Cuban culture is synonymous with patriotic values and emancipation. It was forged in the struggles against injustice, slavery and for the independence of our country from the yoke of Spanish colonial rule.
By María Josefina Arce
Cuban culture is synonymous with patriotic values and emancipation. It was forged in the struggles against injustice, slavery and for the independence of our country from the yoke of Spanish colonial rule.
Every year, October 20 is celebrated as Cuban Culture Day, in recognition of the role played in its formation by the emancipation struggles and as a reminder of that date in 1868, when the heroic city of Bayamo, in the east, sang for the first time La Bayamesa, a song to freedom, which became our National Anthem.
As historians point out, on that day culture and nation merged in an embrace to become an inseparable concept throughout the history of Cuba, which speaks of art, traditions, resistance and struggle.
Throughout time, our artists and intellectuals have played a leading role in the defense of our culture. They have been present, as an essential part of the people, in every important battle that our country has fought.
And this new journey finds them giving their invaluable support in Pinar del Rio, the western Cuban province most affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian, at the end of last month. Artistic brigades from all over the country have traveled to Pinar del Rio.
They have arrived with their art to dozens of communities to bring joy and bring a smile to those who, in many cases, lost everything, before the strong scourge of the meteorological phenomenon, which with category 3 on the Saffir Simpson scale of five, entered Pinar del Río's soil.
Hundreds of activities have been carried out in evacuation centers and towns, and also in the places where those who have come from all over the archipelago to support the recovery efforts are staying.
But our artists have also joined in this work. For example, the Martha Machado Brigade, headed by the plastic artist Alexis Leiva, Kcho, recovered a school at kilometer 16 of the road to La Coloma, where the hurricane penetrated Cuban soil.
The Brigade, made up of exponents of various manifestations, aims to repair the schools, located from kilometer 6 to 21.
There are many creators who, in different ways, contribute to the country's recovery effort, once again raising Cuban culture, closely linked to daily life, to the effort to move towards a better society and to Cuba's battle to preserve its independence and sovereignty.
