Cuba-U.S.: Cultural exchanges

By Jesús Arboleya Cervera

In 2004, despite the political tensions and government restrictions that had always existed, when the government of George W. Bush made the activity almost impossible, Cuba was number 14 on the preference of American students to carry out exchange visits.

Seven hundred and sixty universities applied for licenses from the Treasury Department to carry out various academic activities in Cuba and a steady stream of artists moved between the two countries.

Although Obama has expressed a willingness to facilitate these exchanges anew and some modest steps have been taken to relax the rigid constraints, the Republican victory in the midterm elections raises fears of another setback.

Whatever the outcome of this struggle, what I now want to stress is that both sides have based their positions on strictly political criteria, making culture a hostage to momentary situations, ignoring the permanent needs of a cultural nature that both societies have.

The right, particularly the Cuban-American right wing, is strongly opposed to the cultural exchanges because they are contrary to the climate of belligerence that serves as political and economic support to right-wing groups. This explains the hysteria they feel in the presence of any academic or Cuban artist in Miami.

To refute them, another current attaches a subversive quality to the cultural exchange: the famous Track Two of the Torricelli Act, which assumes that as the Cubans “discover the superiority of American culture,” the ideological base that supports the revolutionary process will crumble.

Most of those who favor the exchange without any of these intentions have not gone in their arguments beyond the limits of individual rights and academic or professional convenience, ignoring the social scale of the problem.

Although the Cuban government has stated that its policy is to develop cultural exchanges with the U.S., a policy that is widespread in Cuba, there are in the country those who always look at it with suspicion and oppose it, arguing that it is a “means for imperialist penetration,” expressed as such in the intentions of U.S. policy itself.

In fact, everyone forgets that for centuries we have “penetrated” one another in the field of culture. Apart from sharing common roots, because of the African component and the historic Hispanic presence in the U.S., the contact between our two countries has been so intense that it has become an essential part of our respective national cultures.

As rightly expressed by Professor Louis A. Pérez of the University of North Carolina, Cuban culture entered modernity through American patterns. Thus came the good and the bad – what José Martí managed to differentiate better than anyone else – with the result that the American cultural component has a considerable bearing on Cuba’s national culture, which explains its appeal to the people of Cuba.

To a lesser degree, Cuban culture also has had an impact on American culture, particularly in music, from jazz to salsa (though not exclusively), with the advantage that it never came packaged in hegemonic intents. This, in turn, explains the appeal of Cuban culture to the American people.

In both cases, the metabolic capacity of the young cultures favors exchanges, in a dynamic formation capable of processing, enriching and appropriating what comes from everywhere.

Speaking of “penetrations,” it should be said that Cuban culture has penetrated American society like never before, through Cuban-Americans. So much so, that it could be said that Cuban-American people are the ultimate expression of syncretism between the two cultures.

From a cultural standpoint, the Cuban-American is Cuban because he is not and cannot be anything else. He is integrated into American society and recognized by it, as required by the integration of the various groups in a multiethnic society like the United States and the effect of its own original culture on Cuban immigrants.

For these reasons, politics aside, the contact with Cuban culture is a prerequisite for the very identity of Cuban-Americans, particularly for the new immigrants, in whom it also becomes a daily existential need.

This is not to adopt a naive attitude toward the phenomenon. The role of culture in the hegemonic mechanisms of social control is no secret to anyone. Especially now that this culture is expressed through the globalized media and penetrates through the market in all areas of life.

What happens is that this is the reality and no other is more palatable, so that we Cubans, like any other peoples in the world, must learn to live with it and develop antibodies to resist a dependence in the cultural field. That, I think, is meaning of the so-called battle of ideas, so closely associated today to political redemption.

The Cuban Revolution was carried out despite and against the evil “American cultural penetrations” that came to us first, without generating a xenophobic reaction against American popular culture. This speaks highly of the discernment ability of the Cuban people.

In short, the cultural exchange between Cuba and the United States has its own life, because it is part of our history and national identity and will remain no matter what political attempts are made to stop it, even if we must resort to smuggling, as happened every time Spanish colonialism tried to do the same.