
theatre classes that I put together a theatre
group with most of my students, the Abracadabra
group, which today represents the school. The most
difficult part was convincing the parents, using a
thousand persuasive arguments, to let their
children rehearse at extra-curricular hours”. What
does that mean? Saturday, Sunday, in the
afternoon, in the morning? At what time, before or
after the power cuts? (Laughter) “I met with them
on several occasions, and receiving their support
during the preparation of our screen plays was
something unexpected”.
“The
mother of one of my students was in prison”. It’s
sad, isn’t it? But that doesn’t make the town or
neighborhood a den of criminals. Society is the
one guilty of those crimes, because those
neighborhoods didn’t materialize out of thin air;
the civilized and cultured order that conquered us
and exploited us for centuries, that brought
slavery with it and established a society of
abysmal differences which lasted until the triumph
of the revolution in 1959, with very, very, very
rich people, who didn’t live over there in San
Lázaro, they lived in La Víbora first—there are
some remnants of that society, no, not anymore,
there are working-class families there now— and
then they moved to what is today Plaza, and then
they moved to what used to be Miramar and is today
a part of Plaza, or over there, near the Country
Club which existed at the time the revolution
triumphed, there were many places like that there,
they were there, as I recall, over there, near
that cadets school in Ceiba, beyond Caimito.
Farmland was already being re-distributed there at
the time, very far away from that neighborhood,
that neighborhood at the outskirts of the city.
“My
school is in the heart of the San Lázaro People’s
Council, in the Cienfuegos Municipality”. I made a
mistake, I got everything mixed up. Where’s the
young instructor? She must be out there somewhere.
Where’s the young girl? (Applause). It’s not in
the province of Havana. I don’t know what’s there
but, in any event, wherever it is, one should be
careful. I spoke of San Lázaro here in Havana, of
its history, there are probably neighborhoods just
like it in other parts, like Santiago, the
neighborhood of Cuabita. Where are the people from
Santiago? (Shouts from the audience). Recall that
small neighborhood or that big one near the
landing field and the Santa Ifigenia cemetery,
those neighborhoods are everywhere.
Since I was talking about Yennys García, where is
Yennys? Yennys! Run! Come over here and give me a
hand (Applause). Every cloud has a silver lining,
as the saying goes (Applause).
Tell
us about it here, can you do that?
She
says yes, that she can tell us about it, without
mentioning the name of the child.
Yennys García:
The
thing is, as the Commander was saying, working
with that difficult group was an extraordinary
experience. You know that all children are
restless, joyful but, well, those children had
special characteristics. So, I got there and I set
out to change things and to bring art into
classroom, which is the great task all of us art
instructors have, that is the reason this project
came into being; get children to mingle with each
other and help them get along with each other
better, communicate better, and, so I rolled up my
sleeves and started to work with them.
It’s
very difficult for all art instructors at the
beginning, because every school is something new,
something unknown, but the children who received
me were full of joy. To my surprise, the parents,
after they realized how important theatre was to
their children and how it was changing them,
started to help me with the preparations for the
play we were staging, with the rehearsals of the
artistic group.
There was another child I taught in that
community, whose mom was in jail and whose family
had a number of problems. The important thing is
that I managed to get that child involved in art
and that his classmates began to accept him better
when they saw him develop artistically.
That’s what’s important about our work, and I
believe all of us art instructors have similar
experiences, because there are always people and
children, all children have that fantasy hidden
somewhere, and that’s why we’re here, that is our
reason for being, to dispel the world’s darkness,
the darkness of problems, to dispel whatever
traumas children may have and to bring out that
beautiful bit of sunshine in them. I think that is
the most important part of each and every one of
our experiences (Applause).
Commander in Chief:
Well, she forgot to say something, but she
explained things very well. And I’m glad this has
allowed us to see an art instructor in action, to
listen to her talk about her work.
What
she forgot to say was: “To our satisfaction, the
mother had a day off coinciding with the day the
play was staged, so she could see the fruit of her
young child’s hard work, with such a young a
teacher”. I was right, you saw her here.
What
did Carlos say, for instance?
Carlos Ruiz Silverio, Placetas Municipality,
Guaracabulla Jagueye People’s Council. Specialty:
music. “Enrique Villegas” Grammar School.
“While teaching my workshops, I met a splendid
little girl in the school who filled me with joy.
Whoever doesn’t know her and hears her sing might
say she’s in an art school, but she’s not. She’s a
little country girl who, until recently, didn’t
even know what a musical instrument was. Her
voice, however, impresses everyone. I decided to
have one of my students, who plays the guitar,
provide the musical accompaniment for a song I had
her sing. The results were excellent. Those who
watched and listened to her performance were very
moved by the talent of this little girl, who had
blossomed and, thanks to the technical training,
was already yielding beautiful fruits”.
