Speculations surrounding Roberto Zurbano’s OP-ED

in the New York Times

ALBERTO JONES
AFROCUBAWEB
28 DE MARZO, 2013

rue to the traditional flurry of news, opinions, comments and inferences

T involving every issue related to the fifty year old political, economical and
social confrontation between the United States and Cuba, a new yet familiar
flurry of invective analysis, extrapolations and conclusions followed Roberto
Zurbano’s essay in The New York Times on March 23, 2013.
The most vocal opponents of this article focused their attention solely on its
inflammatory title, “For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun,” which was
quite likely chosen by The New York Times’ editorial board.
Others opted not to focus on the facts, objectivity or the urgent need of the
Cuban government to take a hard look at the arguments, shortcomings or failures
described in the essay, from which criteria, proposals and solutions could be extracted.
Still, other passionate, staunch detractors of Cuba preferred to turn this article
into an anti-Cuba denunciation and an instigation of racial divisions bent on
undermining the government.
Cubanologists and loyal Cuba supporters alike have questioned Zurbano’s
motives, timing, and / or hidden agenda or they simply chose to shoot the messenger
upon arrival.
As an Afro-Cuban who lived through and survived the brutal social
inequality, segregation, racism, despair and hopelessness that existed in Cuba before
the triumph of the Revolution, I was fortunate to experience firsthand an important
period of incredible educational opportunities, social mobility, equality, and
development—the unparalelled flowering of dignity and self-esteem afforded to
Blacks and others in Cuba who had heretofore barely been able to even envision
such a reality.
Few in the world have any doubt that Blacks in Cuba have made more progress
in the past fifty years than in the previous five hundred. That’s why every statement in
Zurbano’s essay should be taken as constructive criticism, a continuum of his
longstanding writings, meetings, conferences and symposiums characterized by his
never mincing words, forgiving wrongdoings or being ready to white-wash personal or
official failures. He should never be described or seen as a disgruntled bystander.

Afro-Hispanic Review • Volume 33, Number 1 • Spring 2014 ~ 129

Alberto Jones

Since the early nineties, thousands of ordinary and outstanding personalities

in the arts, education and sciences have been denouncing the abject resurgence of
racism, marginalization and segregation in Cuba, as well expressing their fears of
where this tragedy could lead if urgent corrective measures are not applied before the
situationspirals out of control. Three years ago, I wrote what some characterized as
a harsh and critical view of Cuba entitled, “A Worldwide Battle of Life and Death,”
which appeared in three parts, referencing the injustices described in Zurbano’s
article and attempting to expose the divisive and dangerous content of Carlos
Moore's “Acting on our Conscience.”
The fact that tens of thousands of Afro-Cubans have achieved the intellectual
capacity to read, analyze, compare and extract their own conclusions thanks to the
knowledge obtained through the existence of the Cuban Revolution should not
deprive them of their right to question, denounce or silence mistakes or forbid them
from proposing ideas or solutions for the nation’s failures and unfulfilled dreams.
Rather than weakening the government and its institutions with his actions,
such a courageous, frontal approach fortifies and creates a positive environment of
concern, interest and a social commitment to create a better nation which is, in
essence, what the Cuban Revolution is all about in the first place.

130 ~ AHR
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.