10th Congress of the UNEAC: Artists and intellectuals in Provincial Committees’ Review Assemblies
From the 15th of April until the end of the month, members of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and representatives of cultural, social and political institutions in each of the country’s provinces will engage in an open, frank and committed debate. Their aim is to set the course for the 10th Congress of the organisation, which will firmly uphold Fernando Ortiz’s premise that «culture is the homeland».
In this way, UNEAC reinforces its mobilising, inclusive and transformative role, with a special emphasis on artistic hierarchies. The Congress will thus serve as an ideal and solid platform to contribute to the well-being and spirituality of the nation.
«The purpose of Fidel’s founding of the UNEAC was to create a committed avant-garde artistic movement that would serve as a paradigm, a point of reference capable of exchanging ideas and debating the significant processes taking place in the country, accompanying the people with the service-oriented vocation that artists and writers have,» stressed the president of the organisation, Marta Bonet de la Cruz.
The musicologist assured that the Congress was conceived from the grassroots: «From the meetings in the branches and sections that took place between January and March, with the participation of the majority of members throughout the country, we have distilled the thematic axes that will prevail in the analyses of what we consider to be the Congress in the provincial committees, as well as in the national assembly».
The implementation of community projects, the quality of artistic education and the promotion of critical practice are among the issues that will shape the agenda of the assemblies, while also serving as a conducive platform for the exchange of powerful social experiences.
The first woman to lead the UNEAC weighed the role of artists and intellectuals in addressing the challenges facing Cuba today, a theme that will feature prominently in both the Provincial Review Assemblies and the sessions of the 10th Congress next June.
«It is a way of reaffirming each of our service-oriented vocations in the service of our people, our Revolution, our Party, which has accompanied us in these last five years in the face of the social, political and cultural processes that our country has undergone. Therefore, I believe that these provincial meetings will allow us to evaluate, in each territory, what progress we have made and what we have not made, and will allow us to draw a future perspective of what lies ahead for the artistic and intellectual members of the UNEAC in the run-up to the 10th Congress,» concluded Bonet de la Cruz, urging writers and artists to focus on everything that, through culture, can confront the global wave of colonisation and defend the values of identity that currently sustain us as a nation.
Source: Press/UNEAC. Written by Yeris del Sauzal Francisco.
Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez
