“I denounce the volubility of those who, once outside Cuba, serve, out of conviction or connivance, with the regime that destroys Cuban culture.”
PHILADELPHIA, United States – “I waste my time,” a very sagacious friend warns me, after reading my previous complaint about the prizes “The Christ of Havana”granted in Miami, by Mr. Baltasar Santiago Marín and the “Apogeo Foundation”, founded by him in 2008, according to the subject himself on Facebook.
I waste my time and, furthermore, I advertise an event that no one is interested in, other than the small group of winners, and that no one will remember very soon.
For my part, I explain that I have nothing against this man whom I do not know personally, but, first of all, against his insistence or that of any other of the exiles, or those installed in Miami and other parts, but outside of Cuba, to make us commune with wagon wheels: that if Cuban culture is one, that if the prize is given to artistic quality, in short, excuses a dozen for a dollar.
Secondly, (the order of the factors, we already know…) I denounce the volubility of those who, once outside Cuba, serve, by conviction or connivance with the regime that destroys Cuban culture, starting with its people, assumptions that seek to establish a false equation between artistic talent and the dignity of the individual, and among those who supported Castro-communism, putting that talent at their disposal, and the that we refuse to be puppets and collaborators of the Cuban genocide.
These are my convictions, and hence I do not consider that I waste my time by insisting on denouncing the relativization that Mr. Marín and its foundationamong others of the same sign, of the true Cuban suffering. How can we place on the same level, as equals, those who benefited from the system, only because they put their art and technical training at the full service of the homicidal and anti-Cuban regime, with those who suffered under that regime for refusing to be part of that machinery?
There are, naturally, those who in exilealready old and half-lost, or tired of the lack of time and other causes, they are willing to place their necks in the pillory of ignominy, as long as their head is briefly raised in the hands of the executioner (or executioners) together with the accomplices who also suffer a kind of ethical execution that momentarily places them in the public light.
There are also, I must admit, some elements of the “Marín / Fundación Apogeo” equation, which continue to seem suspicious to me, to say the least. Said “Apogee” (a name that means “glorification” and “flourishing” among other things), according to what Mr. Marín declares on Facebook, is the heir of that other one founded by him in Havana in 1987. One would have to ask oneself:
- Who was authorized in 1987, in Cuba, to found anything, much less an organization in charge of rewarding artists and institutions, we should not insist, all officials, since the others were not recognized or authorized to be part of anything?
- Among the awardees that Marín cites in his list of individuals and institutions recognized by his foundation at that time, not a single individual or institution from exile appears. In the end, we see that it was the same procedure of contacts and exchanges between the so-called “two shores”, which always suffers from going in only one direction, we already know which one.
Anyway, there will be several winners with this wide and long tunic with a shawl, which covers everything so that the little bobbins cannot be seen and conceals the little ribs. I will remember here some words that the illustrious Lydia Cabrera, already very old, told me, whom I met briefly in Miami when I was passing through that city. With his voice that was just a thread about to break, but his head and the Cuban soul very clear and firm, he answered a question I asked him: “Before being an artist…, writer… and… those things, you, the first thing is that you have to be decent. Not sell yourself to the highest bidder. The creator who sells himself conscientiously… is worth nothing, nothing!”
That, then, in summary, is what it is about. Big words! To those who are served the premiecitos of yore, let them wear them. You can already see the darkened scarlet patches and spots. What will they be?
