{"id":214475,"date":"2020-02-26T13:10:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T18:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=214475"},"modified":"2020-02-26T13:10:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T18:10:17","slug":"that-dialogue-of-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/that-dialogue-of-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"That Dialogue of 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the end of the Ford administration (1974-1977), and especially during the beginning of Carter’s (1977-1981), there was a certain thaw between the governments of Cuba and the United States.<\/p>\n

One of the prevailing perceptions, from the United States, especially in the political discourse and the liberal press, stressed that after the events in Bolivia, with the death of Ernesto Che Guevara and the liquidation of his guerrilla group, Cuba was no longer in a condition to export the revolution. That moment ended with the events of the Angolan war, which paralyzed a rapprochement that led to the creation, in 1977, of the respective Interest Sections in Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the idea begins to emerge among the emigrants that this was not going to be as short as it was presumed from the beginning, because after two decades the so-called institutionalization process was taking place in Cuba following the imprint of the Soviet Union, after the failure of the Great Harvest and the entrance to CAME. That atmosphere had an impact on many Cubans in the United States and there were two events that somehow marked a change.<\/p>\n

First, for reasons of its own, a group of executives and businessmen decided to sit at the table with the Cuban government in what is known as the Group of 75, more moderate people who would then be stigmatized with the derogatory \u201cdialoguers\u201d and subjected to actions that went from intimidation to attacks and bombs. These are the ones who go to the \u201cdialogue with representatives of the Cuban community,\u201d<\/a> as these persons were officially called in 1978.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Banker Bernardo Benes (1934-2019), one of the architects. Photo: Rui Ferreira.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The existence of that group, which comprised from former Batista supporters to participants in the Bay of Pigs, constitutes a sign of some diversification of the political spectrum of Cubans, and coincides in time with a second event.<\/p>\n

During the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, a counterculture had emerged that had a number of influences on a group of young Cubans who at that time were studying in universities in the heat of the struggles for civil rights, the Vietnam War, mass protests and the appearance of something rather diffuse called \u201cthe movement.\u201d All this led to the emergence of organizations such as the Antonio Maceo Brigade and Are\u00edto<\/em> magazine, in which the figure of Lourdes Casal (1938-1981) played a seminal role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lourdes Casal in Havana with poet Eliseo Diego and his wife Bella Garc\u00eda Marruz. Photo: Archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was the first time that there was direct and massive contact between both shores due to the Cuban State\u2019s policy of allowing the visits of those who had left, on the condition that they not be involved in activities against the system. The trips of Cuban-Americans produced a polyvalent internal impact that went from rejection to acceptance, as evidenced by the documentary 55 hermanos<\/em>, by Jes\u00fas D\u00edaz, or one of the stories of Mujer transparente<\/em>, by Marisol Trujillo, in which the reconnection of two friends in a hotel in Havana is narrated. The \u201cworms\u201d (as those who left Cuba were called), suddenly became butterflies, a social perception not without irony and Cuban jokes.<\/p>\n

However, the initial official treatment they were given was weighed down by a problem: they were tourists.<\/p>\n

At first the members of the \u201ccommunity\u201d\u2015that new word in the national idiolect\u2015had to stay in hotels and buy in stores specially enabled for that purpose, the starting point of a culture of consumption that, as Lezama would say, would spread like wildfire over the social fabric. Sanyo fans, acquired by relatives in the stores for diplomats, joined the Soviet Orbits in homes. The portable Sony radio-recorders allowed listening to things as dissimilar as the cassettes of Silvio Rodr\u00edguez, Celia Cruz\u2019s salsa and jokes by Guillermo \u00c1lvarez Guedes, between meals and drinks, glancing at family ties.<\/p>\n