Search results for: Words to the Intellectuals

Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate

– From Josefina de Diego – I confess that I didn’t remember the full text known as “Words to the Intellectuals,” delivered by Fidel Castro on June 30, 1961, at the National Library to a group of intellectuals. I think that, like many people, the only thing I remembered from the text was his famous … Continue reading “Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”

Cuban President Diaz-Canel Takes Up Fidel Castro’s Obsolete Discourse on Intellectuals

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2019 — Miguel Díaz-Canel used his closing speech to the IX Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) to recall the controversial Words to the Intellectuals delivered by Fidel Castro in 1961 and to call for fighting the “cultural mercenaries, those willing to lynch how many artists and creators … Continue reading “Cuban President Diaz-Canel Takes Up Fidel Castro’s Obsolete Discourse on Intellectuals”

Raul Castro Tells Intellectuals That Cuban Culture is Threatened / EFE, 14ymedio

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 23 August 2016 – Cuban President Raul Castro warned in a message to the island’s intellectuals and artists that the country’s culture is threatened by “subversive projects” and a “global wave of colonization,” although he is confident that they can confront the challenge, according to an article in the official media … Continue reading “Raul Castro Tells Intellectuals That Cuban Culture is Threatened / EFE, 14ymedio”

Gagged Words / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea

14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenchea, Santa Clara, 27 June 2016 – The Eva Tas Foundation, located in Amsterdam, publishes and promotes texts that have been and are censored, regardless of where or how. Indeed, as a part of this laudable and necessary work, this institution just published two books by one of the most important figures … Continue reading “Gagged Words / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea”

About Alfredo Guevara’s Words / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate, Maria de las Mercedes Santiesteban

The first thing you notice about the document presented by Alfredo Guevara is its dreadful wording. A man, who has always prided himself on his clarity and intelligence, has written a text which is hard to read, repetitive and unoriginal. The first, very long, paragraph demonstrates this: The Writers and Artists Union of Cuba [UNEAC] … Continue reading “About Alfredo Guevara’s Words / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate, Maria de las Mercedes Santiesteban”

“The Only Way to Function is to be Outside the Institutions”

Miguel Coyula and Lynn Cruz talk about their ‘Chronicles of the Absurd’, a film that won awards abroad and was censored in Cuba 14ymedio, Jorge Fernandez Era, Havana, 28 December 2024 — In a film scene marked by censorship, it has become common for filmmakers to turn to alternative venues to exhibit their films. I … Continue reading ““The Only Way to Function is to be Outside the Institutions””

Alina Bárbara López Expelled From UNEAC for Criticizing the ‘Top Leadership of the Revolution’

The decision was communicated to her personally during a meeting at the Provincial Committee of the organization in Matanzas. 14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2024 — The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) expelled historian Alina Bárbara López on Thursday, a sanction – insignificant, in her opinion – in which the intellectual sees the … Continue reading “Alina Bárbara López Expelled From UNEAC for Criticizing the ‘Top Leadership of the Revolution’”

Our Intellectual Stupidity

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 7 February 2024 — No one is stupider than the idiot who thinks he is an intellectual, myself included. When I started becoming politically active, I arrogantly believed that, where others had failed, I would succeed. I thought that the higher the collective IQ a movement had, the better its … Continue reading “Our Intellectual Stupidity”

‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, January 6, 2024 — “Down with the apolitical writers! Down with the supermen of literature!” “Their original sin: they are not authentically revolutionary.” “Outside the Revolution, no rights.” The law of eternal return presides over the tension between the intellectuals and communism. Guevara repeats Castro, and Castro repeats Stalin or Mao. … Continue reading “‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture”

A Recording Made by Miguel Coyula Reveals the Tensions Between Filmmakers and Cultural Authorities

14ymedio, Havana, 3 July 2023 — Film director Miguel Coyula made public this Sunday several video and audio fragments recorded during the meeting held on June 23 at the Chaplin Cinema, in Havana, attended by more than a hundred filmmakers and authorities from the Ministry of Culture and the Communist Party. Gathered in the Assembly of Cuban … Continue reading “A Recording Made by Miguel Coyula Reveals the Tensions Between Filmmakers and Cultural Authorities”

Cuban Writer Eduardo Heras Leon, ‘Counterrevolutionary’ and Loyal to Fidel Castro, Dies

14ymedio, Havana, April 13, 2023 — Cuban writer, journalist and publisher Eduardo Heras León, National Prize for Literature in 2014, passed away this Thursday in Havana at the age of 82. Founder of the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Literary Training Center, he was one of the intellectuals “parameterized”* during the so-called Grey Quinquennium, the Five Grey … Continue reading “Cuban Writer Eduardo Heras Leon, ‘Counterrevolutionary’ and Loyal to Fidel Castro, Dies”

Cuban Writers in Exile Celebrate Their 25th Anniversary with PEN International

EFE (via 14ymedio), Jorge I. Pérez, Miami, 25 August 2022 — The PEN Club of Cuban Writers in Exile, a subsidiary of PEN International, celebrates its 25th anniversary this Saturday with a new book about its history and the “stigma” of being a “political organization” financed by the United States, something that according to its … Continue reading “Cuban Writers in Exile Celebrate Their 25th Anniversary with PEN International”

A Brief Chronology of Disregard and Intolerance in Cuba

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, November 2, 2021 — The dictatorship’s most frequently recurring formula to impede or interfere with changes that do not align with their interests has been to incarcerate. They’ve raised the bar in two ways: first, by presenting as apocalyptic the results of anything they consider a “return to the past,” and … Continue reading “A Brief Chronology of Disregard and Intolerance in Cuba”

“You Should Be the Ones Talking to Us, Not State Security”

14ymedio, Havana, 3 December 2020 — The following document is the result of comparing the notes taken by various people who were present and what was remembered by the participants. Published on the Facebook Page 27N (for ‘November 27’) , it is reproduced with their permission. They point out that “there were more statements in … Continue reading ““You Should Be the Ones Talking to Us, Not State Security””

From the Gulag to the UMAP: Official History and the Control of Memory

Abel Sierra Madero, Hypermedia Magazine, 15 May  2020 — Yuri Brokhin, a Soviet filmmaker who defected in 1972 and settled in the United States, described his experience trying to purchase a Volga automobile in the late 1960s. In all of Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine, there were only twelve of these cars available for sale to the public, … Continue reading “From the Gulag to the UMAP: Official History and the Control of Memory”