76 Chapter 3
occurred in the past, preferably a distant one; 3) the culprits are middle men,
the bad bureaucrats, or a collective deficit in revolutionary spirit; not the
leaders in power.^14 Injustices committed by the state against certain individ-
uals can be regretted if those individuals are not deemed “counter-revolu-
tionary” (i.e. if they never explicitly challenged the master narrative). If they
did, the non-political part of their cultural contribution can now be recog-
nized but the overall judgment on them as human beings should remain typ-
ically negative.^15 Finally, it is possible to ask La Revolución to live up to its own
ideals, if it is done in a constructive fashion. The line not to be crossed is:
loyalty to the top leadership/La Revolución and acquiescence to what Ray-
mond Aron, in his perceptive analysis of Soviet totalitarianism, called the
principe unitaire (principle of unity).
Within such parameters, what can be publicly said about the challenges
facing the country is obviously limited though potentially significant. The
dissonant views that can be expressed within these parameters are mostly
found in electronic journal destined to foreign readership, in close doors col-
loquium like Temas’ monthly Ultimo Jueves or Criterios’ sessions on cultural
policy, in essays and interviews (again, mostly published abroad), and impor-
tantly (because it has much more resonance within the island) in cinema (in
particular during the Festival de La Habana), literature and visual arts. The
space between this kind of dissonance and what can be read in Granma, Cuba
socialista or La Jiribilla basically marks the boundaries of the secondary
parameters.
Interestingly, the current minister of culture and former UNEAC Presi-
dent Abel Prieto seems to have become the writers and artists’ man in
Havana, the writer-minister-politburo member who protects them against
narrow-minded cultural commissars. In a comment on the movie Fr esa y
Chocolate, Minister Prieto said that “Fresa y chocolate is an artistic synthesis of
the kind of unity in diversity that we need. That is to say, Cuban homosexu-
als have to submit themselves to this process of unity without losing their
- This is a common theme in the novel of the special period (Behar, 2009; Whitfield, 2008;
Hernandez-Reguant, 2009). - If that person is still in exile, a fortiori a vocal opponent, then s/he is described as having
profound moral or psychological flaws: the person is vain, disturbed, greedy, vindictive, and
the like). (Curiously, this practice is adopted by many foreign academics: see for instance Cha-
nan, 2004). Worst: the person is ninguneada. See the recent affirmation on exiled artists by
Abel Prieto: “Con excepción de uno o dos de los bailarines del Ballet Nacional, todo lo demás
no tiene el menor valor para la cultura cubana” (EER, Wed. February 6, 2008).