"cultural projects as opportunities for participatory innovation in Cuba today: the experience of the Thinking Chair Critical and Emerging Cultures Haydee Santamaria (KHS). "
Armando Noriega
Introduction.
This work is a thematic approach to the existing socio-cultural projects in public space in today's Cuba. In this context, which allows for the symbolic dimension of citizenship, are produced and circulated collective representations and discourses of various subjects. Experiences stand as sui generis public schools, if we assume this as a set of legal practices, symbolic and associations through which they define the criteria for inclusion and exclusion within each particular society and membership in a given political community.
These spaces operate from their dissimilar levels of visibility, advocacy and formalization citizenize elements because (even without being explicit) activated from below demands for autonomy of different subjects, and pressed the existing institutional frameworks to extend the rights of different "minorities" and emerging identities "or the whole society. We study the case of the Chair of Critical Thinking and Emerging Cultures Haydee Santamaria, a project sponsored by the Review and Investigation section of the Hermanos Saiz Association in Havana province (capital's periphery) of the Republic of Cuba. The theoretical framework, based on the general notion of political projects articulates the result of the author's earlier work on participation, citizenship studies in Cuba and research on processes of artistic public spheres. Use the document analysis, participant observation and interviews with experts. Recalls the author's experience for nearly 10 years of companionship and belonging to the processes addressed.
Analytical Foundations
Over the past decade several authors have developed an effort to characterize the expansion of participatory practices and ideas promoted by actors located essentially within the broad and diverse Latin American left. With roots in unchecked movements of the statist policies of socialism or social democracy classic, these processes are grouped into so-called participatory democracy project, analytical platform that reminds us of the existence of alternative forms of public policy, while aware of combined processes of public preference for democratic regimes and questioning about specific performances at regional level.
This project of participatory democracy (...) is not a coherent and homogeneous and / or a set of practices and institutions defined, but a collection of principles, guidelines, practices and institutions that has been an experimental level developed through social struggles in various countries of Latin America. " Expressions that this takes varies from country to country, and as the relationship with the social environment and cultural matrices taxed to the internal heterogeneity of the same, spatially and temporally delimit and limit their cultural impact, in addition to suffering Therefore the constraints of neoliberal policies, how the most recent neo-populist positions of different ideological persuasions.
From this background, and confirming the presence of multiple conditions in each territorial or sectoral context, I proposed the study of experiences that make up this project how frames participatory (collective and institutional forms several) that may relate to other similar authorities in participatory networks, interactive processes that run through overlap, integration or surgery. Networks and frames would channel the participatory respective cultures, complex ideas, values \u200b\u200band beliefs recreated on the participation by each social actor in its wide diversity. Have structures or set of organizational spaces more or less formalized and regulated body where they take various forms (direct, delegate, activism, etc.) to participate. Developing a dynamic and participatory, action sets streamed through which participation unfolds.
This participation and citizenship does not exist in the abstract. Have contained class, identity, territorial, cultural, etc. The identification of class relations framed the fight sociopolitical (and participation in it) within a specific context, we provides objective content to identify those large collective actors linked to economic and political spheres. But often blurs the way these conditions are experienced and processed by private individuals, defining alternative strategies within large communities.
The processes analyzed in this study identifies, sociologically and ideologically, with the constraints and demands of a popular subject. The popular notion encompasses a range of sectors and social classes that suffer from social inequalities are likely to be organically integrated into a draft revolutionary changes, but also are by their basic level of organization and autonomy, to be co-opted by the market and the state. As the historian Mario Castillo "(...) what is popular but is still a daily political process, comprising a dissimilar set of livelihood strategies and negotiations, which are born forms of" struggle "more selfish and anti-Community, and new social meanings, new ways of life Redifer, popular knowledge, which condenses the creative activity of people. "
We recognize that in Cuba, in the absence of a dominant capitalist bloc and the presence of substantial social rates and relatively bounded inequality, the popular subject involves a wide diversity of cultural references, regional, ethnic, and obviously, ideological, that difference in peoples' expectations and Latin American projects, and articulate complex relationship (including forms of cooperation, support, subordination, and dissent) with a bureaucracy that controls national politics and economy. The popular challenges are on the one hand, the citizenship status of the socialist system, without ceasing to see their actions and expectations, conditioned by their belonging to an underdeveloped nation. And not everything is popular emancipatory or subjects identified with horizons of change that emphasize popular empowerment belong, sociologically speaking, the social substrate.
In addition to the reference class is relevant to the analysis incorporating the concept of sociality, which expresses the different ways that subjects in their everyday relationships reciprocal and intertwined their actions in a permanent field of possible intersubjective relations, which are constantly being reinterpreted and transformed in their daily development. This concept demonstrates how each company is incorporating emerging relationships, and how the struggle of these new identities for recognition within institutions is changing the system of norms, values \u200b\u200band principles that make society function. And notice how these "(...) are incorporated into the emerging social system itself (accepted and tolerated) by relaxing at the same (...) if we look at this political dimension that involves new social practices, never understand how they fail , transform or they become new models of social action. "
The national context, spaces and emerging actors.
