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While Cubans are enduring power outages of up to 25 hours a day and searching for food in empty markets, the regime found time to organize a cultural event of epic proportions — at least in language — in Santa Clara, where culture "raised its voice" and "sealed an unbreakable commitment to the homeland", according to the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The event, held this Friday at the armored train monument in Villa Clara, served as a platform to recognize the cultural sector of the province and, in the process, to gather signatures for the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," the new mass mobilization orchestrated by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
The official statement from ACN did not hold back on grandiloquence: in the place where "the steel of Cuban history forged one of its most epic pages," a "vibrant echo of affirmation" was heard, and an "unbreakable pact to defend national sovereignty" was decreed. All of this took place under the slogan "For Cuba Together We Create." At the very least, the rhetoric is in no short supply.
The event was presided over by Israel Rodríguez Rodríguez, a member of the Provincial Bureau of the Party, who surely observed with satisfaction how the Sucursal de Artex Villa Clara received the National Vanguard distinction for its 34 years of "promoting and commercializing the soul of Cuba." Its general manager, Jorge Luis Santana, accepted the award with "visible emotion" and remarked that "each project represents an act of faith in our identity, a vital contribution to the spiritual fabric of the nation." The material fabric —light, water, food— is another matter.
Also recognized were the Cuban Fund for Cultural Goods, the Chaflán Cultural Center, the Delfín Sen Cedré Bookstore, and the legendary Bar Corona, among others. The Coralillo Award went to Yaneisy Márquez Escuela from Caibarién and Zoila Rosa Rojas Treto from Placetas. "The melody of Cubanness burst into the event" with the Quinteto Criollo and the Dúo Sol y Trino, who "added a lyrical note to the day." Meanwhile, in many homes in Villa Clara, the only available melody was the silence of the blackout.
The culmination of the event came with the reading of the call "My Signature for the Homeland" by Leonardo Pérez Letra, president of the José Martí Cultural Society. The campaign was launched on April 19 in Ciénaga de Zapata, on the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Playa Girón, and Miguel Díaz-Canel was the first to sign the following day, declaring that "the Cuban Revolution will never negotiate its principles." The goal: to collect millions of signatures by May 1, 2026.
What the ACN elegantly omits is that the campaign —as the regime in the Island has always operated— is far from being spontaneous. The People's Supreme Court published Article 4 of the Constitution on the same day as the event in Villa Clara, which many interpreted as a veiled warning to those who refuse to sign. In Cárdenas, the pressure was more direct: “You either sign or you know what awaits you,” according to gathered testimonies.
The popular response has been less epic than the official rhetoric. The viral poem "No firmo" by the writer José Martínez circulated on Wednesday with a line that captures the sentiment of many: They sign for "more lies, decay." Cuba has experienced a contraction of 23% of GDP since 2019, with a real inflation rate of up to 70% in basic goods and more than 600,000 emigrants in recent years. In Villa Clara, "creation and homeland move forward together," claims ACN. The Cuban people, on the other hand, move, when they can, towards the airport.
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