By Syara Salado Massip and Victor Villalba Gutiérrez on October 10, 2024 from Havana
As it is every year in Cuba, in the month of October, the Day of Cuban Culture is taking place.
These celebrations commemorate the beginning of the struggles for independence and the creation of La Bayamesa, a war march that became the Cuban National Anthem or also known as the Bayamo Anthem, considered a symbol of the birth of this rebellious nation.
Composed by revolutionary poet and composer Perucho Figueredo, it was sung for the first time in public on October 20, 1868, which is why that day has been declared National Culture Day since 1980.
This year the occasion will begin on October 10 and will last until October 20, providing an opportunity to pay tribute to the identity of the nation and the work of many to preserve it. For this purpose, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cuba has proposed a broad program of activities that will extend throughout the island, including some 19,160 activities in the 168 municipalities of the country and involving 2,240 institutions and 2,000 communities.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Lisette Martínez, emphasized that the central scenario is once again the community and highlighted the importance of cultural promoters, as well as schools and the work carried out by cultural workers to contribute to the deepening of the national identity.
Dedicated to the outstanding Cuban writer and intellectual Alejo Carpentier, on the 120th anniversary of his birth, whose work is an essential reference for the study of Cuban cultural identity, and to the 20th anniversary of the creation of the José Martí Art Instructors Brigades, promoted by the maximum leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro.
The program highlights the reopening of the National Music Museum, the second edition of the Book Fair in prisons and the events dedicated to Carpentier. The Day will ratify Cuban culture as a reflection of its history, struggles and dreams, as well as constituting a stage for the recognition of cultural workers and creators, also calling attention to the protection of heritage and allowing to show the school as a scenario of cultural integration through diversity and resilience.
In a world marked by trivialization, superficiality and the immediacy imposed by social networks that seek to erase the culture of the peoples, Cuba is committed to deepening and socializing the values of the nation’s extraordinary cultural heritage in community, institutional and school spaces.
Source: Cuba en Resumen