By Alejandra Garcia on March 17, 2022, from Havana
photo: minrex
On March 14, 1892, the front pages of Patria Journal, founded by José Martí in New York amid his efforts to restart Cuba’s independence struggles, were published. The newspaper emerged as a spokesman for “virtuous and founding patriotism”, a weapon in the confrontation with fundamentalists, annexationists, autonomists, and defeatists.
Patria, according to historians, was for the mambises (the soldiers of our liberation wars) a means for persuasion and conviction, argumentation, and dialogue to encourage and build the foundations of the democratic and just republic to which they aspired.
These days, Cuba remembers the 130th anniversary of that publication that was born to the cry of war and revolution to “unite and embrace”. Patria is our symbol as never before, journalists, leaders, and communication experts assured from Havana during a colloquium organized as part of the Cuban Press Day.
These are new times, from the communicational point of view. The media landscape has diversified in ways unthinkable in Martí’s era. The Internet has transformed the ways of telling realities, hyper-connecting societies at the speed of a click.
But the scenario is complex and becoming increasingly hostile against those who defend a perspective different from the one imposed by the media emporiums.
“These are new times, of foul play, insults, vileness, and lynchings through social networks, which are the protagonists of the hegemonic narrative,” the director of Casa de las Americas and former Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto said during the opening of the colloquium named Patria.
The event, gathered in Havana, included 18 political activists from Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, all of whom were defenders of just causes in social networks, and who suffer personally the anger and hatred of the ultra-right-wing. They came to the capital invited by Cuba’s Union of Journalists (UPEC) and Resumen Latinoamericano’s correspondent in the city, Graciela Ramírez.
“We are seeing as never before the intense hatred that can be unleashed in the networks against countries, governments, and left-wing advocates, or against those who fight for an order different from the one imposed by the great Western powers, such as the United States,” audiovisual producer and former Spanish Member of the European Parliament Javier Couso warned.
It is palpable in the systematic hate campaign that has been unleashed in the world against Russia because of the war in Ukraine. In a Spanish university, they are asking students of Russian nationality to abandon their studies in the center and return to their country which is just one example that any and all things Russian have become subjective to a pejorative attack, orchestrated in unison and amplified by corporate media. “We are facing the characterization of a crime,” said Couso, whose brother was killed in 2003 by US troops in Iraq while covering Washington’s invasion.
International media totalitarianism manipulates information daily. But the left-wing has the tools to defend itself and get the truth out instead of political agendas.
“We have meetings like this, which serve to maintain the endearing friendship that unites us. We must unite independent groupings among themselves, as well as those good and useful men of all backgrounds who persist in the sacrifice of emancipation,” UPEC president Ricardo Ronquillo said at the colloquium.
For decades, leftists underestimated the real power of neoliberalism and today we see how they erase the history of ‘enemy’ media in the blink of an eye.
“That is why today more than ever we need to unite for Cuba, which is a great symbol of struggle. It saves lives not only in the area of health, which was a banner during these hard years of pandemic. Cuba saves us and gives us strength to fight for the same cause,” said Maria Fernanda Ruiz, a communications professor from Argentina.
The final Declaration of the meeting, which took place in Casa de las Américas, was signed by the international guests pronouncing themselves against the U.S. blockade against the island, assuring that the Patria International Colloquium has once again shown that Cuba is not alone, it is moving forward and debating in the battle of ideas.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel summed up the colloquium with a single word: Hope. “The virtual world will be better and better with people like you. We will succeed in fighting hatred, and we will do it with love, humanism and solidarity. Together, we are the best hope of the left-wing in Latin America.”
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English