From the theoretical exposure discuss our object of study, recognizing that every stage and national political culture are, per se, heterogeneous, which coexist within it various models of guidance, one of which becomes dominant and defines the general logic of the social order. In the post-1959 Cuba emerged as a central vision of citizen-activist model, which identifies and nation state level, tends to unanimity as an expression of criteria, and mobilized participation rate. With a public service concerning matrix Republican activist citizenship emphasizes the positive popular redistribution of wealth, social rejection and exclusion bias gender and race.
However despite the deployment of emerging creativity and enthusiasm of the revolutionary triumph, the gradual institutionalization of the political regime (and rituals) has been gaining momentum during these 50 years to the detriment of more autonomous participation. This contributes to how, in all societies that harbor a strong and centralized state power, will decrease the levels of social trust in general capable of becoming a citizen action. Scholars of collective action refer to "What hinders the formation of larger companies in those societies with low confidence, is that the trust remains in the limits of family and kinship relations and does not extend to society as a whole. "It is important to recognize that" (...) the formal laws or characteristics of a political system in the broad sense, can encourage or discourage the efforts of individuals to voluntarily resolve their problems of collective action. Although no authoritarian regime can disappear completely the will of a people or their ability to self-organization to address everyday problems, a system which does not explicitly allow or even encourage such activities is a big difference to the fate of self-governance "
Despite these barriers, and along with the traditional view of citizenship militant, has been emerging, slowly and in some areas, a different subject, that advocates values \u200b\u200bsuch as autonomy (collective definition of guiding principles and rules of operation), self (self-generation and sustainable with minimal resources for projects) and solidarity (interaction based on relationships designed to reciprocity, symmetry and individual achievement within the common good). These principles would account, respectively, of the edges political, economic and social development of each specific frame, and are in constant readjustment to changing demands of participants and environmental constraints or opportunities.
I pause to clarify a confusion fostered by the traditional discourse and reproduction in everyday life. Solidarities emerging alternatives differ from the values \u200b\u200bpromoted by the institutions that seeks to frame major tasks in national body for the state specific initiatives (eg, associations, churches, communities and artists with the cyclones in 2008), even if these exceed the coordination and input centralized state. Also unlike state aid offered to other nations, whose design and implementation (in addition to its correctness and presumably guarantee citizen) has been absent the sanction of the popular will, which has led to depoliticize the public purposes, affecting a founding value of Cuban socialism and internationalism.
declared above, is remarkable as cultural (and more specifically art) has become a transcendent dimension in which ordinary Cubans presents and evaluates various socio-political alternatives, rethinks the basic values \u200b\u200bof the Revolution and restates its visions of the future, where artists and public face and collaborate with government actors in the incorporation of critical speech in national political culture and the official discourse. In this regard, as in previous experiences in Latin America and Eastern Europe, the confrontation between artists and staff takes place within institutions and both sides use common reference points as the demand for the nation, a popular and alternative to liberal democracy.
With greater visibility over the past decade appear cultural intermediaries (prominent intellectuals, often members of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the Union of Journalists of Cuba, the Hermanos Saiz Association and the Communist Party ) able to mediate between state institutions and transnational agencies on the one hand, and producers and consumers of Cuban culture on the other. They have great ability to identify, seize and absorb critical discourses and practices of foreign and subordinates, inserting them into the institutional agencies, which collaterally allows this attempt a reconstruction of the eroded state-centered hegemony during the crisis.
At the same time as the State witness, who must simultaneously meet demands arising from insertion into a global order and those of the population, developing public policy (and rhetoric) that combine pragmatism and tradition. This is a partial reformulation of governance scheme which seeks to preserve its role of monitoring and demarcation of the areas of production, reception and domestic cultural diffusion. As commitment to the development of strategies that combine accommodation, negotiation and collaboration with a range of state actors.
You never spelled out "new cultural politics" was organized from the 90s, personified by the management of the Minister of Culture Abel Prieto. At its heart the deployment of new active and selective ways to incorporate diversity and cultural criticism (Light potential counter-hegemonic) allowed monitoring and reintegrate them within a framework dominated by the state. In addition to possible activation of artistic public spheres.
As a space of cultural struggle and critical public spheres of art in Cuba are generally linked to actors, discourses and forms of cultural expression that transcend national boundaries. They are recognized as "(...) sites of interaction and discussion Among Ordinary Citizens generated throug the half of art and popular culture. (...) Spaces of interaction critical Which Are Both Institutions and shaped by state, local relations of production, and global market forces. "The relationship (historically redefined) of those with state institutions, access and exposure to various types of transnational networks, and their degree of participation in the mainstream of national cultural life are factors that influence the nature of the spheres public art and its potential for critical debate and intervention.
An important background of the current critical art artistic public spheres channel is located in the arrival of Volume One group, with its exhibition opened June 14, 1981 International Art Center in Havana. Since then and for the rest of the decade of 80 plastic arts took the critical role that is currently expanding into areas of literature, the young film, music and theater, in contrast to the monotonous melody of most of the media, expressing the metaphor (sometimes, not both) the problems of intellectuals and, in general, of citizenship. In another direction experiences as the project from a Pedagogical Pragmatics (Instituto Superior de Arte, 1989) sought to develop new teaching methods emancipation, where the student teacher colleague devine, with clear similarities to the popular education approach and distancing of the traditional authoritarian vertical educational model national. Finally it should be noted the effort, focusing the field of thought, the Paideia Group, unfortunately truncated by internal dissension and institutional censorship.