What
happened with Oslendys Baño Rodríguez, from the
Guines Municipality, whose specialty is music, who
works at the “Felix Varela” School?
This
art teacher put together a group whose repertoire
includes everything from the national anthem to
the most renowned of Cuban cha cha cha. He
put together a music band in different schools,
then joined them into one big band whose
performance on May 19 reverberated throughout the
municipality and left housewives, neighbors,
workers and other members of the community
impressed and amazed, seeing how little children
could perform those pieces.
What
about Eliécer Fernández Rodríguez, specialty:
visual arts, “Jesús Martínez” grammar school,
Niceto Pérez People’s Council, rural area, San
Cristóbal Municipality, mountain region?
Residents of the municipality say that, since his
arrival at the community, life has not been the
same. He put together a group of people with
craftsmanship skills and improved the appearance
of that remote place with crafts and murals
depicting natural settings. They tell us that,
thanks to him, they have come into contact with
and been able to appreciate visual arts and even
hold exhibitions there, on the mountain, where
prizes have been awarded. Eliécer tells us he was
lucky to have been assigned to work in that area;
he confesses that, at first, he did not want to
go, but that, after arriving there and seeing that
he had the opportunity to change the lives of
those people, he didn’t give it a second thought
and has remained there to this day. He feels he
has become a more sensitive person and loves what
he does immensely.
Another example is the case of Yuderquis Martínez
Sardiñas. Specialty: visual arts. “Juan Delio
Chacón” People’s Council. “Omar Antonio Bautista
Ramírez” Special Correctional School No. 1.
It
was difficult for me, she said, to understand the
need of assigning me to work in a correctional
school, bearing in mind the particular
characteristics of these centers. However, I have
seen that my work with them has improved
communication and that they have become more
sociable people. It seems that art works a certain
magic.
Yuderquis mentions the name of one of her students
and she adds: “He has a glass eye; I’ve worked
closely with him, he has talent for visual arts”.
“I
am satisfied with the results I’ve obtained. I
think this child will never forget me and may even
think of me as a mother, knowing that, not being
his mother, I offer him all of my love to win
myself a place in his heart, something I believe I
am achieving”.
What
does María de los Ángeles Hartermar tell us? Her
specialty is theatre. Gerona Centro People’s
Council.
“I
won’t deny that I was a little scared when I first
got there. I had never before worked in a prison
as an instructor. I was surprised by how well
received we were; they welcomed our initiative. It
fell on them to break the ice and they did an
impressive job. A band that played non
conventional instruments (sticks, cans, buckets)
performed. They actually played very well. One of
them approached me, he wanted to show me a play he
had written about his life as an inmate and the
lessons he was learning there. This has taught me
that we should not underestimate people when they
are willing to change and turn to art as means to
do so”.
Following a year of work and experiences like the
ones we have just read about, 123 of the best
brigade members will go on to staff the Schools
for Art Instructors, which have grown and today
have a total of 2,950 professors; of these, 799
teach general subjects and 2,151 teach the various
specialties.
More
than 370 graduates from higher education
institutions, specializing in music or visual
arts, have also become professors in these
schools.
The
contribution of artists and intellectuals who have
joined in these educational efforts has been truly
valuable. What we need even more than this
contribution is the participation of the artistic
vanguard in our efforts to forge this new
generation of instructors, who have already become
an indispensable force in the colossal struggle to
raise the overall educational level of our people.
In
May 2000, when the decision to begin this program
was made, we had a mere 2,000 instructors in the
whole country. Today, counting the students who
are working in schools and graduates who staff the
abovementioned centers, we have a total of 22,025
youths in this program.
A
few days ago, the sixth school year of our 15
Schools for Art Instructors began.
Today’s students have enrolled in their courses
with a better sense of what specialties they will
pursue. Whereas only 7% of those young people who
enrolled in the first academic year had some prior
artistic instruction, 41% of those who have
enrolled this year have some knowledge of art
thanks to the amateur movement, received classes
from a teacher or come from a vocational art
school.
Enrollment continues to be predominantly female
(64.5%) and about half of our future art
instructors come from working-class families.
In
keeping with the principles of justice and
equality that inspire our project, these schools
have been opened to young people with disabilities
since the time of their creation; programs of
study have been adjusted to meet the needs of
these young people, without diminishing the
quality of the education provided. In the year
which has just ended, 43 young people with
disabilities were enrolled in classes; of these,
18 have physical and motor disabilities, 8 are
blind, 2 deaf, 7 deaf and dumb, 4 visually
impaired and 1 suffers from a visual and
physical-motor disability. Eight of these youths
graduate here today and join the ranks of the
noble and enterprising army of art instructors, as
is their due right, demonstrating that no
obstacles are insurmountable for human beings.
