Havana, April 28 (RHC)-- "Casa de las Americas has to remain as a temple to confront imperialist, fascist and colonizing manipulations -- with truth, justice and beauty," affirmed President Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the 64th anniversary celebration of the cultural institution.

From the Sala Che Guevara, Díaz-Canel recalled how on his visits as a child to Havana he would pass by the mansion on 3rd and G, in Vedado, with the hope of seeing Haydée Santamaría or any of the great names in literature, Latin American plastic arts and musicians that met there.

The Cuban president considered that one of Casa's greatest merits is having treasured works of endearing value for the cultures of the region.  His words were also a tribute to Haydée Santamaría, leader of a great milestone for the then nascent Revolution.

"A woman who harshly defined herself as someone without culture is, even after her death, loved, respected and honored by everyone," he said.

"We should ask ourselves if sensitivity, passion, humanism and revolutionary commitment are not sufficient roots to nourish, give birth and flourish culture," added the president.

He referred to the support of the artists and intellectuals gathered in the institution to the authentic project that is the Cuban Revolution.

The peasants who participated in the first public celebration for July 26, in 1959, arrived at the Casa de las Americas and were visited by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, who at that time was still a young guerrilla fighter, Díaz-Canel narrated.

"The work of this facility, since its birth, has been none other than to promote the arts and literature of our region, work for Latin American and Caribbean integration in the field of culture, and combat the colonialism that is imposed on the people," stated the Cuban head of state.

He pointed out that this work aimed at cultural emancipation and unity that Bolívar and Martí dreamed of was decisive, in particular, when all the governments of Latin America, except Mexico, broke with the Revolution.

He asserted that all this was possible thanks to the spirit of integration and service that Haydée imbued into Casa, through the organic need for justice and beauty.

The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba alluded to the most fervent creators throughout the continent and those who were murdered by fascist dictatorships, among them, Rodolfo Walsh, Paco Urondo, Haroldo Conti and Víctor Jara.

"Other intellectuals persecuted in their countries were welcomed into the Casa de las Americas, such as Manuel Galich and Roque Dalton, who began lines of work that continue to the present," he recalled.

He emphasized the publication, by the institution's editorial fund, of texts by important voices of anticolonial thought, where Paulo Freire, Darcy Ribeiro, Pablo González Casanova and Roberto Fernández Retamar stand out, with their inescapable essay "Caliban."

"Casa de las Américas brought us closer to Rubén Darío, Pablo Neruda, Alí Primera, Eduardo Galeano and Ernesto Cardenal, just to mention some essential names for the continent, but we must also remember the work of Alejo Carpentier, Mariano Rodríguez, José Lezama Lima, Pablo Armando Fernández, Harold Gramatges, Argeliers León, Umberto Peña and Eduardo Heras León."

In the words of Díaz-Canel, Haydée's personal support was essential for the New Song Movement, la Nueva Trova Cubana, to have its first space in this place, the same one where Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and Noel Nicola sang together for the first time, which laid the foundations for the subsequent Protest Song Meetings.

During his intervention, Diaz-Canel praised the work of Abel Prieto Jiménez, current president of Casa de las Américas, and his team, for their sharp criticism of the cultural crisis that the world is experiencing, based on capitalist barbarism.

"There is no better tribute to the intellectuals and artists of this place who gave their lives to the anti-fascist struggle than to make common cause for the ideals of social justice, peace and freedom."

The Cuban president congratulated the jury of the Casa de las Américas Literary Prize, an award that she classified as anti-colonial, Martian, Caliban and as an expression of unappealable attachment to culture.

"I ask you to maintain the mystique of Haydée, Retamar and the founders of this site, which is to preserve the mystique of the Revolution," Díaz-Canel stated.

The event was attended by members of the Political Bureau Roberto Morales Ojeda and Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the PCC and Minister of Foreign Affairs, respectively.  Inés María Chapman Waugh, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic, and Alpidio Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, also participated.

Casa de las Américas celebrates its 65th anniversary on Sunday, April 28th.