Karl Marx's Camel
19th January 2007, 18:51
Cuban writers back protest Vs. censor
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 18, 11:11 PM ET
HAVANA - The Cuban government's arts union Thursday backed protests against the recent reappearance of a former top censor blamed for Stalinist-type purges on artistic expression in the 1970s.
The statement by the National Union of Cuban Artists and Writers appeared aimed at defusing a fiery debate among Cuban intellectuals both on and off the island about the former top cultural official's appearance on three state television shows this month.
The resurfacing of Luis Pavon Tamayo and others from the period known to writers here as the "gray five years" has raised worries that Cuba's new caretaker government was moving to tighten expression with ailing President
Fidel Castro on the sidelines.
Published in the Communist Party daily Granma, the union's statement said it shared the "just indignation" of intellectuals disturbed by the reappearance.
Since Castro ceded his powers provisionally to his brother Raul on July 31 after announcing he had undergone intestinal surgery, the younger Castro has campaigned for fearless and critical debate within the confines of the island's communist system.
In December, he encouraged university leaders to engage in public debate while still remembering that final decisions will be made by leaders. "That way we reach decisions, and I'm talking about big decisions," he said.
Last week, ideology chieftain Rolando Alfonso Borges called on journalists for official media to report more on problems affecting Cuban citizens. Since the fall, the youth communist newspaper Juventud Rebelde has published a rare series of stories examining petty corruption at state businesses.
"The people must see their problems more frequently reflected in our media," Granma newspaper said Saturday in reporting on Alfonso's meeting with official reporters.
In the flap about the former censor, the union statement did not name Pavon and he could not be immediately located for comment. He evidently is retired and is not listed in the telephone book.
Many Cuban blame Pavon for the censorship and purges of colleagues when was president of Cuba's National Culture Council from 1971 to 1976.
During those years, writers and artists were expelled from their jobs for being homosexuals or not toeing the government line. Some, including Jose Lezama Lima, were hounded into exile. Beatles music and even long hair were banned on the island.
The statement said union leaders met with writers who worried that the new appearances by Pavon and other culture officials from that period could "express a tendency other than the political culture that has guaranteed and will guarantee our unity."
Desiderio Navarro, a Cuban cultural and literary theorist, living on the outskirts of Havana, sent an open letter to his fellow intellectuals to remember painful episodes of censorship.
The letter was shared widely among Cuban writers via e-mail and was picked up on numerous Cuban exile Web logs.
"Are we really a country with such little memory that we don't remember the painful situation that our cultural institutions were reduced to by the work of the National Culture Council?" he wrote.
In his letter, Navarro asked: "Why precisely at this singular moment in the history of our country, when all of our people are depending on the convalescence of the Commander in Chief, comes this sudden glorious media resurrection?"
Others making recent TV appearances include Jorge Serguera, who was president of Cuban broadcasting during the same period.
Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_censor_resurfaces)
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 18, 11:11 PM ET
HAVANA - The Cuban government's arts union Thursday backed protests against the recent reappearance of a former top censor blamed for Stalinist-type purges on artistic expression in the 1970s.
The statement by the National Union of Cuban Artists and Writers appeared aimed at defusing a fiery debate among Cuban intellectuals both on and off the island about the former top cultural official's appearance on three state television shows this month.
The resurfacing of Luis Pavon Tamayo and others from the period known to writers here as the "gray five years" has raised worries that Cuba's new caretaker government was moving to tighten expression with ailing President
Fidel Castro on the sidelines.
Published in the Communist Party daily Granma, the union's statement said it shared the "just indignation" of intellectuals disturbed by the reappearance.
Since Castro ceded his powers provisionally to his brother Raul on July 31 after announcing he had undergone intestinal surgery, the younger Castro has campaigned for fearless and critical debate within the confines of the island's communist system.
In December, he encouraged university leaders to engage in public debate while still remembering that final decisions will be made by leaders. "That way we reach decisions, and I'm talking about big decisions," he said.
Last week, ideology chieftain Rolando Alfonso Borges called on journalists for official media to report more on problems affecting Cuban citizens. Since the fall, the youth communist newspaper Juventud Rebelde has published a rare series of stories examining petty corruption at state businesses.
"The people must see their problems more frequently reflected in our media," Granma newspaper said Saturday in reporting on Alfonso's meeting with official reporters.
In the flap about the former censor, the union statement did not name Pavon and he could not be immediately located for comment. He evidently is retired and is not listed in the telephone book.
Many Cuban blame Pavon for the censorship and purges of colleagues when was president of Cuba's National Culture Council from 1971 to 1976.
During those years, writers and artists were expelled from their jobs for being homosexuals or not toeing the government line. Some, including Jose Lezama Lima, were hounded into exile. Beatles music and even long hair were banned on the island.
The statement said union leaders met with writers who worried that the new appearances by Pavon and other culture officials from that period could "express a tendency other than the political culture that has guaranteed and will guarantee our unity."
Desiderio Navarro, a Cuban cultural and literary theorist, living on the outskirts of Havana, sent an open letter to his fellow intellectuals to remember painful episodes of censorship.
The letter was shared widely among Cuban writers via e-mail and was picked up on numerous Cuban exile Web logs.
"Are we really a country with such little memory that we don't remember the painful situation that our cultural institutions were reduced to by the work of the National Culture Council?" he wrote.
In his letter, Navarro asked: "Why precisely at this singular moment in the history of our country, when all of our people are depending on the convalescence of the Commander in Chief, comes this sudden glorious media resurrection?"
Others making recent TV appearances include Jorge Serguera, who was president of Cuban broadcasting during the same period.
Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_censor_resurfaces)