“When will we meet each other again to discuss these issues?” That was the question asked by the revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, to the intellectuals participating at the 20th International Book Fair, Cuba 2011, after several exchanges with the most prominent intellectuals in Cuba. “The meeting will be on February 10th, 2012, “said Fidel together with the Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto.

Fidel listened to the intellectuals ‘opinions from Latin America and Europe and exchanged point of views and knowledge on the current events happening in Tunisia and Egypt, which are emerging on peoples’ revolutionary conscience. He also highlighted the historic role the University students from Puerto Rico are playing and stated the need to foster contents for teaching History at our schools.  

In the third part of the meeting broadcast on February 17th on Cuban Television, the Commander in Chief praised the questioning made by specialists on the Arab world as well as questioning made by the intellectual Santiago Alba, who explained the process he has lived through in the last few months in Tunisia, and links between groups that have been created like the so-called “Frente 14 de enero” (January 14 Front) in response to the current needs of governance.

Argentinean intellectual Stella Calloni said that we are living through incredible events in Latin America. It is time to take some action; there are a lot of young people who are making their efforts there; the intellectuals should not keep quiet, we must return to the factories to support the people; we must listen to other people and learn from them, go back to the miserable villages and be politically active intellectuals.

The need to develop mechanisms to take some action, and change people’s  thoughts, were questions by Fernando Martínez Heredia National, a Literature Prize winner, while Cuban writer Miguel Barnet referred to multiculturalism in Cuba as well as the deep studies that have been carried out as part of the work carried out by the Fernando Ortiz Foundation and UNEAC (Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba) at all its local institutions in order to  provide a new style of work and a better knowledge on our history, art, religion and socio-cultural processes in all communities .

Abel Prieto noted that the UNEAC, the Ministry of Culture and the Hermanos Saiz Association must work together to develop a program of actions, similar to that when the Network of Networks in Defense of Humanity was applied. We must develop this battle of ideas, required for many years, to break the “conspiracy of silence."

We must meet each other again, said Fidel; and he called on intellectuals to gather more people to discuss these world issues. After several exchanges Fidel agreed with Abel Prieto to meet again on February 10, 2012 in the framework of the twenty-first edition of the International Book Fair, Cuba 2012.
A translation by: Silke Paez Carr

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