Parameters, Uncertainty and Recognition: The Politics of Culture in Cuba 79
communication with Padilla and with me. There was never the slightest
effort at conversation or negotiation. Not even the slightest lobbying. It was
simply conveyed to us that we had committed an error and that they had to
punish us, making an example of us as a warning to others” (p.31). Asked if
he ever receive an apology: “Here in Cuba, errors are rectified in silence.”
Then he puts a lid on it: “Without a doubt, the matter has been rectified.
After the Ministry of Culture was founded, things improved under Armando
Hart. Some matters became more flexible, more intelligent. I was lowly reha-
bilitated, I started to publish, they gave me several awards, and I was allowed
to travel abroad again” (p.33-34).^19
Pablo Armando Fernández, ex-subdirector de Lunes and director of Unión
(1987-94) won the National prize for Culture in 1981, the Critics' Prize for
Campo de amor y batalla in 1985 and the Cuba's 1996 National Prize for Liter-
ature. We are told by the editors that “for almost three decades he was one
of the black sheep of the Cuban cultural fold. He was savagely attacked by
the cultural commissars, who forced him to work for nine years in a printing
press. Then they refused to publish his work for fourteen years and would
not allow him to leave the island for another thirteen years” (p.78-79).
Fernández's overall assessment: “After all that I've been through, I think I
have the right to publish a book entitled ‘The Book of Infamy.’ It would not
be fair to do so, however, because these events have nothing to do with the
revolution per se” (p.88). Censorship doesn't exist today in Cuba “anymore.”
Then he proceeds to attack what he calls “literature of exile.”
Nancy Morejón, the Afro-Cuban “poetess of the revolution,” hardly sees
any problem in the cultural field except the fact that bookstore do not have a
special stand to display books (such as hers) who receive prizes (p.111). And
yet, she too was on a black list, in the 1960s. She have good things to say
about Padilla the poet but as an individual he lacked “maturity.” Errors were
committed on both sides. She adopts the official line on freedom: “I feel that
Cuban writers today are demanding things that simply cannot be conceded
in a period like this... [...]. Moreover, ‘freedom’ has many facets, and many- In an article published in La Gaceta de Cuba (a UNEAC publication), Arrufat make com-
ments about Virgilio Piñera that could apply to his own itinerary. Piñera, we are told, “fue un
marginado literario, no fue, como se ha afirmado en el extranjero, un perseguido.” For him,
“nunca, además, decidió apartarse ni eligió el aislamiento en respuesta. [...]. Fue rasgo perma-
nente de su persona, desde que, en los primeros meses del triunfo se integró al proceso, hasta
su muerte, al estar dispuesto a participar” (Arrufat, 1987: 19).