We
have continued to improve the curriculum; the
program of studies for the specialties of music,
theatre and dance have been modified to offer
students a more comprehensive education that is
more in tune with the activities they will carry
out as art instructors. Workshops on other art
disciplines are offered in all specialties.
A
considerable greater number of audiovisual
instruments and computers, and extraordinary
teaching tools, have been made available to the
schools. There is now one computer for every 15
students.
The
8 software packages employed in general
post-secondary education are used, in addition to
one which was designed specifically for the Art
Appreciation and History course taught at the
Schools for Art Instructors.
Research is not separate from study, appreciation
or teaching of arts. The scientific conferences in
which teachers and members of the “José Martí”
Brigade participate every school year encourage
the creation of teaching instruments that help
develop workshops, contribute to the overall
improvement of the educational process and offer
those who have graduated as art instructors a
space to share rewarding experiences in their work
with children and adolescents.
The
maintenance and restoration of the 15 schools for
art instructors continues; most of these schools
were set up in former educational facilities which
were made functional again as part of the
feverish, creative process set in motion by the
Battle of Ideas.
We
must pay attention to every detail to make these
schools a model of education, discipline,
creativity, ethics and morale.
We
hope that all first course graduates who are still
working will honor their commitment to work as art
instructors for no less than 5 years, as was first
agreed, and that those who graduate today will
work for no less than 8, as they vowed, in that
beautiful profession that takes spiritual
treasures and knowledge to all corners of the
nation, to children and adolescents especially,
and which guarantees a brighter and wiser future
for all Cubans.
Central state administrative bodies must respect
this commitment, and refrain from usurping art
instructors to use them in other areas, as they
did in the past, because this will not be
tolerated.
And
take heed, about this and many other things; we
have the case of the art instructors, for
instance. There is also the case of those who are
graduating as physical education and sports
teachers and we are witnessing this pirate-like
brain-drain there as well. Let he who is without
sin cast the first stone.
Yes,
very few have not been guilty of brain-drain from
one sector to another. Party cadres, yes,
revolutionary people who wanted to be cadres but
who didn’t know a thing, who had no experience,
who weren’t even experienced in the building of
socialism, they got mixed up in all sorts of silly
things and entangled in red tape; but brain-drain
between sectors betrays a lack of revolutionary
ethics. “This is a good professor, so I’m taking
him with me because he’s trained”.
That’s the way many teachers were taken away of
their profession in the first years of the
revolution; they needed someone who knew how to
read and write, so they took one from here,
another one from there: “I’ll give you this”,
“you’ll be closer from home”. There was a kind of
feudal war going on, it must be said.
For
instance, the case of Cuba’s Central Bank, an
extremely important institution that is becoming
more and more important; they were training
programmers there, people versed in computer
sciences, and other state bodies, who weren’t
offering any kind of training, would come to them
and say: “I have this really nice hotel, there’s a
good salary and tips in it for you”. Or they would
say: “Look, I’m taking this teacher with me for
him to teach this, that and the other”. They were
always tempting people, offering them things, and
these are capitalist vices, capitalist habits, no
one can imagine the number of things like that
that were done.
A
society that aims to be different, a new society
that sets high goals for itself, drags with it all
of the vices of that corrupt society it wishes to
change. These vices weigh down on it. Only time
and work, if one works hard can make the
difference. And nothing is more common and
widespread in the world than the mistakes of
revolutionaries, of those who want to change
society or change the world. That is why only a
few revolutions achieve progress and no few of
them, of the few, end up failing over the course
of historical periods.
I
believe our country is making a huge effort to
move forward and that this is perhaps due to the
strength of its adversary, the magnitude of the
difficulties it faces, which have forced all of
us, in one way or another, to improve ourselves.
And we will most likely continue to make progress
and to be in the lead as we move towards that goal
we call “a better world”, the goals we have set
for ourselves.
What
we were doing to each other was shameful, perhaps
explainable at first because almost no one knew
how to read or write. Then, they would go to a
school and lure the teacher away. That happened
for many years and it happens still. Today, of
course, they would like to lure a university
professor, but they can’t offer him just any job,
any position like pushing papers behind a desk.
Central state administrative bodies must respect
this commitment “and refrain from the embarrassing
practice of usurping art instructors, as was done
in the past, as this will not be tolerated”. I
don’t know what they could do with an art
instructor eager to do something else or who
forgets his promise and wants to become an artist.
The instructor may have an exceptional talent, I
don’t doubt that many of them will become artists,
great artists even, I got this impression when I
visited that school in Boyeros. But they have a
duty, the revolution has trained them for a
certain task and doesn’t chain them to that task
for life, though we know that many will be so
enamored of their profession, young people like
you, that they will devote their entire lives to
providing an education to their fellow citizens,
to forging revolutionaries, to forging talents in
the art world.