The culmination of this cultural accumulation, the 90 saw a small numerical expansion of artistic public areas on the periphery of mainstream Cuban cultural life, with groups that become sort of "cultural microministerios" capable to disseminate "art on their own." However, the fact that not all experiences have a status (formal recognition and action margins) identical. One of the most famous (rap) has been criticizing claims as claims (hence political) to the State given the combination of marginal status, a popular nature (inherent to the speech of a Revolution "of the poor, by the poor and the poor "), connection and support transnational and low institutionalization. Furthermore, with strong movement base in suburbs such as Alamo (Habana del Este) with popular networks denser, and elicit the participation of large groups of potentially wayward youth, the phenomenon advised officials search for ways of coexistence and co-optation more careful.
public art
These areas took a form of "public art", aimed to renew certain ethos of collectivism in the face of bureaucratization and commodification of culture, construction of new public spaces and community ties across borders nation-state. This paradigm led to dissimilar channel performance experience or deployed in the urban areas, seeking to confront the public with their everyday lives, often disrupting the institutional rules and procedures established by the use of irreverence and parody as ways transmitters of messages.
Within the semantics generated and shared by officials, promoters, artists and audiences is common to call these spaces "sociocultural." This designation is the daughter of the terminology of "project management" and "community work" developed by associations, local governments and cultural institutions to support agencies. In fact Cuba has, for 9 years, a Bachelor of Socio-Cultural Studies of broad spectrum, which is both promoters and cultural officials, researchers, allied to combine interests and agendas in historical studies, anthropology, communication, etc.
But it has also been appropriated by actors to give an account of experiences are not explicitly political but redefine spaces and practices of statehood to develop (and to some extent replicate and sustain) social service activities and empowerment.
Although the spectrum of this concept can be very broad (covering craft workshops, literary and music clubs, street theater groups, forums of thought, criticism and social research, etc..) Many are born in the margins institutions, as a mere gathering of colleagues, and as promoting "fresh action" from the inside institutions. These groups develop, in their interaction, a particular being, born from the interweaving of knowledge, affection and shared values \u200b\u200band changed daily, and expressed in more or less coherent discourse in the face of a society whose areas would transform practices and testimony.
as forms of association and collective action, these projects tend to self-management and participative leadership, and seek cultural experimentation and local activism and build different status of autonomy and joint spaces facing the state, market and community. This does not mean that inside there are no tensions authoritarian or monopolistic positions of resources and status, but the ways to manage and resolve these conflicts and awareness about the nature of them are substantially different from those found in areas such as family and traditional institutions. One such project, to which I belonged for several years, which will address below.
The Thinking Chair of Emerging Cultures and Haydee Santamaria
The Chair Haydee Santamaria (KHS) is a cultural project born from 2005 inserted into the Review and Research Section Hermanos Saiz Association, and stands as a space for debate, exchange of knowledge, the recovery of historical memories associated with emancipatory experiences in Cuba and the world. Founded in 2003 from the confluence of researchers, academics, writers and arts managers from leading spaces (eg Jonah project) the KHS has made a series of activities of academic debate and community intervention to define the profile of actions the group (Annex 2). Assumes the name of Haydee Santamaria as a tribute to the revolutionary hero, from its responsibility in front of the Casa de las Americas, he sponsored the young and rebellious art (Eg, Nueva Trova) against the silencing and censoring a large part of institutions and individuals reserved for those novice creators.
Inspired by this legacy and current demands, the KHS has developed its work.
guidelines in the KHS documents defines a set of guiding objectives of collective action. Is essential to promote critical and sociocultural research and community transformation projects featuring youth, as stimulus emerging civic cultures and a participatory and libertarian socialist praxis. Complementing this is sought to give the youth a space Cuban creative self - expression, reflection, debate and critical dialogue that combines conceptual rigor with a fraternal spirit. To achieve this purpose, the propitious KHS regular meetings under the mainstream, in terms of territories, knowledge and socio - cultural practices represented. The culmination of this work would create a national network of projects, research and exchanges, which can operate with a permanent, sustainable and production, which hold annual meetings Critics called Observatory, located specifically targets the work of the KHS in area that links research, criticism and work in neighborhoods and schools.
The KHS is composed of a membership that ranges around about 12 permanent members, both members of the AHS how unaffiliated. The group has benefited from inputs and regular outings and motivated by different reasons (migration, differences, focus on other issues / projects), but its nature as a rule has kept flowing contact with former members (Annex 1).
The KHS participatory structure is simple and flexible, emphasizing an integrated coordination for 3 or 4 members (founders and new members rated) oriented areas (logistics, background video / bibliographic treasury, institutional and other projects) and the assumption of major tasks (Critical Observatories, community action). We have tried the rotation of duties, collective deliberation and consultation of basic standards for access and ownership of the project. This feature (and the preservation of identity and dynamic individuals) make autonomy an essential value of collective participatory culture (both internal relations between members and to other places and institutions), visible in your documents, statements and actions and the type of linkages developed with the institutions, especially the AHS.
