Cuban embassy in the US celebrates historical link with African Americans

Havana, February 27 (RHC) The Cuban embassy in the United States opened its doors to celebrate the culture, history and friendship that have characterized ties with the African-American community to this day, on the occasion of Black Heritage Month.

When delivering welcome words to the participants in a meeting at the diplomatic headquarters, the head of the Cuban Mission, Lianys Torres, highlighted these ties.

Lianys Torres, head of the Cuban mission, highlighted these ties and recalled the welcome that the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, received in Harlem when he traveled to New York in 1960 to participate in the UN General Assembly.

The meeting, attended by representatives of culture, academics, university students, religious and businessmen, among others, appreciates all those links of culture, history and friendship, Torres said.

Vocalist, writer and activist Ayanna Gregory; Casineros DC's dance couple, Adrian Valdivia and Naomi Washington, jazz singer Chuck Holden, and the sound of Farafina Kan's drums, gave a touch of class to the night.

Additionally, there was a photographic exhibition inspired by the friendship forged in the 1930s between Cuba's National Poet, Nicolás Guillén, and Langston Hughes, one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance.

In comments to the Cuban press, several of the attendees expressed their gratitude to the Cuban embassy for this initiative and reiterated their vision on the need to improve ties between the United States and the largest of the Antilles.

Every year in the month of February, Black Heritage Month is commemorated in the United States to honor the achievements and struggles of African Americans throughout the country's history.

In the late 1960s, the civil rights movement and efforts to transform race relations led to Black History Week, which later became Black Heritage Month, recognized in 1976 as a national celebration by then-president Gerald Ford (1974-1977).

The second month of the calendar was chosen for the birth of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809), who issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation entered the third year of the Civil war; as well as in homage to Frederick Douglass, who was born enslaved (1818) and later became a leader of the abolitionist movement.

Every U.S. president after Ford followed the tradition of officially designating February as Black Heritage Month. (Source: PL)