Culture and Community Engagement in Cuba: "All for the Revolution"
The following article provides some personal observations gathered by Kim Burge, Director of Educational Outreach, UCI Center for the Learning through the Arts and Technology, and Nancy Christensen, DoE Director of Communications, during their week-long educational exchange trip to Cuba in August 2010.
Dr. Kim Burge: According to Maria Antonio Castro B. in Todo por la Revolución (All for the Revolution), the goal that sets Cuban social projects apart from others in the world is their focus on employing culture for “human betterment”. A review of her article on the Cuban Casas de Cultura website and my own observations would appear to support her claim. Today Casas de Cultura in every municipality, in every province of Cuba, support local artists, “plastic” or visual and performing alike, in educating for the benefit of the local communities, urban and rural alike -- benefits such as identify formation through investigating oral traditions, learning about ecology, transforming dilapidated communities, educating for creative literacy, improving the self confidence of disabled adults, and demonstrating pride in transportation and housing as well.
Summer 2010 happened to be a particularly significant year for the “José Martí” brigade of young arts instructors, who were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their founding by going into their communities and interviewing their elders, “living treasures”, in a countrywide program to preserve and celebrate their cultural and artistic traditions. These brigades work closely with the “houses of culture”. Through their efforts and artistic depictions José Martí, poet and hero of the Cuban Revolution, continues to inspire the workers in a “computer palace” in Pinar Del Rio City and the Ministry of Education in Havana alike.
On our seven day tour we saw numerous exhibits of children’s art about the importance of improving and maintaining the environment in the many community centers we visited such as the Museum of Natural History in Old Havana, a scale model of the City of Havana, and a mental hospital La Castellana. In the latter a visiting artist has been working for several years with the residents on an extensive ceramic tile mural that celebrates the integration of the plastic arts and poetry in improving their quality of life.
We spent an afternoon walking with and talking to the artistic and inspired residents of a community within Havana known as Muraleando. In this unique place artists and residents alike have redeveloped the appearance and lifestyle of the community around the production of murals on wooden fences, stucco walls and metal mailboxes. Many of these artworks celebrate Cuban history and solidarity with other countries of the Américas as well as countries in Africa and the Middle East. Others represent creative inspiration, pleasure and hope. According to the artists a city dump was previously open nearby. The residents have transformed open spaces into parks and recycled former refuse such as painted tire rims into exuberant sculptures. Now Muraleando is clean, orderly and alive with color and design, music and proud residents.
Perhaps the most moving example of the use of the arts to improve the lives of the individuals we met was project El Carrete in the cultural-award-winning province of Pinar del Rio where we met young women artists who also happened to be afflicted with Down Syndrome. These artists demonstrated their considerable skills and joy in print-making and basked in the recognition that accompanied the purchases by our tour members of several of their delightful “Con Amor y Esperanza” (tr. With Love and Hope) art works.
Cuba is known for its careful restoration of 1950’s era American cars; they are everywhere, they are beautiful, and they are functional, often filled to over-flowing with busy young people going about their daily work and recreation. This is another example of the respectful conservation that the Cuban people afford their limited resources. Fuel, electricity, food, and many of the other “basics” that we take for granted in the USA, are in short supply in Cuba, but not creativity, energy, pride, and generosity. In Old Havana music flows out of every doorway, art decorates and is available for sale on every street, and the renovation and restoration of centuries of French, Spanish and Cuban architecture is well underway. I found the Cuban people, community organizers, bureaucrats, educators, artists, museum and tour guides, and residents alike, justifiably proud of this rich cultural heritage and its ability to improve the lives of all of the people. In Cuba “La Revolución” continues through the arts.
Dr. Nancy Christensen: In the brief week that I spent in Havana and Pinar del Río, I observed that community engagement is promoted and nurtured both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, Cuba has a centralized government that sets policy and administrative structures for the country. Policy comes from above to all the provinces and is enacted at the local level. At the local level engagement occurs horizontally with people belonging to more than one community-focused organization. The Casas de Cultura serve as an example. The national administration sets policy and provides resources, which is intended to standardize offerings throughout the country. The 15 provincial Casas throughout the county implement the programs developed by the national office but also incorporate local resources and utilize local talent. This “local talent,” while contributing to artistic enrichment through participation in the Casa de Cultura, also most likely belongs to several other community-focused organizations, e.g., the Federation of Cuban Women, a Taller de Transformación Integral, the National Federation of Teachers, and the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution.
During meetings with each of these organizations, I found evidence of Cuban commitment to community education, intervention, and prevention. Community engagement with education began shortly after the revolution when the Castro government declared 1961 the Año de Educación (Year of Education) and initiated the Yo Si Puedo (Yes, I Can) campaign. Asserting that education is a right, not a privilege, the government organized over 100,000 students, provided basic training in how to teach people to read, and sent the students to live, work, and teach in the countryside. During our visit to the Literacy Museum in Ciudad Libertad in Havana, Curator Luisa Compa reported that within the first year of the program illiteracy was reduced from 23.6% to 3.9%. As part of the country-wide initiative, the government also provided free kerosene lamps (donated by the People’s Republic), medical education, examinations, vaccinations, and, when needed, eyeglasses, thus communicating the importance of each citizen and the government’s commitment to merging education with intervention and prevention. Today, Yo Si Puedo continues as a viable program and has been exported to 28 other countries, including Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, México, Italy, France, and the United States.