Project members meet with a variable frequency, depending on availability of staff time and demands of business. This item, as well as stable and proactive participation, not always successfully achieved, focusing on the participatory dynamics of the KHS, charging functions in some partners, and delaying the implementation of previously agreed actions. But mutations in the sociability of the group aimed to enhance democratic participation, as defined that decisions are taken, as a rule, by consensus (in rare cases by majority vote) and considering the criteria of members present in Cuba; those who are temporarily abroad (as well as friends and companions) may express views to be taken into account but without vote.
However, although there are still asymmetries of knowledge and leadership on behalf of some members (mostly founders) this does not capture crystallizes in a space or imposition of logic above the rest, something difficult given my membership . Rather, participatory culture has had to be built under the intentional promotion of a dialogic communication to overcome individualistic tendencies or protagonists and implement ways of doing things the fruits of collective deliberation without resorting to material incentives or concentration or permanent delegation of functions.
Resources for the operation of the KHS has two main sources: input material and monetary donations from members and guests (thanks to scholarships and individual awards, contributions from salaries and other personal income, and support of members and or sympathizers from abroad), and institutional support (premises, logistics and transportation) of the AHS and other institutions and associations (Casa de las Americas, Libraries, Cultural, schools, etc.). The members wanted to preserve and develop the first option for the component of personal commitment that and that power is inherent in the ideal of self as a value proposed (re) constituting the social. Anyway, the personal contribution is measured by its symbolic value, since all members do not have similar access to resources, academic integration and domestic and transnational linkages.
composition class, racial and gender is curiously special. Most members come from working families, being the first academic (or general practitioners) of their families living in neighborhoods in the capital (Marianao, Alamar, Habana Centro) and the neighboring province of Havana. Stresses the majority of blacks and mestizos composition and presence considerable in women, which together with the youth group (average age around 33 years) compared to the other areas of debate, mostly city dwellers, middle class and predominantly white population more adult.
Several members have a "multi-role, regularly participating with diverse spaces for similar purposes (workshops Cuba-USSR and Revolution Living Marinello Institute of the Ministry of Culture; Sessions" Last Thursday "of the journal Topics, associations how Martin Luther King Center and the Centro Felix Varela). In such spaces are inserted individually adjusted standards and purposes the same, yet they are often visible by the KHS membership.
This group brings together members rewarded for their texts and audio-visual national events (memory Our of the May Festival, an international event of the AHS in the province of Holguin), publishing contests (Pinos Nuevos, Themes, Calendar) , research grants (from the AHS, the Institute "Juan Marinello" Latin American Social Science Council). It also has numerous publications in the national press (magazines Themes, Catauro, Gaceta de Cuba, roads, etc..) And digital (Esquife, Havanatimes and Jiribilla-Cuba; Rebellion and Kaosenlared-Spain-, Social Sciences Research Council-US-CETRI-Belgium-etc.). It has to its credit several graduate theses and defended and guardians, compilations and forewords of books, contributions to collective works, teaching in higher education, and advocacy of their members in other cultural and community projects.
participatory culture within the KHS stores a set of shared values \u200b\u200band notions, which testify to a collective reflection structure. Diversity training and intellectual asymmetry (access to resources, knowledge and international impact) has been taken as an opportunity to advance complementary strategies are not always crystallized. Internally, the most comprehensive and complex thinking is undoubtedly that of Dmitri Samsonov Prieto, a biochemist, lawyer, anthropologist and Cuban-Russian cultural promoter. From metarreflexiones to articulate areas of knowledge and praxis, Prieto is able to locate borders and a common thread of contemporary historical, whose coordinates are positioned KHS when referring to the analysis of the present system based on logical world points "(...) For us, the weight of high significance lies in the history of political institutions of the left: the proposed alternative, the organization of the subjects popular, the continuities and ruptures in the democratic (...)".
Acknowledging the defeat of the plurality of proposals from the left during the establishment of the Cold War and bipolarity, accounts for the subordination of radical movements and debates hegemonic centers. And bet because "The recovery of organically engenders institutional questioning the need for meeting places of diverse ideas - ideas counter to the hegemonic power structure, knowledge and desire. Therefore, in good faith can say that in the immediate strategic horizon on the left is the rescue of the plurality in their thinking to "top affirming" The left thought worth something only if fertile and conceive beings are free and think that your piece come to life in the universe because they share jointly freedom. "
A contribution to the reflection in the KHS focused on the Cuban social context is provided by the historian and cultural advocate and community activist Mario Castillo. Noting the huge effort (and results) of redistributive policies, righteous developed by the Revolution of 1959, Castillo called attention to the floklorización egalitarian universalism and cultural practices which meant that Afro-Cuban A matching model sociorracial core of the revolutionary process characterization is carried out three controversial features. "1)" Sense of revolutionary change as the realization of a moral and teleological timeless, beyond the will of the parties involved in the change, 2) a transformative practice-oriented cultural and political homogenization of revolutionary subjects, leading to a vision of plurality, in the best, as an ornament of the new order and not as a political resource assets of the revolution, 3) a weakening trend of the role of popular organizations in the defense and socialist economy to for a technocratic, top-down management, typical of the cold war socialism ("real") that hampered the socialization of power, creating an increasing depoliticization of everyday life and ritualization of participation (...) "
For his part, Ramón García lawyer defends Cuba's proposal for a libertarian socialism based on three basic features: self-management, dialogue and consensus. "Let's say that this is an open society and libertarian and that it is underway. In Cuba, the dilemma is: state or market?, As neither is: statism or civilians? We demand a more Organic between state and society where the transfer of constitutional power of the state towards society happen urgently. (...) The strategic objective would be to restructure social institutions and practices at the interface of a critical consciousness to translate the popular discontent in shares of radical transformation of existing society. "
Meanwhile, the political scientist remembers Hiram Hernandez Castro fruitful juncture of the 60 in Cuba and expressed further Shifting "(...), namely closure of the journal Critical Thinking, rampant bureaucracy intellectual spaces, the imposition of dogmatic Marxism, censorship, the infallibility of the guardians, the politicization of aesthetics and beautification of the policy, etc. (...). "connecting with a sense of this when he says" (...) the rectification of those errors, has been marked by permanence, sometimes behind, others less so, of political positions that resemble the gray times of our revolutionary history.