The
first program was a 5-year program, the second is
a 7-year program. Now we have radio and television
programs, they’re not from the United States,
they’re not designed by the government that wants
to bring about a democratic transition in Cuba.
Imagine a transition towards the past. That’s what
they have in mind and, curiously enough, one of
the first items on the list of this plan
coordinated by a lunatic that —as I was saying
last night— the illustrious president of the
United States has appointed president of the
Commission, or who knows what, for a Transition in
Cuba, is to go to Europe and ask for help with the
transition from European flunkies and, yes, no few
mercenaries.
If
Europe, if rotten Europe wants to help them,
that’s Europe’s problem. We say to them: let the
rotten Europe take a shot at it and see what
happens. It insulted us once, offended us,
pretending to take away humanitarian aid it never
actually gave us, what it got from uneven trade
and from selling manufactured products and buying
raw materials was much, much more. Just look at
how expensive anything they sell is, that’s how
they maintain sky-high profits, buying raw
materials at low prices, raw materials like
nickel, tobacco leaves, not even rolled tobacco,
nickel to produce stainless steel, etc.
I
calculated the profits Europe was making through
trade with Cuba —I spoke about this in Santiago de
Cuba, on July 26, at the 50th
anniversary of the revolution— and it’s more than
200 million dollars, money we gave them, and they
were giving us three or four miserable millions,
which the generous donors spent in five-star
hotels. We warned them: “We don’t need that petty
handout”, and, when they persisted with their
insults, the people protested, in front of their
embassies, more than 500,000 people protested in
front of each of their embassies, and so many
people were out there that a third, simultaneous
protest march could have been organized; make no
mistake. And when they came, we said to them: “No,
we don’t want any humanitarian aid”, we can
actually even offer it to you, because you have
less doctors per capita than we do, and there are
people there who go blind because they can’t
afford surgery and you don’t have the qualified
professionals we do, nor can you send a team of
doctors to any corner of the world. All you can do
is threaten to intervene, threaten to bomb; and
that’s where the Yankee lunatic has gone asking
for a hand, to Europe.
What
can Europe do to us? It can do nothing. Thank God
there’s a country that can say that. A country
that doesn’t need the Yankees, that doesn’t need
Europe. We are part of a changing world and we are
a strong revolution and a formidable people that
knows how to fight against its adversaries and to
struggle against its own errors and its own
weaknesses (Applause).
Let
them carry on with their nonsense and their
mercenary ways. No one will be able to place
Cuba’s art education in mercenary hands; they will
try, no doubt, to steal, and they do often manage
to steal talented people and artists (Applause).
You
will be the professors of tomorrow, and so will
other young people who are studying today, artists
who build consciences and forge minds, who are not
indolent or unconscious and forget that a child
who beings studying an art form when he is five,
six or seven years old, who goes through an art
school, who has the opportunity to study at an art
institution free of charge, will later shine as an
artist, as the true wealth of talent we give our
people will one day shine forth.
A
moral consciousness must be forged early on if we
are to be spared the ingratitude of some who reach
the top of the ladder in the art world and
surprise us with their desertion; one day we get
the news: “so and so didn’t come back”. And why
does so and so do not come back, if not because
they are lacking in conscience, in love for the
people who nurtured them and gave them everything,
in spite of the blockade, in spite of the
sacrifices demanded, in spite of threats?
(Applause). They owe to those workers who cut
sugar cane, who drove tractors, who worked for
endless hours, in agriculture, in industry,
anywhere; at a primary school, at a secondary
school, at a university, everywhere.
A
revolution is the triumph of virtue over vice, the
triumph of honor over dishonor, the triumph of
moral and patriotic integrity over mercenary
impulses and vice; the most those who cannot build
values on ethical foundations can do is to steal
talents, because talents are formed spontaneously
in many of those countries, through the initiative
of the citizens themselves, there are no art
schools for everyone like here: they exist only
for the rich or very rich. In our country, they
are open to everyone, without exception
(Applause).
We
were talking about teachers, those who educate,
who create for the benefit of everyone, and of
those who steal from us and want to take our
artists and athletes, or our brains in any field
of science. As with everything else, they also
tried to take all of our doctors and, of the 6,000
we had, not all of them experienced, they took
half, 3,000. This did not prevent us from reaching
the figure of 70,000 today. More than 25,000,
according to calculations I must verify, are
studying medicine today. We have an enrollment of
7,000 every year; more than 12,000 are studying at
the Latin American School of Medical Sciences;
20,000 Latin American students, most of them from
the region’s poorest countries, will begin courses
in the first quarter of next year. And nothing but
respect will be read in the eyes of those who
attempted to deprive this country of doctors. Now,
they see an entire nation transformed into a
university training professionals in many
specialties, most importantly in that humane
specialty that restores health and saves lives:
medicine. History has already meted out due
punishment for the crimes they committed against
us. You will see 100,000 doctors come out of Cuba,
because we are helping to train doctors for the
whole world, while they haven’t a single doctor
they can send anywhere (Applause).