Members of the Federation of Cuban Women, which females can join at age 14 and which claims over 95% membership throughout Cuba, also emphasize the importance of education, and their literature offers figures documenting the success of their efforts. Women are 67% of university graduates, 53% of all higher education professors, 73% of all attorneys, 63% of doctors, 43% of Parliament, 52% of all researchers, and 24% of all heads of scientific research centers. The Federation’s support for families includes both prevention and intervention, with consultation and alternative living arrangements made available where a need is perceived. During our visit our hosts pointed out that Cuba's infant mortality rate of 4.8x1000 is the lowest in the Americas. Coverage by family doctors and nurses is 99%. (Cuban Women in Figures, 2010)
During our visit to the National Federation of Teachers, President Mariano Alberto Isla Guerra explained childcare options for families. Children spend the first year at home. (maternity leave was extended in 2003 to one year, with the possibility to share the time between mother and father). For those families who choose to not place their child in childcare at one year of age, the community-based project “Educate Your Child” provides trained volunteers who visit the family to provide information about child development, education, and health care. Home-bound and hospitalized children and youth are taught by traveling teachers, and solar-power has been installed in school sites in remote areas. Children and adults with special needs are taught by specialists either at designated school sites or in regular classrooms. At the two special needs sites that we visited -- La Castellana in Havana and El Carrete in Pinar del Rio (mentioned in Dr. Burge’s article above) -- we observed a variety of services and the presence of parental, community, and education volunteers. The importance that should be attached to each individual was featured in the plaque at the entrance to La Castellana: “La Revolución no tiene que renunciar a su cáracter humanitaria para ser firme, para ser rigorosa” (Fidel Castro), and on inside walls: “Revolución...ser tratado y tratar a los demás como seres humanos…” (Fidel Castro Ruz).
The Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), a national organization with provincial and local chapters, appeared to have social, educational, and ideological roles in the community. The letters "CDR" were prevalent in all the neighborhoods we visited. At a gathering hosted by the local chapter in Viñales, we spent an enjoyable evening talking with members, many of whom were educators and artists. It appeared that members met regularly to address local needs, to socialize, and to maintain the spirit of the revolution.
In all locations that we visited, we saw local residents that had come together to work to improve their surroundings and the quality of life for members of their community. The artists’ neighborhood of Muraleando (mentioned above in Dr. Burge’s article) arose in part in response to community concern over rising crime rates during the “Special Period” following withdrawal of Soviet support. Neighbors came together to establish centers for arts, music, and dance to engage young and old in constructive activities, neighborhood beautification, and community enrichment. In another neighborhood of Havana we ate in a small outdoor restaurant that had been established on a formerly abandoned and blighted lot. Community members of the local chapter of Havana’s Talleres Integral de Transformación del Barrio had removed the refuse, constructed outdoor seating, installed a kitchen, and begun serving meals. Now this type of neighborhood reclamation in the form of developing community gardens is occurring on available plots of land in Havana with community members growing and then marketing their fruits and vegetables.
The Cuban government employed inspirational and ideological slogans and pictures to encourage and reinforce community efforts. Perhaps resulting from the recent half-century celebration of the Cuban Revolution but probably part of the Revolution since its inception, ideological slogans were everywhere – city, countryside, businesses, homes, parks, community centers, and roadsides. Most billboards and wall paintings featured pictures and/or quotations by one or more of the Revolution’s architects, with Che and Fidel being the most prevalent.
Examples of Political Slogans
Examples of Literacy Campaign Slogans
Examples of Inspirations Slogans
My overall impression from my brief visit to Cuba was of a country that valued people, family, and community. In spite of income limits (between $20 and $25 per month), devastation from periodic hurricanes, and hardships resulting from the extended U.S. embargo, the Cuban people I encountered – committed Communists and others - exhibited pride in their accomplishments and their ability to endure. I saw efforts to preserve historic sites and buildings (Havana Vieja), concern for the environment (the ecological community Las Terrazas), and attention to the welfare of children, families, and the elderly (Belén Senior Citizens Center) – all evidencing positive community engagement.
In promoting and sustaining community engagement Cuba seems to have some advantages, one of which is geography: Cuba is a relatively small island surrounded by natural boundaries. Another advantage probably is governance through a socialist system that administers to an area of 42,803 square miles and a population of ~11,00,000. The socialist form of government must make top-down directives easier to implement, economic troubles probably have limited the number of initiatives introduced, and the never far removed threat of potential invasion and harassment from the north undoubtedly evokes a patriotic concern for one’s country and encourages community engagement.
Travel to Cuba
This summer s program was organized by Common Ground Education & Travel, an organization specially licensed by the U.S. government to take such groups to Cuba. For 2011, Common Ground will be organizing two additonal trips in Cuban education for teachers, professors of education and other professionals in the field of Education. The next two trips will be February 19 to 26 and April 16 to 23, 2011. For more information, please see www.commongroundtravel.com, or write directly to Merri Ansara, m.ansara@commongroundtravel.com.
[El Carrete artists, Federation logo, and vintage car photographs by tour member Kristin Allison]
Contact Kim Burge: kburge@uci.edu
Contact Nancy Christensen: nchriste@uci.edu
