Building  Community/

Desarollo de la  Comunidad

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Lamea Elle Shaaban-Magana

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​“Cuba’s ability to sustain itself somewhat outside the orbit of U.S. hegemony continues to give it symbolic powers of a rebel nation in the revolutionary imagination. The ideals of collectivism, egalitarianism, and solidarity continue to resonate for Cubans in a moment of change and impending transition. Regardless of when and what kind of transition eventually takes place on the island, this symbolic legacy and the worldviews and visions of ordinary Cubans will play large roles in the shaping of a new Cuban society” (Fernandes, 2006).

What does community action and development look like in Cuba? What strategies are in operation to mobilize Cuban citizens? What issues are being addressed within these organized efforts?  How does the current historical moment shape or manifest itself in this work? Sujatha Fernandes (2006) poses interesting considerations relevant to the framework of community work and development in Cuba today. Specifically, she points to a historicity understood not as linear, but contingent, yet grounded in particular shared understandings and orientations of a nation deeply entrenched in particular notions of collectivism, egalitarianism, and solidarity.  During my brief visit as a student studying gender, race, and religion in Havana recently, I had the opportunity to meet with various groups working in the area of community development, and learn about their goals and strategies. 

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One of my favorite things about the trip was the visit we made to Community Project Cintio Vitier, an organization named for the Cuban poet and essayist. Under the leadership of artist Pedro Pulido, the agency, created in 2009, had a project goal to “use the plastic arts as a way of formation of ethical and aesthetic values of the children of the community”.  Within just four years of operation, the project expanded to include music, dance, photography, drama, and literature as well as other cultural practices, as mechanisms “for members to be willing to take actions to improve the cultural life of their communities”.  We arrived on the afternoon of Mother’s Day, and were able to see examples of many different projects, including art the children had collectively assembled in the “exquisite corps” style, each adding to the composition. The director spoke of a project on the theme of happiness that involved having the children interview elders in the community, and then bringing all of them together at the community center. The children held an open street performance, a beautiful heritage piece honoring the Afro-Cuban orishas, or spirits of Santeria, an African Diaspora religion spread with the entry of slaves into Cuba, and manifested in syncretic expression and practice within Cuba. We were each invited to paint and contribute to the papier mâché mask art pieces. The visit was beautifully closed by the sharing of food, tamal en cazuela, and honoring the mothers’ support of their children as a type of social justice work. 

We also met with members of the grassroots Proyecto Communitario Espiral. In a mix of Spanish and English, we exchanged ideas with the diverse members, a blend of students and professionals, such as attorneys and teachers. We learned that the group volunteered their time for various “acciones” or action projects with a goal “to contribute to the betterment of quality of life.” Projects, designed to be creative, participatory, and fun, focused on building healthy, sustainable, and ecologically sound communities. The group members shared about their work in an elder care community, and teaching children about the natural environment. They spoke of the eagerness of a recent group of children for whom they had provided a workshop. Following the training, the children were so inspired they started a similar spin-off group. Each of the members commented on how important the connection they had with other members had been, and the positive emotional rewards they had gotten from their investments and knowing they had contributed to capacity-building within their own communities.

The next group we were introduced to was scholars from the Juan Marinello Instituto de Investigacion Cultural, an interdisciplinary group committed to “contributing to the cultural-political development of the country through social investigation and academic debate”.  The group achieves this work through multi-pronged strategies, including outreach through courses and workshops on broad issues such as sociology of Cuban art and literature, cultural consumption, and gender studies, and the printed publication of focused research gathered from the scholars, also made available in the digital magazine Perfiles. The engaging dialogue among our groups reflected a myriad of issues relevant to the work of the agency, including Cuba-United States relations, the impact of material culture and the market’s impact on the changing socio-political Cuban landscape, the complexities of racial identity in Cuba and the U.S., employment and job mobility, family dynamics and trends such as divorce, social versus legal practices, and the entanglement of social status and gender within areas such as employment and interpersonal violence.

One of the last few days of my visit to Cuba, I heard a panel from the Agencia Cuba del Rap, administered through the Ministry of Culture. The Afro-Cuban representatives disclosed that Rap, while not as widely circulated as some of the other music genres in Cuba, was developing a growing following, particularly among youth population, an estimated 5 million under the age of thirty. Each of the members spoke of their passion and their belief in the power of the potential to use music as a method and entry point for participation as citizens, and the group’s commitment to address difficult issues of housing, hunger, censorship, and gender inequities. The "power of the message" was repeated by many of the members.  I was especially impressed with one of the female rappers, who spoke of her own sacrifices, and sacrifices of her family, to pursue something she believed in, despite gender and other stereotypes that served as challenges to her work.

I also had the privilege of meeting with representatives from Rincon de Los Milagros, and seeing firsthand the beautiful sculpture, paintings, and poetry constructed by artist Manuel Beltran Semanat. The space serves as mix of gallery honoring Afro-Cuban saints and deities. It houses many of Semanat’s beautiful found art pieces, but also functions as a place with an open door in which the community can come and be connected and feel the pride of their heritage while learning art and music skills, or come to hear a concert or enjoy a community dance. While we were there, I enjoyed the background music of four men playing dominoes in the courtyard.  We also met a young man who had been mentored by Semanat who showed us his first piece of finished wooden sculpture. The last stanza of Semanat’s moving displayed poem entitled “Motherland” suggests a strong tie to country, citizenship, capacity building,  and community. The poem poses, “Because I love my Homeland/I honor her dead/Because I bring peace through me/Because I was born on this Land/Because I was born in Cuba/I was born in Cuba free/I was born on this Land.”