havana/After 65 years working as a kind of second ministry of culture, Casa de las Américas longs for the time when the institution was more powerful and influenced cultural debates on the continent. On the eve of the anniversary, its president, Cultural Commissioner Abel Prieto, repentance lack of “coherence” in the institution and ensure that “so many crazy things full of lies” that are said about the Island’s administration are doing “damage” to it.
Founded just four months after Fidel Castro arrived in Havana in 1959, Casa de las Américas appeared with a stated mission: to take advantage of the intellectual enthusiasm that inspired the “beards” to attract Latin American writers to the island. The success was complete. From promising young people like Ricardo Piglia to figures of the image of Miguel Ángel Asturias, they went through the institution or they aimed for their literary prize.
Now, Prieto includes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the appearance of the magazine A new world – the logo of the disturbance Latin America and under the direction, from 1966 to 1971, of the Uruguayan critic Emir Rodríguez Monegal – which he says was “designed, built and launched as a counterweight to our magazine American House“.
Prieto includes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the emergence of the magazine ‘Mundo Nuevo’
The former Minister of Culture gives several “traps,” “storms” and “manipulations” to the United States to sink the institution. He speaks bitterly about the Rómulo Gallegos award, “it was established to oppose the Casa de las Américas award,” although he does not mention that the Hugo Chávez and Castro regimes removed it. In 2000, invited to be a jury at the Rómulo Gallegos, the novelist Roberto Bolaño denied that the “Chavista” methods of the organizers – who “nominated” a politically acceptable winner – were already co -similar to the methods of Havana in the 1960s.
“The House always has an answer,” he points out Granny in his interview with Prieto. The Commissioner agrees, but assures that everything in the world today is “on the right side”, because “the Yankees have dedicated a lot of money” to prevent on cultural work on the Island “The dispute at the heart of all these disputes was that very important area which is an intellectual area,” he says, and he remembers that the institution always tried to be “at the heart of these hurricanes.”
“At the heart of all these disputes was the dispute about that important area which is the intellectual area.”
Prieto gave a lengthy reference to those who came before him: Haydée Santamaría, who “had been loved by many, admired and lost” – he said, enigmatically, when announcing a tribute book that ‘ he published this year -, and with the suicide he began to be in charge. the House, in 1986. , the poet Roberto Fernandez Retamar. After spending time as Raúl Castro’s “personal adviser” and two long terms as Minister of Culture, Prieto took control of the institution in 2019.
Of course, the commissioner leaves his boldest statement for the end of his interview: “Many say that the so-called disturbance Latin America, especially in the novel, has to do with the Cuban Revolution, first, and second, with the work of the American House.” Of these writers – who had a positive break with Havana -, however, only two are mentioned: Gabriel García Márquez, an unconditional friend of Castro, and Julio Cortázar, who had little criticism of the Revolution -out and always in private communication.
In his personal account of the history of the institution, Prieto also did not mention the internal cultural disputes in which the Casa de las Américas played a central role. He did not mention that the pages of his magazine had been used to publish offensive ideological libels – such as Calibanby Retamar himself – against those who opposed the cultural vision of Havana and, many times, personal attacks on authors the regime did not approve of, such as Jorge Luis Borges.
He does not speak either of the famous number of Casa of 1971 in which the transcripts of the National Congress of Education and Culture appeared, where the authorities directed a “discovery” and “purification” of homosexuals. In the last pages of that magazine, which was a road map for what is known as the “five gray years”, also appeared the suicide of the poet Heberto Padilla, who was arrested by the State Security weeks before it was published.
The Casa building, near Havana’s boardwalk, has long ceased to be a meeting and gathering center.
The Casa building, near the boardwalk of Havana, has ceased to be a meeting and gathering center. Battered by multiple hurricanes and in need of repairs, the building lost steam as a cultural destination in recent years. The most important event that is remembered within its walls in this century was the event that happened in 2007 after the revolution. Email war due to the increase in the official press from former political commissars during the five gray years.
Through weeks of email exchanges, direct accusations against the Ministry of Culture and Fidel Castro himself, dozens of intellectuals and artists attacked the island’s cultural policy. The official response was to call a meeting at the Casa de las Américas to calm spirits and stir up the revolutionary spirit. The call left out the most critical people in that dispute and after it was made the political police were particularly harsh with the voices that protested.
On his 65th birthday, the institution is still supported by the regime, and its senior staff, headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, joined Prieto at an anniversary celebration. This week the Casa de las Américas Awards were also presented. The “Latin American unity” prize is the only one that Cuba pays in dollars.