Mercenary attitudes will never give us an
internationalist doctor; mercenary attitudes will
never give us a valuable and glorious contingent
specialized in natural disasters, epidemics and
serious illnesses like AIDS, which is the scourge
of entire nations and continents, almost to the
point of obliterating their populations; and they
cannot prevent us from offering aid, because, for
each and every one of those doctors we had, those
they stole from us, some 3,000 of them, there are
8 times that number participating in
internationalist missions or helping peoples in
times of immense pain.
First they took 3,000 and then others who had
graduated; and, in spite of that, we now have
25,000 doctors, a new type of doctor, offering
their services in the Third World. And, here in
Cuba, nearly 50,000 of them keep working. How many
times the original number? Fifteen, sixteen or
seventeen times, distributed across all of the
country’s municipalities, reaching all corners of
our nation, from Sandino, next to Cape San
Antonio, to Maisí, in Baracoa, on the mountains
and the prairies.
We
are well aware that our system is not perfect, but
no other country has ever had as many doctors
working so close to the population as we do. No
other country has ever had what we have in greater
and greater numbers: networks of outpatient
clinics, that is to say, primary care centers, and
not only that but also physical rehabilitation
centers attached to those clinics, which now have
equipment they never had before, new standardized
equipment, which can be maintained and repaired,
something which becomes impossible when you have
40 or 50 different brands in use, as was the case
until recently in our country, and those
outpatient clinics are already becoming a model
and centers offering training for doctors.
There will be tens, or rather hundreds and
hundreds of university campuses offering medical
programs.
This, of course, isn’t talked about much in
cables, no, or on television or the radio, which
are crammed full of ads and official lies. The
governments behind these media have a lot of
nerve.
You
recall that we asked Mr. Bush:” Okay, sir, tell us
how Posada Carriles entered the United States,
tell us where it was he entered the country, on
what ship, through what port, and who were the
people responsible for letting him in, who were
his accomplices”. An answer is well overdue, many
months have gone by, and they haven’t uttered a
word on the subject. They deal with the problem by
keeping mum, by not answering a single question,
because there are many people involved there, in
the US government, who authorized Posada Carriles
entry into the country, that terrorist, that
heartless murderer they now support and shield
from justice. They haven’t said a word, and we’ve
raised a lot of public questions.
When
we expressed our willingness to send doctors to
aid the people of the United States, who had to
fend for themselves in the midst of the disaster
that befell Louisiana, they kept quiet. It was our
duty to offer this aid to the people of the United
States: it was thanks to that people that US
troops were pulled out of Vietnam; it was thanks
to that people that Elian was returned to our
country; and it is that people which, sooner
rather than later, will force the empire to pull
its troops out of Iraq, where more than 2,000
young US soldiers have died as a result of a
merciless and unjust war (Applause).
We
were offering them aid at a time when retired
citizens were receiving no assistance and dying in
homes, or in hospitals, where chaos prevailed and
the cry of “everyone for himself!” reverberated
through halls. We wanted to help them. And our
doctors could have saved many lives; despite this,
they didn’t even mention that Cuba was one of the
countries that had offered aid. All the while, our
friends in the United States kept wondering: “How
odd that Cuba hasn’t offered any aid!” Total
official silence! They forced us to declare what
we had done, and that we had been among the first
to offer aid.
And
when another hurricane was heading towards them
again, we weren’t among the first, we were the
only ones that, days before the hurricane hit,
offered them aid. There was no response that time
around either; only silence.
Yesterday, I elaborated on the note they sent us
not long ago, the remarks of the US Interests
Section official, the kind remarks, in reference
to the need for Mexico, the United States and Cuba
to cooperate in hurricane-related matters.
Immediately, there were cables announcing that
Cuba had accepted the aid; yesterday, I went over
documents to show you the words we used and the
points we made in our response. Now all of that is
being talked about. But they shed no light, as a
rule they steer clear of the difficult questions,
they still haven’t told us, for instance, they
haven’t dared to tell us, nor could they tell us
without incriminating themselves, how and where
the most heinous and disgusting terrorist in the
western hemisphere entered the United States.
Today, they refuse to release five
Cuban heroes who fought against terrorism, five
innocent Cuban patriots, the victims of the hatred
of the mob and the corruption of Miami courts, who
were sentenced to life imprisonment.
