Granma

Havana, Aug 6, (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called for saving culture and identity during a meeting he held on Thursday with a hundred young people from different sectors at the Cadenas Square of the University of Havana.

Representatives of the private-sector workers, peasants, transportation workers, and students were on hand for the event.

During the dialogue, the President said that culture is the key to understand the processes that the country is going through and the relationship with the U.S. Government.

He pointed out that to understand the Revolution and socialism as a way out of the island's problems, for a generation that has lived through a very complex situation, "a fundamental element is that we have culture, that we understand identity."

He added that otherwise, we could not understand the processes that the country is going through, the tense situation between the United States and Cuba, we cannot understand that it is not obsessive to denounce the blockade, which does exist and has historical reasons.

Díaz-Canel spoke to the young people about the importance of understanding Cuban citizenship and feeling proud of being Cuban. This can only be possible if one knows 'how the Cuban nation was founded, what our identity is,' he said.

He also addressed the tendencies of annexationist and reformist thinking that still exist in society and the manifestations of racism, which 'we have not been able to confront intelligently' to promote a sense of motivation, of caring for the national culture in its broadest concept.

Other topics of the meeting with the young people were food production, the central axis of the government agenda, and community participation. The President urged the students to propose entrepreneurial projects led by them and focused on the community.

He also urged them to propose public policies to favor their population group.