KHS One constant has been the recovery of historical memory of the Cuban revolutionary process and in particular of the heroes and popular sectors, but not as worship but as tools for critical analysis of this. In this sense, the historian raises Yeniela Cedeño Ernesto Che Guevara: "In Socialism and Man in Cuba, its perceived anti-imperialist thinking, his conception of the individual in building a just society, without discrimination, and able to make disposals threaten the freedom of man, in a word: socialist. His personality is a symbol of integrity, self discipline, austerity, sense of ethics and the human being who suffers and seeks a better future.
That tuning basic assumptions is not an obstacle to ignore specific differences in terms of meanings and concreteness of the collective action. Two stand Basic postures and attitudes, a radical work emphasizes the importance of informal spaces, the primacy of autonomy over other values \u200b\u200band explicitly defend libertarian stance, and one targeted to the institutional linkage, the demand for more spaces within spaces formal (physical media) and the option of taking the state agencies as heterogeneous spaces, where to find allies, and plan necessary changes. Libertarian so expands the frontier of what is considered possible, and institutional levels consolidates and builds alliances to sustain achievements. Both views-that converge on the need for collaboration with different actors (Informal, community, organizational, institutional) and foreign nationals, and to build capital and space to meet the objectives of the KHS-have been undertaken by members alike, even though several of them are identifiable from one stable .
discussions also highlight the need to focus on space won and deepen their performance (eg within the AHS) or extended to emerging demands constant (eg Public Forum La Escuelita), to consolidate the work socializing via publication or further collective impact of individual members in different forums, to privilege brainstorming sessions higher academic or support community activities, etc. This debate has no doubt the plurality of political imagination and research profiles (Annex 1) both within the group and the production of the members, highlighting the hybrid disciplines and complex thought.
The KHS has built strong relationships with other groups, providing for the joint stable networking with groups such as OMNI (performance, visual, mutimedia, poetry and reflection), blackening (afrohaitiana deep ecology and culture) and Group Cultural Studies Americas (deep ecology thinking and mystical people native), among others. With several of these projects have been undertaken joint activities (event thought on the subject of Reggaeton) and participated in their activities (without Weekend Poetry Festival OMNI). Contacts have been successful and sustained collaboration with the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the Federation of University Students (national leadership and in schools), associations such as the Centers for Martin Luther King and Felix Varela, actors in the world of culture as Center Esquife Criteria and the portal. Will have valuable links with friends and international institutions highlighting Francois Houtart and the Centre Tricontinental (Belgium), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences, Frederick Engels Foundation and several colleagues of the Working Party, the Mesoamerican Forum, the Latin American Medical School and various social movements of the continent (landless Brazilians, Venezuelans libertarians, activists, Mapuche Chilean, Argentine piqueteros, etc.).
The importance of these participatory networks is crucial as a mechanism for survival and expansion of its activities. How to raise Robert Putnam, who describes the operation of networks of vertical and horizontal "(...) dense networks of social exchange are crucial condition for the emergence of a norm of reciprocity widespread. When reliable individuals who are willing to cooperate with others is only a small minority of the total population of society, a condition that can survive, thrive and expand is to establish a network among them "
However, these spaces interaction also are also emerging framework for asymmetric relations. Those horizontal networks that bring together actors of equal status and power (KHS-OMNI) enhance denser and horizontal relationships and their transformative effects on the social level are more positive. For his part but in the nets (KHS-AHS) resolve collective action problems and channel demands of its members, its logic difficult to sanction and control up.
Throughout its history, the KHS has faced various challenges and conflicts. In May and June 2008 several members were fired as investigators in centers affiliated to the Communist Party Central Committee and has been questions and attempts to discourage activities by various law enforcement officials and interior in charge of monitoring activities KHS. In all cases reported to the relevant actors and our rejection of the decision to continue the lines of work.
In 2005 a media distortion of Other legacies event in October led meetings with the former leadership of AHS which, in assessing the work done, it appreciates the continuity and offered logistical and legal support it without compromising internal dynamics and identity of the KHS. Collective decision, which had been to defend our work and continue in all circumstances, was to accept the offer (in fact working with AHS membership was already intense by founders and members) to occur as the official draft section Criticism and Research Havana province, with the continued support of the then provincial president Yuray Tolentino. Since then links with the AHS (and its various provincial) have been strengthened by participating in events and activities throughout the country.
