A Mexican colloquium against the Monroe Doctrine.

Once again the students of the Faculty of Humanities of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, with their backpacks full of dreams, welcomed the matancero. On this occasion, as a sort of reunion, the afternoon was ideal for the virtual exchange as part of the Colloquium The Day of Latin American History and Culture, 200 years after the Monroe Doctrine.

Doctor of Science Carlos Chacón Zaldívar, professor at the University of Matanzas Camilo Cienfuegos, recalls his visit to that faculty years ago and tells how now, in spite of the vicissitudes, he felt at home again by participating on-line in this event.

«This October 11th we had a luxurious afternoon. Despite the technological difficulties, love and endurance were much stronger than distance. Dr. Abelardo Hernández Millán, a fine writer and great friend, was not there, as he was then, but his colleagues and the students of Philosophy, History, Art, among others, were,» he confesses.

But something that particularly marked the poet, storyteller and literary critic was the preparation of the different speakers:

«With wisdom they taught us once again why Heredia, Martí and Fidel himself, chose that land in their best days of love and combat»- and highlights among the interventions – «that of the noble Cuban Onoria Céspedes, with all the stories of José María Heredia y Heredia in her unwavering voice».

At the head of the Jesús Orta Ruiz Tenth Studies Honorary Chair, Professor Chacón Zaldívar explains that the decision to send the text La tradición decimista en el contexto de la nueva colonización cultural de los pueblos de Nuestra América, was an act of opening towards other lands, where even today the spinel is improvised in the fields and cities; but the event acquired other dimensions.

«There we listened to teachers, invited intellectuals and students address in their interventions topics of greater depth for the continent, such as the denunciation of the true background of the Monroe Doctrine; the situation of indigenous populations in the colonial period and the presence of Afro-descendants.

«A young student established an interesting dialogue between José Martí’s document Our America and the thought of Simón Bolívar. The student also talked about the work of Herediano from the pages of El Iris, regarding his vision on the strength that took the power of the North and why in such circumstances he analyzed such doctrine», he emphasizes.

He also said that the next anniversary, in December, of the first poet of America was remembered, as well as his legacy in the desire to see the Homeland free on that occasion in which he participated clandestinely among the Yorquinos, as part of the Bolivar Rays and Suns.

The work sessions on October 12th in Mexico included book presentations by various Mexican civil society organizations, in addition to a wide cultural program in different areas of the University and its communities, where there was no shortage of theater and regional music.

«There in the beautiful Toluca was the teacher Francisco Javier Estrada with his book and his Literary Workshop José María Heredia y Heredia, along with the project Casas del Poeta, while he gave light and culture to the city with his chronicles of always. Meanwhile, the beautiful Matanzas, enlisted an embrace of friendship at the closing of the important colloquium that already opens roads to the future.

«Our city celebrates its 330th anniversary with a working people, where its artists and creators stand out; while we have the debt to honor the first great poet of America -who wrote with intense lyricism La Estrella de Cuba-, with the creation in Matanzas of the José María Heredia Cultural Center, which will bring to the Yumurian city its already Mexican-Matanzas heritage».

Written by Jeidi Suárez García.