Parameters, Uncertainty and Recognition: The Politics of Culture in Cuba 73
The Politico-Cultural FieldFrom the onset the goal of the new “revolutionary” regime has been to cre-
ate “a new man in a new society” Official documents talk about La Revolución
as “the most important cultural fact of our history” (Ministerio de Cultura,
1977). The mass media, as well as education and cultural policies, were
quickly mobilized to promote the state's new agenda. A new and extensive
Politico-Cultural Field (PCF) was created, within which operate cultural
agents.^8 In this “new society” the scope of what could be expressed was
reduced, but the range of cultural activities and their access by the popula-
tion in general expanded. One recognizes here the imprint of communist
cultural policy. As Milosz once wrote about realist socialism (the ideal-typical
cultural policy of communist regime): it “fortifie les petits talents et mutile
les grands” [it strengthens modest talents and mutilates great ones] (Milosz,
1988: 206).
The contours of the PCF were never confined to the purview of state's
cultural organizations. The Communist Party and its youth branch, its sec-
tions responsible for ideological vigilance, all mass organizations,^9 unions
(such as the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Artes y Espectáculos),
the ministries of interior^10 and education are all involved. The cultural sec-
tion of the army’s Verde Olivo was famously used, at the end of the 1960s, to
assert the communist policy in culture (one remembers the anonymous
attacks of “Leopoldo Avila”). When culture is dominated by politics, culture
is politics by other means.
The PCF has been headed, like any other fields in Cuba, by Fidel Castro,
followed by Raul and their close collaborators of the moment. The Ministry
of Culture was created in 1976, in replacement of the National Council for
Culture (under the authority of the Ministry of Education). The PCF is also
shaped institutionally by the intersection of culture with other policy areas
and institutions, in particular education (which can be seen as a sub-field of
the PCF) and the economy.- I use the notion of political field (le champ culturel) developed by Pierre Bourdieu (1992),
but add “political” to correct a sociologism that is inappropriate for the study of Cuba. - “Las organizaciones de masas y los organismos estatales, mantendrán una lucha en favor
de la superación político-ideológica de los trabajadores de la cultura, de su vinculación y cono-
cimiento de la realidad social...” (PCC, First Congress. “Resolucion” 31). - Raul Castro's son, Alejandro Castro Espín, wrote a book entitled Imperio del terror recently
published by the editorial Capitán San Luis of the MININT!