[:es]Fidel’s Legacy in Cuban Culture Is Stressed in Mexico[:]

The diplomat participated in the closing ceremony on the occasion of the Cuban Culture Day, organized by the National Museum of World Cultures and the Cuban Embassy in this country, where he gave the lecture ‘Cuba and Mexico, Historic review and culture’.

Nuñez Mosquera stressed in his speech how Fidel taught that without sovereignty, there could be no culture, by interpreting as anyone what he learned from the historic legacy of Cuban National Hero Jose Marti.

During the different periods of the revolutionary struggle, since the colony, there has been a strong interrelation between Cuba and Mexico, as a result of which we have deep cultural roots, he said.

He mentioned prominent celebrities who served the Spanish Crown in Cuba and in the northern nation, such as the Mexican priest Francisco Javier Alegre, who taught rhetoric and philosophy at the Jesuit College in Havana in the mid-18th century.

Mexico provided refuge to Cuban patriots in the 19th century, the ambassador recalled, highlighting the contributions made by the poet Jose Maria Heredia, who worked, taught, wrote and made ‘politics as any Mexican,’ he said.

The diplomat recalled that the Cuban poet Pedro Santacilia (1834-1910) was the private secretary and the son-in-law of the Benemerit of the Americas, Benito Juarez.

Julio Antonio Mella came to this country to make the revolution and to fight for the dignity of Cubans. He and Alejo Carpentier were pupils of the Mexican bard Salvador Diaz Miron, he stated.

This land that gave refuge to Jose Marti, also welcomed Fidel Castro and the comrades of the Generation of the Centennial, who trained here and departed from Tuxpan, Mexico, in the Granma Yacht to liberate Cuba, the ambassador said.

He also referred to the friendship between the Cuban national poet Nicolas Guillen and Mexican intellectuals like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Silvestre Revueltas.

Nuñez Mosquera also mentioned the interrelation among excellent exponents of the Cuban music, such as Damaso Perez Prado, Bola de Nieve, Benny More and Jose Antonio Mendez, and actors from Mexican cinema and theater.

According to the historian Eduardo Torres Cuevas, history and culture participate in the same space that is not recreated in the past, but it is part of a present. (Prensa Latina)