The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.42           November 13, 1995 
 
 
Cuban Poet Discusses Artistic Freedom  

BY DAVID ROSENFELD AND WENDY LYONS

NEW YORK CITY- Some 150 people jammed into the meeting hall of Casa de las Américas here to discuss culture in Cuba today with Norberto Codina, the Cuban poet and editor of the noted literary magazine La Gaceta de Cuba. The October 28 meeting culminated Codina's one-month speaking tour of half a dozen cities.

Whether a longtime supporter of the Cuban revolution or a young person learning about Cuba for the first time, everyone in the room was still abuzz about the previous week's visit of Cuban president Fidel Castro to New York. Many at the meeting had marched against the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba on October 21, participated in picket lines to counter right-wing mobilizations at Cuba's United Nations mission, or come out to see Castro in Harlem or the Bronx.

Luis Miranda, director of Casa de las Américas, welcomed Codina and the audience to a celebration of what had been accomplished the previous weeks by those opposing U.S. policy toward Cuba. Codina expressed appreciation for being able to end his tour with such a celebration.

The discussion with Codina, conducted in Spanish and English, was lively and frank. "What are the changes in attitude in Cuba toward homosexuals? I personally suffered discrimination," said one questioner. "I was a member of student and revolutionary organizations in Cuba, but I was expelled from them for being gay. If I had not been discriminated against, I would be living in Cuba today."

"I don't think the Cuban revolution is married to any one person, not even the main leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro," Codina replied. "The revolution is the work of us all. An injustice as great as the one you have described cannot be associated with the revolution. It is associated with individuals who are horribly prejudiced.

"Revolutionaries cannot accept the marginalization of gays in the 1970s. We have made big advances on this question. There is greater maturity today.

"Many individuals have left due to injustices. But the Cuban revolution is alive despite errors and mutilations. This battle belongs to our society as a whole. It must be forged in the soul of all Cubans."

To warm applause, Codina said, "I am grateful that you have spoken."

A writer from Iran who was in the audience asked about government control and censorship of the arts in Cuba. "Many times we have had many arguments against censorship," Codina replied. "Censorship is as old as art itself and exists in all countries. There is always a struggle by the creator for greater space.

"I do not have to answer to any censor. No policeman or bureaucrat reviews what I publish. But I also have a responsibility. A number of writers on the island, for example, complained that we devoted too much space in a recent issue to Cuban artists living abroad.

"I would be dishonest to say that there is no censorship. But every day there is less censorship and greater freedom."

The Cuban editor concluded, "The fight between the forces of inertia and the forces of change continues."

Codina spent a week in New York, speaking on several area campuses and participating in poetry readings at the Cafe Creole and Biblio's bookstore. Reggie Mason, of the Young Lions Movement and a central organizer of the Boogie Against the Death Penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, chaired the poetry reading at Cafe Creole. Mason also brought greetings to the Casa de las Américas meeting. The Cafe Creole event was a dynamic interchange between Black and Puerto Rican poets - some of whom are also political activists - and the Cuban poet.

At Hunter College, 95 people, mostly Spanish-speaking students from the campus, listened intently as Codina answered a questioner who maintained that the majority of important Cuban artists have always lived in exile.

"That is not true," Codina said. "And even for those living abroad, the germinating process started on the island.

"There are many views within the Cuban government, but the position of La Gaceta is that there is only one Cuban literature. We have tried to bridge the schism between art inside and outside the island. We have fought the notions that the poet who leaves is no longer Cuban or that the poet who stays is no longer a poet.

"In 1992 we published a special issue devoted to writers living abroad," he explained. Describing the controversy that ensued, Codina said that the magazine was attacked by Radio Martí, a radio station sponsored by the U.S. government and beamed into Cuba. But the magazine also came in for criticism from some supporters of the revolution. "They said that with the severe shortage of paper, we should not have published the work of Cubans who have left."

An informal meeting with 15 workers and trade unionists was held at the headquarters of District Council 1199 of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees union. Several garment, auto, and rail workers attended in addition to health-care workers.

A young garment worker asked Codina, "Are youth in Cuba more or less motivated since the period of economic hardships began in Cuba?"

"Cuba is going through its most difficult period, where there has been a struggle for survival on a daily basis," Codina replied. "Some could have said it would be the end of culture but no, youth have broken through with force into art and literature, especially poetry."

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home