On November 29, Abel Prieto, Cuba's Minister of Culture, spoke on his novel, El Vuelo del Gato (The Flight of the Cat). Prieto said his novel compares the Cuba of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s to life in Cuba during what is called the "Special Period" of early and mid-1990s after Cuba's trade with the Soviet Union collapsed. Life on the island was marked for several years by harsh economic conditions that necessitated a daily battle to put food on the table.

"The book," Prieto said, "is a narrative of the Cuban revolution. It explains another face, a different face, another dimension that was Cuba. It allows youth to reflect, because it lets them know about the times before. It has been made so the memories are not forgotten."

The work, he said, also includes the thoughts and expressions that the Cuban people experienced following the successful 1959 Cuban revolution in which the workers and farmers of that country overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, and opened the first socialist revolution in the Americas.

It also describes the relations the Cuban government had with the Soviet Union in the ensuing years, and the changes and surprises that occurred in Cuba after trade with that country abruptly collapsed.

With some distance between now and the worst years of the Special Period, Prieto and other writers are taking a look back at the hardships the Cuban people endured. "The Special Period, it was a difficult time, with 12 hours with lights off," said Prieto. "However, people laughed about it. They found something that would allow them to resist. Cubans have to be open to the richness of their own conditions and of each other," he said. He compared the difficulties of the Special Period to the challenges that the Cuban people faced during the U.S.-backed invasion of the island in 1961 at Playa Girón (The Bay of Pigs), and during the October 1962 missile crisis.

Prieto's presentation attracted prominent newspaper coverage here. He was interviewed about Cuba's selection as the featured country at the 2002 book fair. Spain was chosen this year, and Brazil will be honored in 2001. In an interview with the daily newspaper Informador, Prieto said, "Cuba is coming out of a terrible crisis. They were terrible years, of blockade, attempts to suffocate us, to isolate us. Our allies collapsed. The Soviet Union disintegrated."

Prieto added that in spite of the hardships, the "Cuban people kept up their demands for culture. In 1993, which was the worst in a truly difficult situation of blackouts, we hosted the [Havana] book fair. People rode their bicycles to buy books and they kept going to the movies and to the ballet. We kept having events in the middle of the crisis. A mediocre pragmatism of only being able to provide food for the people never advanced among us.

"People have a spirit," he said, noting that "we did away with illiteracy in 1961."

A panel of six Cuban writers and poets was presented on December 1. Antón Arrufat, author of La noche del aguafiestas (Night of the water festival) described his novel as a conversation between two young men. Antón explained how the narrator of the story observes the attitudes, personalities, and consciousness of these two individuals in the novel, "which offers a vision of how it is in Cuba."

Jorge Luis Arzola, the author of La Bandada Infinita, said his novel has the tradition of literature in Cuba in it, but also introduces new aspects. Arzola said it was difficult for him to live in Cuba during the Special Period and that he had to get a job cutting coal in the mountains in order to survive.

Ramiro Guerra, a dance choreographer and teacher of Cuban ballet explained that his book "is a collection of dances of Cuba." It is a classic book for choreographers and ballerinas, he said, emphasizing that "music and dance is one of the ways that best identifies Cuba for what it is."

Poet Lourdes González also appeared on the panel. González said that artists and writers in Cuba have the freedom to express their views, contrary to claims of the revolution's opponents. González too described Cuba's Special Period. "In order to live and have food and other necessities in the home, my family had to sell the doors of our home for food. My family had to sell the windows of our rooms for clothing. It was a very difficult time," he said.

Authors César López and Luis Alvarez Alvarez also spoke during the program.

Roberta Black is a meat packer in Minnesota and member of the Young Socialists. Norton Sandler contributed to this article  
 
 
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