As part of its consistency, KHS has developed various civic actions of solidarity with other spaces and colleagues involved in common struggles. This is part of an idea to create networks (frames) with entities and individuals related to their work that enhances both mutual solidarity in the struggle of various actors to obtain and preserve civic spaces such as in positions of public complaint actions inherent to the culture of domination. Just highlight the support given to intellectual Desiderio Navarro to the threat of financial strangulation of the Center Criteria, to support youth demand opening of debate on the Five Year which led to the Gray Lecture Series developed at the Instituto Superior de Arte in 2007, the defense of the necessary continuity of the Workshop Bolshevik pronouncements of support for struggles popular in Latin America and the world, reporting the war in Iraq.
Several evaluative evidence on the work of the KHS and its role in the current Cuban situation. To Francois Houtart "(...) the work of these young people is crucial, pick up the legacy of the Revolution and discuss problems and solutions from a socialist perspective." Lucio presented similar views Costa, Table founder of the Workers Party of Brazil who said active exchanges with the group, and Yuray Tolentino who acknowledged the work of the group and especially Vice President Dmitri Prieto, Mario Castillo, head of Criticism and Research section. Finally, the AHS itself on its website, KHS defined as "(...) one of the most important cultural projects of the Review and Research Section in Havana.
However, groups such as the KHS remains a long way to consolidate a job that, given the expected expansion of social demands, will enable them to project the group to positions qualitatively agenda higher. The oft-delayed crystallization of his theoretical (in book form or media) of the hand of a more organic integration of collective thought, the more systematic involvement of the entire membership in the work of coordination and compliance with collective agreements improving linkages with other projects and institutions (formal spaces and emerging balancing), and the move towards greater self-generated by contributions of members, are some of the challenges faced by the project.
Conclusions
in Cuba (despite the survival of structural problems) a scenario identical to the infamous 70's. Official cultural institutions show greater tolerance for dissent intrasystemic, both mutations in the composition and references of a more plural society, the greater power of artistic public spheres, the presence of Internet censorship blurs the barriers of old ( other more precarious generating efficiency), and the expansion of cultural projects and new modes of incorporation of artists and audiences of critical discourses, sensitivities and counter-hegemonic movements. In this context, the artistic communities try to influence policy cultural state, while it is engaged in shaping their agendas and guidance, maintaining suspicions, tensions and, as a material basis of this complex relationship, asymmetry between the strength of the actors. And it is not excluded, given its relative confinement and isolation of population guild and watchtowers of high politics, new crises and conflicts that feel conditions of possibility of new transformations.
Unfortunately there is still a vision (predominantly in the civil service) packed full of animosity towards these areas, which hampers their potential for integration cooptativa, and contributions to the revitalization of socialista que muchos de ellos proponen. Como plantea S. Fernandes “Artist themselves do not always seek to collaborate with the sate or reconcile their critical perspectives with dominate narratives; at times they propose alternative strategies for social renewal or criticize the state for not living up to their expectations. The political leadership recognizes the potential of critical art to be framed in ways that may not be accommodating to the dominant order (…) critical public dialogues makes available languages that can be used by forces that want to bring about radical change, not just reform within the system. For this reason, as the state attemps to institucionalize and incorporate critical art, the leadership also keeps it out of the mass media”.
Recent research has highlighted the existence of several possible cultural impact for Cuban civil society: revolution from within the revolution, improving the regulations and institutions, working with these institutions to strengthen their performance and autonomy antisystemic become a force to remove the entire work process. Convinced that in the first two options is the most promising future perspective, from a real anti-capitalist and popular empowerment, is in that direction that fits the work of the CHS for nearly 10 years. Persistently develop its action and thought with the exhortation that "(...) we flood of constructive criticism and viable social alternative spaces existing officers and others believe, as Che Guevara, where the libertarian and daring collective intelligence to make a piece."
Looking
future in Cuba is necessary to relaunch a citizen activist and participatory public sphere denationalise expanding the pattern of socio-political inclusion, and promote new levels of equality and freedom in social relations and the representation of diverse identities) and take advantage of education levels, access culture, mentality and the notion of equal participation as a duty creatively recreated from the legacy of the Revolution. Faced with the challenge of starting to change a setting trends predominantly by hardliners "(...) must first find ways to introduce new elements of symmetry in order to achieve greater reciprocity of the rules. Success will depend on the ability to sustain relatively autonomous organizations (...) that are capable of restricting the decisions of the rules (...) Only the development of structures of authority and function as a counterweight can introduce greater reciprocity in the general constitution of a society, in which there are serious political asymmetries "
In the midst of an internal field of restrictive visibly asymmetric forces, compensating for the lack of resources and the precariousness of the legal framework and legitimacy to his activism, social and cultural projects Chair Haydee Santamaria how they manage to display popular empowerment processes that counteract the effects of bureaucratic power mercantilizantes trends that threaten the horizon of a socially desirable and perfectible.
Havana / Xalapa, summer 2009.
Epilogue
The events of recent months, but do not invalidate The items on pages, new scenarios seem to presage conflicts and alliances. The first derived from the series of restrictive actions from the institutions mentioned in
http://observatoriocritico.blogspot.es/ In a recent interview, noted the need for solidarity articulated to amplify the isolated effects of various areas of debate and defend (by public) of institutional closures. Persists as the underlying problem of lack of transparency of our deliberative spaces, as well as the rules that establish the asymmetry of resources, power and means of dissemination of ideas among porous society, diverse and creative, on the one hand, and a majority of state agencies ignorant of politics and communication logic of the XXI century.
