Casa de las Américas: a cultural bridge between Cuba and the Great Homeland.

Under the auspices of the Moncada heroine, Haydée Santamaría, on July 4th, 1959, an institution was born in Havana that, in addition to giving voice to the Cuban intelligentsia, has consolidated itself as a platform of significant impact.

Under the auspices of the heroine of the Moncada, Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado, on July 4th, 1959, an institution was born in Havana that, in addition to giving voice to the Cuban revolutionary intellectuals, has established itself as a platform of significant impact for cultural exchange between the island and Latin American nations.

In a context where the foundations of the incipient Revolution began to take shape and the governments of the continent, with the exception of Mexico, broke off relations with Cuba, the building of the former Casa Continental de la Cultura hosted the birth of Casa de las Américas in a grand inaugural ceremony presided over by the then Minister of Education, Armando Hart Dávalos.

From that moment on, Casa de las Américas has served as a nerve center for socio-cultural development in the world thanks to its initiatives to promote the talent of writers and artists through publications, contests, awards and residencies, its promotion of research and study of Latin American and Caribbean culture and its defense of the identity and cultural diversity of each nation.

Among its most outstanding initiatives are the immense bibliographic collection exhibited in its renowned library, the multidisciplinary, comprehensive and collaborative work of the Center for Caribbean Studies, the meritorious communicative work of its magazine of letters and ideas of the same name and its remarkable dissemination of the empowerment and prominence of Cuban and Latin American women.

Throughout its 65 years of existence, it has praised the work of distinguished writers, plastic artists, musicians, theaters and scholars of literature, arts and social sciences, standing out for its preponderant role in the construction of a Latin American identity and the fight against colonialism and cultural hegemony and its adaptation to the new times and challenges of the current global context, as well as for its critical and transforming vision, always adjusted to the reality of the peoples of the Patria Grande.

Written by Yadiel Barbón Salgado.