326 Chapter 14
knowledge and public awareness, as well as the designation of 2011 as the “Inter-
national Year of Afro-Descendants” by the United Nations General Assembly,
among other world initiatives.
Before we continue, I will dwell on an element that, paradoxically is
often overlooked: the level of racial integration our society has
achieved, where the problem is not denouncing individual cases but
something more subtle—having to face more surreptitious discrimi-
natory obstacles. This is the case of people who aspire to hold some
given position in the sectors of tourism or joint ventures or would like
to play some given roles in TV and theater and have been prevented
by the color of their skin.
Now, the question of the different ways in which various segments
in Cuban society view the racial issue should be answered in two parts;
It would be unthinkable that this topic is seen or perceived similarly
by the various social segments in Cuba, as would happen in any other
country.
The acknowledgment that we are a people with diverse roots and
identities, the fruit of a constant process of transculturation, is not
equally understood by the many groups which make up the Cuban
population, in some cases because of lack of education and in others
because of denial. This gradation of perceptions has to do with
human logic which may produce a wide variety of reaction. In the spe-
cific case of race, the following trends can be identified:
- remaining feelings left by centuries of oppression under slavery and racial discrim-
ination, with remnants of individual attitudes generated by the colonization and
capitalization of our society; - the shaping of an anti-racist social ethic, together with the consolidation of social
justice in the revolutionary period, although racial discrimination has not been
eradicated as illiteracy was; - the integration of an intellectual vanguard that dignifies blacks and acknowledges
the great contribution of cultures of African origin in Cuba with exponents like
Fernando Ortiz, José Luciano Franco, Lydia Cabrera, Natalia Bolivar, Nancy
Morejón, Jesus Guanche, Rogelio Martinez Fure and Esteban Morales, among
other authors.