Although the diversification of means of dissemination of ideas and the growing power tends to favor symbolic first screened poorly attended spaces (using a combination of self-silencing and belligerence), contrary to media and provocations developed low-intensity wars against poor Cuban public sphere by the Stalinist thought and its correlation with right-wing, inside and outside the island
The situation seems to confirm the idea that our managers and cultural movements should avoid "keep" empty your senses. Because holding a sterile forum only serves to legitimize authoritarian regimes, exclusions and decorate the censorship of critical thinking, appearing non-existent: plurality, respect and dialogue as
general conditions of social life and no union privileges. Beyond ensuring the existence of these spaces live role-it is bounded to be transcending, and influence public spaces transforming vocation. And to achieve this we start with small attitudes: the reporting of any physical or verbal aggression seeking silence, without arguments, the voices of the other-provided that this does not turn promoter or carrying explicit violence, "the rejection of physical exclusion policy deliberative spaces, the personal disqualification as a substitute for debate administrative and political repression of ideas and carriers.
In return pressures, sanctions and exclusions, CHS has committed itself to build new connections in the framework of the Critical Network Monitoring, emerged from meetings and forums related homologous and composed of individuals and groups in Cuba committed to a relaunch participatory Cuban socialism. At the individual level many members of the CHS have participated in exchanges with representatives of the Landless Movement, the Zapatista Communities, the European anti-capitalist movements and groups Venezuelan Libertarian. This strategy, coupled with the militant solidarity of intellectuals and the left anti-capitalist groups and different social movements in nations such as Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Germany and France, are definitely an invaluable resource to meet the challenges " signs of the times seem to announce.
Bibliography
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Boves, Velia Cecilia "The unfinished nation. (Re) constitution of citizenship and national identity in Cuba, Mexico DF, Mexico FLACSO, 2007.
Santana Castillo, Mario, "The ñáñigos and the events of November 27, 1871: historical memory, dynamic and popular socialist project in Cuba", Magazine Road, No. 47, Havana, 2008.
Hechavarría Cedeño, Yeniela, "Che Guevara Reader Baudelaire, Neruda, Sartre and Camus" in www.uneac.org.cu/index.php?id=chebau&module=contenido - 14k, Havana, 2008.
Chaguaceda, Armando, "Democracy, Participation and Citizenship: Latin American prospects," Notebook of Social Sciences No 149, San José, FLACSO Costa Rica, 2008.
Dagnino, Evelina, and Aldo Alberto Olvera Panfichi. "Democratic Innovation in Latin America: a first look at the participatory democratic project", in (Ciska Raventos (Comp), Democratic Innovation in the South. Participation and representation in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Buenos Aires, CLACSO Books 2008.
Fernandes, Sujatha, "Cuba is cuban arts, state power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, Duke University Press, NC, 2006.
García Guerra, Ramon "Cuba is all!" Intervention in session Chair Haydee Santamaria, Almendares Park, July 7, 2007, in www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/cuba-es- of-all
Gonzales, Lenier "We are facing a dilemma of governance. Interview with Armando Chaguaceda political scientist "in Lay Area magazine, Supplement 88, December 2009, Havana in
http://www.espaciolaical.org/contens/esp/sd_088.pdf Gray, Alexander J.; Kapcio, Antoni eds., The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society, University Press of Florida, Miami, 2008.
Hernández Castro, Hiram "Gramsci in the center of Cuban culture," Presentation at the XVI International Book Fair of Havana Title: Gramsci: Intellectuals and society, Research and Development Cuban Culture, 2007. In laventana.casa.cult.cu / modules.php? Name = News & file = print & sid = 3609 - 12k
Hernandez Castro, Hiram, a revolutionary political culture, Havana, 2007, laventana.casa.cult.cu / modules.php? Name = News & file = article & sid = 3601 - 35k
Hernández Castro, Hiram, namely Power: Toward a political science liberation Award New Pines, La Habana, Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2006.
Ostrom, Ellinor, Ahn TK, Olivares Cecilia, "A social capital perspective from the social sciences: social capital and collective action", Journal of Sociology, Vol 65, No 1, Mexico City, Jan-Mar , 2003
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Prieto Samsonov, Dmitri, "Reprolematizando transition from the thought of Cornelius Castoriadis "in Gabriel Armando Coderch and Chaguaceda (comp)" Culture, Faith and Solidarity: emancipatory perspectives to Neoliberalism ", La Habana, Editorial Félix Varela, 2005.
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A counter: alternative thinking vs. monotone imbecilización fascist "review in www.cubaliteraria.com/premio/contracorriente/esp/premio_12.html - 23k, Havana, 2005.
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ANNEX 1: Profile of members of the Chair "Haydee Santamaría" (provinces of La Habana and Ciudad de La Habana):
1. Gonzalo Castillo Mario Santana (Havana, 1975) historian, teacher and neighborhood activist. Studies of popular culture, racial issues and political theory. Chinese immigrants and descendants
2. Hiram Hernandez Castro (Havana, 1973), a political scientist, historian, essayist and lecturer. Cultural studies philosophy and political theory.