I
don’t see Europe vigorously demanding the freedom
of these Cubans who remain in prison, even though
a fully competent court in the United States
declared their trial illegal, that that trial had
been unfair, that that trial wasn’t worth a damn;
however, they are still in jail. That is how the
imperial system works, shamelessly and without
ethics.
But
how strong Cuba has become! Cuba is so strong it
can look the empire’s European accomplices in the
eye, it can look them straight in the eye and
accuse them, say to them: you are hypocrites, you
are corrupt, you are immoral, you are exploiters,
you created modern slavery, in past centuries,
following what came to be known as the discovery
of America. You created colonialism and have kept
it alive to this day. You, and the United States,
created uneven trade; you steal hard currency from
all countries by forcing them to deposit their
reserves, both public and private, in the banks of
rich countries, fleeing from inflation and taking
refuge in it: that is how you keep all of the
world’s money at your fingertips. That is why I
say to you: you are pillagers, you are thieves
and, despite all that, Cuba’s money is not yours
for the taking. The empire’s insolent dollar,
however, a dollar that has been taught a few
lessons already, continues to bleed us dry in the
most brutal manner.
That
is what we told Maradona during the first
interview he did with us, when we showed him that
in a blockaded country, in which many products and
services are still rationed and subsidized, an
insolent dollar, which they send from over there
and can be changed not for 26 but for 24 Cuban
pesos, because our peso is gaining in value, with
that dollar, for example, you can pay for 150
kilowatts of electricity. And how much do people
pay, how much do they pay if they consume more
electricity? A mere two dollars for 300 kilowatts.
That
is the purchasing power of that dollar they send
to Cuba, and how much does the Cuban state have to
pay for each kilowatt of electricity? No less than
36 dollars for the same number of kilowatts, and
this is a conservative estimate, if we calculated
the costs more precisely we would probably see
that it was more. That is to say, they send one
dollar and it costs us 18 in convertible hard
currency. They send two and it costs 36 dollars.
That’s what they do with many other things, and
our people, being pillaged in this manner, many
times didn’t receive, --this was the case until
recently and it’s starting to change-- enough
soap, the kind that’s rationed and odorless,
without perfume, or enough toothpaste, or women’s
pads in sufficient quantities. We know this well,
because, recently, the light industry sector was
instructed to step up production to increase the
quantity of soap and to perfume it a bit; to
increase toothpaste and pad volumes, so that there
would be enough for everyone. This plan has
already been set in motion. This sector has even
received instructions to increase those figures
considerably.
So,
the country is making efforts in this connection
but, all the while, how much money is it spending
to subsidize the dollar, multiplying the
purchasing power of the dollar?
It
is not my intention to go into details about all
of this here, but I am letting you know of the
situation and I’m letting you know in advance,
because we have to work together to put an end to
this kind of pillaging, this kind of exploitation.
What we’ve done is not enough, we know well what
we have to do, we have to adhere to the principle
of a minimum of opportunities for the parasites; a
minimum of opportunities for those who receive
that currency that is helping to pillage our
country, whatever currency it is, because our
country has accumulated enough experience to do
things correctly and to prevent things like that
from ever happening again.
Our
country moves toward military invulnerability and,
take heed, towards economic invulnerability; and
what those thousands of social workers, which are
only a small, active part of the social workers we
have, are doing is fighting to achieve Cuba’s
economic invulnerability, and the principle they
are striving to make a reality is the principle of
giving the most to those who work, to those who
receive a salary or a pension as workers in
factories, professionals, teachers, doctors,
workers in any walk of life. Yes, those should be
the ones who benefit the most.
As
revolutionaries who strive for a better world and
a much fairer society, who are today much more
experienced people and can take bigger steps
toward those aims, we must build a society in
which human beings earn a living by working, or
receive from society what they deserve for having
worked all their lives, who have helped us advance
two thirds of the way towards our aims, aims we
will have reached in the not-so-distant future. We
also cannot forget to share part of what we have,
and all of our experience and knowledge, with
other peoples of the world.
I
insist that are well aware of the many of the
things we are doing today, I must say this to our
people (Applause). And we won’t be any poorer for
helping others, nor will we deprive ourselves of
anything. The heroic struggle of our people has
plowed the fields of time, and there we shall sow
the seeds of that better society and world of
which the doctors that filled this stadium, this
stadium you now fill and will be filled by social
workers tomorrow, are a part; doctors who are not
only conscious human beings and who struggle
against unjustifiable wrongs, but who also inspire
those people who, not being social workers, are at
their side in this struggle.
And
when in each of the people’s councils, everywhere,
when each and every citizen begins to do what
these social workers are doing today and members
of the Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution, of women’s organizations, when
combatants of the revolution, workers, students,
members of all grassroots organizations and the
Young Communists League and the Party begin to
struggle for the same things these social workers
are struggling today, these workers who are aware
of what’s going on, of the nouveaux riches who do
not want to pay their due and those who accept
bribes or allow themselves to be bribed, then it
will be much more difficult for these people to do
what they are doing today. I am absolutely certain
of this.
