While millions of Cubans are surviving without electricity, food, and hope, the regime inaugurated an art exhibition last Thursday at the José Martí Memorial in Havana, dedicated to glorifying Fidel Castro, with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and a significant part of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) apparatus in the front row.
The exhibition, titled "The song of the Homeland is our song," brings together 30 visual works inspired by literary texts related to the former dictator and "his" victory at Playa Girón in 1961, a tribute embedded in the official commemorations taking place this year to keep the cult of his figure alive a century after his birth.
Vent Dumois "selected fragments of musical pieces, poems, and various texts from about thirty authors, and after writing them in his own hand on an equal number of cardboards, he illustrated them and invited other artists from design and the visual arts to do the same," states the official Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba.
The inauguration comes amid a multidimensional and devastating crisis for the Cuban population. In March, a total collapse of the electrical system left millions without power, in what experts and citizens describe as a situation worse than the Special Period of the 90s.
Far from addressing the humanitarian emergency, the authorities have allocated resources and propaganda efforts to events like this. The same logic was evident earlier this year, when the regime organized the March of the Torches on January 27 amid the darkness that weighed down on the country. Similarly, there was the Youth Anti-Imperialist Parade "Here with Fidel", a political march that mobilized young people and children in Havana, aimed at propaganda around the anniversary of the UJC and the OPJM.
The state apparatus has also summoned symbolic figures to reinforce the official narrative. Recently, a former bodyguard of Fidel and member of MININT walked over 1,500 km across the island in an action portrayed as a gesture of revolutionary loyalty, widely disseminated by official media.
The exhibition by Vent Dumois, according to the note, "stemmed from an original idea by Marta Bonet and is linked to the #ArteFiel campaign, designed by the [...] UNEAC" to honor, in addition to the centenary of the "Commander-in-Chief," the 65th anniversary of the cultural organization itself. It’s yet another attempt to mask decades of authoritarianism and repression with poetry.
Critics and analysts point out that initiatives like this highlight the complete disconnection between the ruling elite and the daily reality of Cubans. As Vent Dumois, National Prize for Plastic Arts, has admitted, Cuba is a highly politicized country and is not engaged in contemporary cultural debates, but rather trapped in an ideological narrative that those in power perpetually reproduce.
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