The National Coat of Arms against the supremacy of the predator.

With his characteristic clear style, the writer and intellectual Abel Prieto, director of Casa de las Américas, gave his second conference in Matanzas in support of the programme «Sowing ideas, sowing conscience», promoted by the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to confront the cultural colonisation that is expanding with the use of new information and communication technologies.

In his speech, comrade Abel emphasised that the policy of the Revolution is based on the strength of national pride, the love for patriotic symbols and our history, but there is a global strategy that aims to strip the people of their identity.

It is used the manipulative avalanche of thought, the rise of frivolity and lies, implemented more than a century ago, but with the current advantage of «selling» the message to grandmothers, parents and children alike.

The keynote speaker stressed, therefore, that actions must be conscious when approaching young people, without censorship or prohibitions. «We need to encourage them to have a critical view of the hegemonic discourses that manipulate opinions and emotions, the consequence of which is cultural and historical amnesia, mainly manifested in social networks, so we must offer arguments that motivate individual reflection».

The prominent leader stated that the aim is to erase the collective memory through media productions, which promote emigration by creating a feeling of idealisation about the economic superiority of the predators.

«These products devalue the authenticity and genuineness of local, regional and national cultures; they empty concepts such as homeland, people and nation of meaning. Under the logic of the show, the figure of the ‘influencer’ is enhanced, an apparently non-ideologised subject, with a considerable power of attraction over diverse population groups, particularly among the youth.

He quoted anecdotally how some people «believe» everything they say, because the scripts of reality shows are based on situations that could happen, but seen from a sensationalist charisma, which, like fake news, leads to doubt and confusion in the face of the «could be», even if it is not true. Even children have changed their native heroes. It is an «invisible» war.

And it should be noted that educational and cultural institutions, radio and television, political and mass organisations, organisations of creators and scientists, as well as all representatives of Cuban civil society, visible in the communities, must participate actively and in a coordinated manner in the decolonisation effort.

It is neither a fallacy nor a trick; it is a reality that is shaking the world, a challenge to which we Cubans must react with a projection that encompasses the educational, artistic and community sphere, at the neighbourhood level and with the involvement of civil society and the media, with a central point in schools and universities, where the values inculcated under the ideology of Marti, Fidel Castro and Guevara are forged or displaced.

The conference was held in the provincial Party School «José Smith Comas» with the participation of Ramón Gómez Medina, member of the provincial Party Bureau, Governor Mario Sabines, Enrique Ubieta, director of the Cuba Socialista magazine, Osbel Marrero, provincial director of Culture and José Manuel Espino, president of UNEAC Matanzas.

A large representation of professors from the aforementioned school was also present, along with academics from the University of Matanzas, historians, writers and artists, cadres from political and mass organisations, among other institutions.

There were important interventions that showed what the province is doing in terms of the National Programme. Governor Mario Sabines rightly pointed out the role to be played by the educational centres and the recreation commissions, where the main events are held, as they are effective promoters of these ideas that defend Matanceridad and Cuban identity.

It is also a matter of preserving, together with the values of our national culture, the best of the universal cultural heritage up to the present day.

Speaking again, Abel pointed out that «the elites of today’s world, sick with greed and vulgar pragmatism, despise this heritage, its humanist values, its most transcendent enquiries. They have emptied it of meaning.

The dismantling of our history is constant, we see it continually on the networks, and those who deny it forget that these emissaries bury what Cubans themselves built at will, what the Revolution achieved over these six decades, despite being suffocated by blockades and sanctions; hostility that, far from diminishing, is increasing.

In his conclusions, Gómez Medina pointed out that the cultural, scientific and historical heritage of the people of Matanzas belongs to their people in the broad notion of the meaning of homeland; it is necessary to safeguard with collective decisions the music, the history, the customs, the identity of each neighbourhood or village, of each person enriched by their beliefs and particularities, born of their spiritual environment.

Written by María Elena Bayón Mayor.