For
instance, we could teach the government of the
United States how to protect the population in
case of a natural disaster; this could help save
the lives of many poor people.
I
believe Miami is experiencing major power failures
caused by the hurricanes, that it’s without food,
without anything, and I know that the 100,000
citizens here who were affected by coastal
flooding have been receiving food, have been
assisted in every way possible and that social
workers are drawing up an inventory of all the
things that were damaged, to help them recover
what they lost in as short a time as possible.
That is what we know is happening, and what will
always happen whenever there’s a disaster of this
nature.
So,
with respect to brain-drain between state
institutions: well, will radio and television
channels hire art instructors? Will the Art and
Film Institute hire them? Will the people’s
theaters hire art students or teachers and put
them to work there?
Who
will engage in this sort of piracy? We hope that
no one will. I’m looking at Ernesto, head of a
television channel, I’m positive he won’t be so
undisciplined, I’m sure the heads of government
institutions won’t be so undisciplined, I’m sure
tourist agencies won’t be so undisciplined, I’m
sure state bodies won’t scoop up young people who
have completed their education, who are
programmers or who are versed in computer science,
because there are 40,000 programming students in
polytechnic institutes that specialize in computer
science, forty thousand! And there are 8,000 at
the University of Information Sciences (UCI by its
acronym in Spanish), who are pursuing higher
education studies in the design of computer
programs.
Whoever steals must have his hands cut off —this
is a figure of speech—, to cut off the thief’s
hand, that’s from the time of the Talion law. I
studied law and have forgotten many things but I
do remember the Talion law, which made the
punishment correspond to the crime, (an eye for an
eye) which doesn’t actually involve cutting
anyone’s hand off, but rather that anyone who
‘misappropriates’ qualified personnel should not
be permitted to keep their job. Take heed, I say
this on behalf of the revolution, on behalf of the
Party, on behalf of the state, whoever is guilty
of these ‘piracy’ between institutions, or any
similar acts, will not remain in their positions
for long. It is time to put those mistakes behind
us for good.
Cuba
is today a source of inspiration and a beacon of
hope for many. The revolution’s humanitarian goals
and quest for justice are a point of reference for
those who believe that a better world is possible
and can replace the world of savagery, violence,
egotism and squandering which the powerful have
created. In this struggle we carrying forward for
the future of humanity, we are encouraged by the
support of many artists and intellectuals from
around the world who stand with Cuba and defend
its right to think freely and not regurgitate the
hegemonic discourse, to place its faith in human
beings and not the omnipresent market.
The
broad movement that has gathered force around the
statement entitled “Let us stop a new maneuver
against Cuba” (adopted at the 61st
Session of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights),
signed by over 5,500 intellectuals from around the
world; the Open Letter to the Attorney General of
the United States, calling for the release of our
5 comrades and signed to date by 5,000
personalities, including numerous Nobel prize
laureates; and the creation, in Mexico, of the
Benito Suarez International Civil Court, to pass
judgment on acts of US aggression against Cuba,
with the participation of prestigious
intellectuals, attest to the feelings of
solidarity which the cause of our people arouses
in honest people who are moved by principles of
solidarity and justice.
When
I said that the empire’s spokesmen kept quiet, I
could have mentioned the document read at the
Anti-Imperialist Square a few months ago, a
document signed by one of the greatest writers
that the literary history of this hemisphere has
known, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There, Marquez
described the steps Cuba had taken to communicate
with the US authorities and their response when we
informed them that that terrorist group, whose
mastermind was Posada Carriles, was planning to
blow up planes in mid flight with US citizens on
board.
Following the wave of unsuccessful terrorist
actions against Cuban hotels, actions that were
discovered and frustrated before they were carried
out, these terrorists had an embarrassing
situation in their hands and were thinking about
blowing up planes from airlines with regular
flights to Cuba using the same procedure: getting
mercenaries on the plane, placing a bomb inside
that could be set off 50, 60, even 90 hours later,
when these planes had long left the country.
We
informed US government officials of this, we
offered them information, sharing with them
precisely the kind of information that our
comrades, who are today in prison, were obtaining
when they infiltrated terrorist groups seeking for
information that could serve to protect our
people. They, of course, were not the only ones
who did this, but they were part of the mechanism
the country used to obtain information and prevent
acts like those mentioned.
You
recall what happened. Even the FBI was asked to
look into it, to verify these claims, every
investigative tool was made available to them,
and, days later, they went out hunting for clues,
perhaps they already had some, and they arrested
these comrades and subjected them to the atrocious
proceedings we know of. They are kept separate
from each other; they can’t even talk to one
another. They have close relatives who have not
been able to go and see them.
