HAVANA, Cuba.- As a result of the recent tribute paid in Miami to the Cuban writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner, it is fair to state that this great intellectual is also worthy of the affection and admiration of the Cubans who live on the island, especially those of us who aspire to a free and democratic homeland.
Montaner has been a compass for those on the island who identify with the liberal doctrine. In 1990 he founded the Cuban Liberal Union, affiliated with the Liberal International, and later became vice president of that conglomerate of liberal political parties.
Since the founding of Radio Martí in 1985, Montaner had an active participation in that station. His daily comment on the Cuban reality was one of the most anticipated by the national audience. Similarly, more than a dozen newspapers in Europe, the United States and Latin America have counted on the collaborations of this illustrious columnist.
But, if we were asked for a facet in which Montaner has shone with his own light, we could not fail to mention his work in literature. About twenty books, including essays and novels, make up the curriculum of this writer. Cubans on the island, despite the internal blockade that Castroism imposes on the works of writers who do not agree with its ideology, have been able to access some of these texts, basically through the independent libraries that have proliferated throughout the country.
books like The Cubansa journey through the history of Cuba, with an emphasis on the international circumstances that shaped the events of the country; Travel to the heart of Cuba, a text that explains the roots of Castroism and delves into the psychology of Fidel Castro; Y Let’s not lose the 21st century too, tThis text that investigates the causes of Latin America’s failure on the road to development has been enjoyed by more than a generation of Cubans disgusted by the omnipresent Marxist-Leninist ideology.
In 1994 the monumental Anthology of Cuban Liberal Thought, a text in which a prologue written by Carlos Alberto Montaner appears. It is a selection of works by 59 Cuban writers, who from the fields of politics, philosophy and economics, address the most dissimilar issues related to the island. An itinerary that goes from Francisco de Arango y Parreño in the 18th century, to Rafael Rojas in the last century.
In the aforementioned prologue, Montaner offers a guideline to guide the actions of Cubans towards a homeland free from Castro’s oppression: “Liberalism is very useful today to dismantle Marxist totalitarianism, precisely because the disciplines on which liberals have reflected with greater depth are those that must be taken into account in the remodeling of the collectivist State and in the implementation of forms of privatization of the public sector”.
Of course, all this work by Montaner has earned him the hatred of the Castro authorities, who, as they usually do with other writers and artists who do not submit to him, have devoted themselves to disqualifying his work. Thus, for the machinery of power, Montaner is neither a writer nor a journalist, but only a CIA agent.
In 2019, the Neo Club publishing house, based in Miami, convened the Carlos Alberto Montaner Essay Contest, in honor of this important Cuban essayist. I participated in the event with the book freedom is onewhich was awarded and published in 2020. The thesis of the book is that we Cubans cannot settle for economic changes, but we must also aspire to political changes in order to found a republic similar to Montaner’s preaching.
Let this book be my humble tribute to this transcendental figure of Cuban politics and culture.
OPINION ARTICLE
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