BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
LONDON - Norberto Codina, editor of La Gaceta de Cuba,
magazine of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba,
is spending three weeks in England speaking on the theme of
"Culture and the Cuban revolution." His tour schedule takes him
to London, Portsmouth, Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester,
and Sheffield where he'll speak to students, Latin American and
other immigrants, artists and actors, trade unionists, and
others.
Before the speaking tour, Codina participated in the first Ibero-American poetry festival. Organized by the Association of Cultural Attache's of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal (ACALASP), the festival included such prominent Latin American poets as Rafael Cadenas from Venezuela and Rube'n Bareiro from Paraguay. Close to 500 people, most of them Latin American immigrants, attended the five evenings of poetry readings November 10 - 14.
Some 140 people heard Codina's reading, and a number of them stayed after for informal discussion. Codina also gave readings at University College, part of the University of London, and at the launching of a book of poetry by Spanish- speaking authors in London. Three contributors to the book are among the 20 activists in the Norberto Codina Tour Committee in London.
About 325 people attended the Cuban editor's first eight engagements. Most of these have been students at college classes and meetings. Actors, artists, and writers welcomed Codina when he spoke at London's October Gallery.
The first meeting was hosted by the Tamil Information Centre, which organized a dayschool on culture and the Cuban revolution attended by 40 Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka. "We are delighted and honored to have the presence of Norberto Codina with us today," said K. Rajendran. "Through his presence we hope to deepen our understanding of the experience of the Cuban revolution for solutions to the national liberation struggle and the building of a new society." Rajendran is currently translating articles and poetry by Ernesto Che Guevara into Tamil for two books. Last Testament and Last Confession will be a collection of poetry by Guevara, Roque Dalton, and Ariel Dorfman; the other is a biography of, and selected articles by, Guevara.
Codina's presentation initiated a dialogue concerning the struggle for national self-determination in Third World countries.
"We do get some information on Sri Lanka," Codina said, "but in drips and drops and most of it through international press agencies. We've all suffered colonial and neo-colonial oppression which is pertinent to the issue that brings us together today.
Literacy is essential cultural factor
"Culture must be seen as a form of resistance," the Cuban
writer said. "With the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959,
one of the first steps was to recover the national culture,"
including through tackling widespread illiteracy. "In little
less than a year the literacy campaign had established a
literacy rate of 96 - 97 percent. Cuba is the only country in
Latin America that has gone so far in eliminating illiteracy,
and this is the most important culture factor because you can't
have national culture when so many people are illiterate,"
Codina said
"Art students received grants, and a national system of art education was initiated. Many cultural figures not known in Latin America were published in Cuba, especially from the Third World - though little from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka. But it wasn't ideal. There were periods of light and periods of darkness. Culture reflects how a society feels."
A question that cropped up in a number of events is that of censorship. One student at the University of North London asked Codina if he has to face an individual who decides what is acceptable to publish and what not. Another asked if artists and writers had gotten together to protest censorship. At a meeting of 50 Latin American immigrants, a couple of people pressed Codina on freedom of cultural expression.
"There's actually much less censorship in Cuba than most people outside the country believe," Codina replied. "In this regard Cuba is much better than the Soviet Union was, or Eastern Europe and other Latin American countries are today. And there's much less censorship today than 20 years ago or even five years ago.
"At the same time, the situation isn't what we'd like it to be. There are many characteristics of censorship. There's political or administrative censorship. There's also censorship imposed by those with economic power. Illiteracy is a form of censorship. So are expensive books.
"The U.S. economic blockade has its consequences too. In 1989 La Gaceta de Cuba was a monthly, had a print run of 19,000, and sold at 10 Cuban centavos. We could do this because the magazine received state subsidy. Because of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, this couldn't go on. From 1990 to 1992 we stopped publishing altogether. Today the magazine is self-financing. It's bimonthly, has a print run of 5,000 and costs three pesos, 30 times more.
`La Gaceta' becomes forum for debate
"Paradoxically, more people read La Gaceta today than
before," the editor stated. "Today it's a much better magazine.
We've turned it into a forum of debate. We've reached out to
all Cubans, including those who live outside the country. So
it's more in demand. Earlier this year an issue of the magazine
was devoted to a sharp debate that appeared in the newspapers,
on TV and radio over freedom of expression in the theater. That
issue sold out very quickly.
"In the first issue that will appear in 1998, we're going to publish three stories written for our literary competition. These stories are quite audacious. They're not political stories as such though, of course, they can be read to a degree politically. One is a homosexual love story. Many issues which are discussed in Cuba today - nationalism, sexuality - are touched on in this story. Another deals with a father-daughter incestuous relationship. It's possible that there will be a reaction and we're looking forward to the discussion.
"But we're not publishing these stories to be deliberately provocative. A work must last because of its value, not because it's a simple provocation to censorship. Nor do we publish essays simply because of the socio-political themes on which they touch. They must stand as works of art in their own right," he said.
"I don't have a cultural monitor overseeing my editorial decisions," Codina continued. "My cultural monitor is an internal one. In that regard, every editor - in whatever system and whatever country is a sort of censor, deciding what should go in."
Codina encourages people to ask questions on whatever's on their mind. One Tamil raised the issue of the US-British aggression toward Iraq. "I believe that this shows a great deal about the world today," Codina replied. "The U.S. government paints [Iraqi president Sadaam] Hussein as the devil. But this is really an attempt to justify their continuing aggression, which started with the Gulf War. We should remember that formerly Hussein was backed, even encouraged, by the United States -during the war against Iran for instance.
"I totally disagree with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait," he continued. "In fact the invasion of Kuwait was a gift to the United States. They managed the situation to their advantage - to launch an imperialist war... The U.S. government should not be allowed to have inspectors in Iraq, after all they were the main protagonists in the war itself."