Havana, September 17 (RHC) – The Ariguanabo Foundation was officially set up at the Ministry of Culture’s Abelardo Estorino Theater over the weekend to boost the cultural, human and environmental development of dwellers living down the Ariguanabo River in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa.

At the establishment ceremony, Cuban Vice-Culture MInister, Fernando Rojas, said that it’s a significant moment to boost cultural activities to safeguard the Cuban natural heritage and the Ariguanabo River as a natural, cultural and spiritual symbol of the Cuban nation.

For his part Cuban singer-song writer, Foundation member and main sponsor, Silvio Rodríguez, born in San Antonio de los Baños, near the river, thanked Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, for having supported what he called ‘this mission for nature’. 

At his Segunda Cita blog he wrote: ‘I think that one of the Foundation’s main possibilities will be to reeducate our follow countrymen and women in the love for our essential being that has been sort of fading away, or that circumstances have made us forget. I’ve always admired very much the work done practically without resources by Aimé Posada and Giraldo with children from San Antonio, taking them down the river and its forests, telling them about the names of plants, animals, insects, the origin of springs and the importance of loving the eco system that, as well as our parents, has given us life. I think that that awareness work should have to be turned into a norm in our people, and that Ariguanabo Radio, more than helping, should focus on that’, he concluded.  

The establishment ceremony was attended by Cuban Culture Minister, Alpidio Alonso, several Vice Ministers of Culture; the eight founding members; Alejo Carpentier Foundation President, intellectual, Dr. Graziella Pogollotti; General Education Director, Elbis Domínguez; Ministry of Justice’s Associations Director, Miriam García; Notary Leila Fernández and authorities from western Artemisa province.