3. Simon Eddy Carlos Forcade (Havana, 1980), essayist and professor of arts and letters. Cultural Studies philosophical-theological and historical. Orthodox Christian Deacon
4. Fyodor Mancebo Rodríguez (Havana, 1974), historian and teacher. Latin American studies and philosophy.
5. Ana Luisa Castillo Vicarte (Havana, 1980), professor of arts and letters. Cultural studies.
6. Prieto Dmitri Samsonov (Havana, 1972), jurist, anthropologist, biochemical, poet, teacher. Legal studies in philosophy and theology, anthropology and complex thought.
7. Ramón García Guerra (Havana, 1960), lawyer, professor and activist neighborhood. Community studies, social theory.
8. Angel Edhel Cardeaux Gay (Havana, 1975), psychologist. Cultural promoter, a professor of dance, cultural studies.
9. Chaguaceda Armando Noriega (Havana, 1975), a political scientist, educator, historian, activist neighborhood, teacher. And Cuban American Studies, participation and political theory.
10. Tato Quiñones (Serafin Quiñones Tiant) (Havana, 1942), writer, journalist and producer of videos. Studies of popular culture and religion. Abakuá, Ifa Priest,
11. Miriam Herrera Jerez (Havana, 1975), historian, writer, teacher. Studies of popular culture, race, Chinese immigrants and descendants.
12. Julio Tang (Havana, 1975), historian, teacher. Popular culture studies, Chinese immigrants and descendants.
13. Jorge Luis German (Havana, 1972), theologian and political scientist. Studies social theory and theology.
14. Karel Negrete (Havana, 1982), lawyer and teacher. Studies in political theory.
15. Pavel German Benitez (Havana, 1974), lawyer and teacher. Latin American studies and political theory.
16. Cedeño Yeniela Hechavarría (Havana, 1978), historian and broadcaster. Studying popular culture, gender and race.
17. Polina Shviétsova Martinez (Havana, 1976), writer, poet, cultural promoter and editor. Literary studies socio-cultural and spiritual. Cuban immigrants and descendants
post-Soviet Note: Not all members were active and / or the country at the time of the investigation.
ANNEX 2: List of Activities of the Chair Haydee Santamaria
-Event "Humanism and the paradox of modernity", Library Reuben M. Villena, La Habana Vieja Municipality, May 2003. Event
-Fascist Youth Forum "here Place your fascism: fascism, historical memory and everyday life," Reuben M. Library Villena, M. Ruben Library Villena, La Habana Vieja Municipality, July 2003.
-Event "The other legacies of October," UNEAC Villena Hall, Casa de las Americas, Reuben M. Library Villena, La Habana Vieja Municipality, March 2005.
-Memorial Event "A Mad trust: Tribute to the combatant poet Roque Dalton, UNEAC Villena Hall, Library Reuben M. Villena, County-City of Old Havana's Revolution Square, May 2005.
-I Observatory Critical Critical Research Section AHS National, home of the Young Creator, Municipio San José de las Lajas, March 2006.
-Memorial Event "Aracelio Churches in memory", House of Culture of the Municipality of Centro Habana, June 2006.
-Workshop "We purposely reggaeton" Burrow AHS headquarters Centro Habana Municipality, June 2007.
-cultural action "Tribute to the martyrs and heroes nanigos 5 November 27, Corner Morro, Habana Vieja, November 27, 2007.
- Memorial "Tribute to the martyrs of Moncada neighborhood of La Ceiba." Municipio Playa, January 1, 2008
-cultural action in the park of La Ceiba on the 155th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, Municipio Playa, 28 January, 2008.
- II National Critical Observatory. Criticism and Research Section of AHS. Creator Young House, Municipality of San Jose de las Lajas, February, 2008.
-Video Debates deep America, Chair Haydee Santamaria Cultural Studies Group Americas, Higher Pedagogical Institute "Silverio Blanco, School of Social Workers and Plastic Arts, Sancti Spiritus, March 2008.
Parade-Participation in Labor Day, Revolution Square, May 1, 2008.
-Cultural Action "Tribute to the martyrs and heroes nanigos 5 November 27, Corner Morro, Habana Vieja, November 27, 2008. Debates
-Video deep America, Chair Haydee Santamaria, Sancti Spiritus, February 2009.
- Critically III National Observatory. Criticism and Research Section of AHS, Boca de Jaruco (Santa Cruz del Norte municipality, 13 to 15 March 2009.
- Participation in Parade Labour Day, Revolution Square, May 1, 2009.
- Report of Coup in Honduras, through the "Letter of Solidarity from the Centre Critical social movements in Honduras" in http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=11386
-Cultural Action "Homage to May the martyrs and heroes nanigos November 27, Corner Morro, Habana Vieja, November 27, 2009.
-Approval by the Charter to reject the existing obstructions and prohibitions of social and cultural critic Observatory network in
http://observatoriocritico.blogspot.es/ addition to these symposia held intermittently CHS from 2005 to 2008 a space called "school" based initially in Almendares Park Amphitheater in the park and then H and 21 which made thematic presentations, from a program developed by the regular attendees, addressing different authors, experiences, thoughts and current cultural and political processes. CHS currently involved, along with other groups, in Videodebates weekly frequency, within the framework of Critical Monitoring Network.
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