The
brazen hypocrites, who rave and rage against the
revolution, that has every right to fight against
the mercenaries who support terrorists, who
support the blockade, who support the cowardly
actions undertaken against our country, say
nothing of those they keep locked away in prison.
They haven’t a shred of decency left in them, they
are amoral from head to toe, as they have always
been, since their very emergence as industrialized
nations, as exploiters of peoples, exploiters of
continents and of the world.
When
we shared with them that information, which García
Márquez talked about, we waited to see what the
imperial rulers would say, if what we had informed
the President of the United States was true or
false, if it was true or false. They never said a
word. They never even said if they had received
that report or not, or whether the FBI looked into
it or not; or if it was true that the FBI traveled
to Cuba, that the FBI received this or that piece
of information, much of which was obtained by our
comrades who are kept in prison there.
These comrades were not only protecting the people
of Cuba; they were protecting the people of the
United States, protecting US citizens from the
actions of Miami’s terrorist mob and murderers
from Posada Carriles’ group.
No
one’s heard anything about this, they’re not
saying anything, they’re not talking, and they
babble about freedom of the press and journalists
without borders. Journalists without borders and
journalists without honor, who spread lies and
make a living serving the empire, it’s not the
same thing.
There are still many parasites out there living at
the expense of the hard work of workers and
peasants around the world, especially of the
workers and peasants of the Third World, who today
account for three quarters of all humanity.
The
extraordinary response of numerous intellectuals
from around the world and of important figures in
the political and social spheres to the
invitation, extended by Cuban institutions, to
participate in the International Conference
Against Terrorism, for Truth and Justice, has
reaffirmed our faith in the strength of ideas as
weapons against lies and imperialist crimes. I has
showed us how Cuba can mobilize a united front and
get people to participate in a strategic offensive
against hypocrisy, double standards and the use of
brutal force by our powerful neighbor to the
north.
All
of this attests to the admiration and respect
commanded by the extraordinary things our people
accomplish, in spite of the threats, and is fruit
of the vanguard role that Cuban intellectuals have
played in these creative and fertile years of our
Battle of Ideas.
“…only the spread of culture, mother of decorum,
essence of freedom, above all else, can save the
Republic and efface its vices”, as José Marí
profoundly and beautifully said.
The
young people who graduate as art instructors today
will take the cultural treasures that Cuba has
produced in the course of its history to the
classrooms and prepare our children and
adolescents to walk down the paths of culture and
wisdom which the revolution is beginning to trace.
Their important efforts will contribute to the
work of a nation that is witnessing an impressive
moment of creation in all of art manifestations.
Enumerating all of the accomplishments in this
field would certainly require hard work.
Suffice it to say that we have a system of art
instruction that has no parallel anywhere in the
world. This year, 1,091 senior high school and
higher education students graduated as artists
from Cuba’s different art institutions. One
example are the vocational art workshops offered
by the National School of Ballet, in which 4,000
children and adolescents participate, which will
soon begin their fourth year; efforts continue to
be devoted to improve ballet, dance, music and
visual arts programs offered at this institution.
As part of the Battle of Ideas, 1,806
youths enrolled in the Comprehensive Educational
Program for unemployed young people recently
completed the Cultural Promotion courses offered
by the Cultural Education Centers run by the
Provincial Cultural Departments.
Cuba
is the host of important cultural events and
festivals that, through improved design and the
participation of the people and intellectuals,
have contributed to disseminating the best of
Cuban culture and have opened spaces for
discussion, debate and artistic presentations.
They include: the New Latin American Film
Festival, the International Ballet Festival, the
Contemporary Art Exhibition, Cucalambeana Day in
Las Tunas, the Poor Cinema Festival held in Gibara,
the Benny Moré Festival held in Cienfuegos, the
Caribbean Festival held in Santiago de Cuba as
homage to Venezuela, the May Processions and the
Latin American Culture Festival held in Holguin.
The
Cuban artists and intellectuals who have gathered
under the standard of “In Defense of Humanity”
have become a bulwark for the Battle of Ideas,
organizing actions at the international level,
arranging gatherings with renowned intellectuals
from around the world, spreading progressive ideas
and lucidly spearheading our struggle for culture,
freedom and the dignity of our people.
To
conclude my speech, my dearest art instructors, I
am happy to say to you what I said to those who
graduated from the first program in Santa Clara:
Move
forward, you glorious standard bearers of culture
and humanism! (Prolonged applause and shouts from
the audience). A glorious life awaits you!
Long live art and culture! (Shouts of “long live
art and culture!”)
Long
live humanity! (Shouts of “long live humanity!”)
Patria o Muerte!
Venceremos!
(Ovation) |
