| abe linkoln on Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:21:47 +0200 (CEST) |
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| Re: <nettime> Choking Cuban writers |
[1]http://www.linkoln.net/majordomo_arigato_mister_roboto/nettime_coco
_fusco_chocking_cuban_writers/
----- Original Message -----
From: [2]coco fusco
To: [3][email protected]
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 1:42 PM
Subject: <nettime> Choking Cuban writers
I am Cuban American and have travelled to Cuban dozens of times in
the
past twenty years. I agree that the embargo is not an effective
strategy
and that it hurts the population.
I'm very familiar with all the anti Communist campaigning from the
60s
onward designed to create an image of Cuba as a gulag. I also know
Cubans
who spent years in the UMAP labor camps there in the 60s because
they were
gay or hippies. Oneo of my artist friends there was imprisoned a
few years
ago for taking a shit on a Communist newspaper in a gallery as a
performance. I have worked with artists there, exhibited there,
and host
an indepedent artist-run gallery's webpage on my website. So please
do not
write off what I will now write as a tirade from a fanatic
anti-Castro
exile. I'm not, I deeply resent non-Cubans who pretend to know more
without having lived through the tragedies of the Cuban situation,
and
I've paid dearly in many ways for keeping a dialogue open with
Cubans on
the island.
However....
75 writers and independent librarians were jailed last year on
trumped up
charges of being subversives. They are still in jail. The
"subersive"
activity amounted to circulating literature on human rights,
engaging in
organizing to promote constitutional changes through LEGAL MEANS,
and
accepting paper and pencils from the US consulate. US officials are
reported by an infiltrator to have told these Cubans that they
wanted
articles on food and energy shortages in Cuba. To suggest as the
Cuban
government did that such reports would damage Cuba is absolutely
ridiculous, even obscene. Everyone who knows anything about Cuba
knows
about the shortages. Everyone with relatives there (I have many) is
contacted by them to ask for dollars to buy food and medicine
because of
shortages.
There was no need for Fidel to react in a way that has choked those
writers. To suggest that it is a criminal act to lend books out of
your
own house is perverse and completely totalitarian. For twenty years
I have
hand carried bags of books and magazines to artists who circulate
them
among friends. That is the only way for many to have access to
foreign
literature since the Cuban economy does not permit publishing of
many
translations for which rights must be paid. The idea that Cubans
are
building secret libraries of anti-Communist literature in order to
destroy
the political system is just absurd.
It was after this outrageous move and the EXECUTION without trial
of two
men who hijacked a boat unsucessfully last year (without harming
any of
the passengers)that I decided I did not want to give the Cuban
government
my money or my tacit acceptance of such measures by travelling
there
during high profile cultural events. A major funder of the Havana
Bienal,the Prince Claus Fund in Holland, withdrew support after
these
events. I still care very much for my family and friends there,
but at a
certain point, I believe those who have been involved with the
Cuban
situation for a long time have to begin to take a stand that
opposes gross
violations of human rights and due process.
Indeed you are right that internet access is controlled and since
the
jailing of the 75 writers, new laws went into effect in Cuba
further
curtailing access. It troubles me that this would not cause you any
discomfort in your call to support Cuba. What happened to "virtual
democracy"? Is that only for Europeans?.
Do you really think that by travelling there you are going to have
a
positive effect on policy? Please don't be naive. Travellers in
cultural
fields bring money and the prospect of art and educational exchange
that
means that the Cuban government can make more money. Of course
artists and
intellectuals there like to have the opportunity to meet
foreigners, but
there are still serious ethical implications to be dealt with. I
boycotted
grapes as an adolescent because I was against exploitation of
Mexican
farmworkers. I boycotted South Africa because of apartheid. I have
not
wanted to boycott Cuba but I can no longer accept its excessive
repression
of its own citizens.
It is very ironic and sad to me that this list has been filled with
calls
to support CAE against unwarranted repression by the FBI, but that
at the
same time you would advocate tacitly endorsing the policies of a
country
that is jailing its own "radical" intellectuals. Does that mean
that civil
rights are only meant to be for Americans?
Coco Fusco
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References
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2. mailto:[email protected]
3. mailto:[email protected]
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# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
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