{"id":309499,"date":"2024-09-14T16:13:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T20:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=309499"},"modified":"2024-09-14T16:13:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T20:13:47","slug":"fabio-fernandez-historian-cubanness-is-injured-but-still-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/society-cuba\/fabio-fernandez-historian-cubanness-is-injured-but-still-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabio Fern\u00e1ndez, historian: \u201cCubanness is injured, but still alive\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time many saw Professor Fabio Fern\u00e1ndez was on a <\/span>broadcast of the\u00a0Mesa Redonda<\/b><\/a> TV program, where he explained, from his experience as a History professor at the University of Havana (UH), that the \u201cpride of being Cuban\u201d was being lost in the context of the <\/span>deep crisis<\/b><\/a> that the country is going through.<\/span><\/p>\n

His analysis brought him notoriety, by daring to touch on such a controversial subject. Not only was he praised, but he also sparked a kind of crusade on social media. Since then, the opinions he disseminates on <\/span>Facebook<\/b><\/a>\u00a0often provoke debates.<\/span><\/p>\n

Close to a year after that program on national television, he spoke with <\/span>OnCuba<\/b> about the impact of the crisis on national sentiment and on the consensus that has sustained Cuban society for six decades. Fabio Fern\u00e1ndez (1988) has a PhD in Historical Sciences and is a full professor at the UH, where he teaches History of the Cuban Revolution, in the Faculty of Philosophy and History.<\/span><\/p>\n

You explained on television that \u201cthe pride of being Cuban is not only built based on the allusion to the glorious past lived but also based on the present and the future of successes and prosperity that we can materialize.\u201d In the current crisis, you concluded, \u201cthe pride of being Cuban has been lost.\u201d Do you maintain that statement? Why?<\/b><\/p>\n

On that occasion, I said that Cuban patriotism was being challenged. It is something that is born basically from the crisis situation that we are living. I maintain that this reality exists, that there are people, segments of the citizenry, who are becoming somewhat disconnected from the idea and the Cuban project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fernando Ortiz distinguished being Cuban from Cubanness. The feeling of being Cuban is the signs, the features, that give us uniqueness. But Cubanness is a will to belong to that project that is Cuba. Today, the latter is being torn apart by the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

It does not mean that tomorrow Cuba and what we are will disappear. Not at all. My own training as a historian leads me to distance myself from catastrophic alarmism. But, without a doubt, there is an injury within the universe of Cubanness.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the causes?<\/b><\/p>\n

The fundamental cause has to do with the crisis. We are a nation that unfortunately is not able to form a project of prosperity for its citizens, it cannot model a country project in which everyone feels they can participate. There is a scenario of material insecurity, of hopelessness. It is a crisis that goes from the economic and the social, passes through the political, and ends up dialoguing with elements of a cultural and spiritual nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

In difficult times the soul of nations creaks and I believe that the soul of ours is creaking. From these creaks, births are produced. Historically, this has generated the ferment for change, the search, new ideas to transform reality. I believe we are in such a moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, I don\u2019t like to generalize. We can\u2019t say that Cuban society as a whole is experiencing this phenomenon, but that it is manifested in certain segments. Perhaps it can be seen in the younger universe. It is not good to build a global discourse in which everything is included without nuances.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cubanness is being wounded by the crisis, says Fern\u00e1ndez. Photo: Kaloian\/OnCuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What could prevent this loss?<\/b><\/p>\n

The fundamental solution is to build a coherent country project, where people feel good, where the majority finds a way to materialize their lives with spiritual tranquility. As soon as we can do it with the necessary solidity, we will undoubtedly see that these subjective phenomena will have a level of moderation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not about making a mechanical calculation in which material prosperity is equal to the country project\u2019s solidness. It is more complex. But that prosperity, which goes through the material, transcends, and reaches the spiritual, will be the way for people to say that this is their country and they are betting on it, that they stay and contribute, that their individual project is linked to one of collective transformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the key to giving strength to the Cubanness that is today injured, but still alive. There are many people who, from a tremendous sense of being Cuban and Cubanness, push forward and defend the construction of a better Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

From inside and outside the island\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

You can be more patriotic from New York than from San Miguel del Padr\u00f3n. Although, of course, geography has an impact and is fundamental.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cuban nation has long transcended the borders of the island; there are Cubans everywhere, and they are not Cubans just because they were born here, but because of the will to be Cuban, to belong and to contribute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, a successful national project in today\u2019s Cuba must fundamentally rely on those within, but also on those outside who are willing to contribute. Of course, it is not perfect, it is not pure harmony; there are contradictions, diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

One must know how to manage plurality, to model a project in which we all fit. This spirit of greater unity is the best of the Cuban patriotic tradition. It is not a unity that is alien to conflicts, but that knows how to resolve them without breaking up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Has this detachment or deterioration of the pride of being Cuban occurred at other times in national history?<\/b><\/p>\n

The erosion of Cubanness is a phenomenon that is not exclusive to the especially dramatic circumstances we are currently experiencing. This process has manifested itself at other times in the course of the patriotic course. For example, at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, there was a great debate regarding the paths that Cuba should take once the ties with Spain as a colonial power had been broken. During this period, one can trace the resurgence of annexationist positions that basically defended the impossibility of a sovereign nation project.<\/span><\/p>\n

It must be said that, at the popular level, the pro-independence sentiment was undoubtedly the majority, but this injury was seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fabio Fern\u00e1ndez, doctor in historical sciences and professor at the University of Havana. Photo: Osvaldo Pupo\/OnCuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crisis and Consensus<\/b><\/p>\n

You have said that Cuba is experiencing a socioeconomic crisis that is progressively taking on political connotations. Why?<\/b><\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s socioeconomic crisis is evident, palpable. The <\/span>macroeconomic indicators<\/b><\/a>\u00a0demonstrate this; the levels of social precariousness, the spiritual crisis, also affect different segments of our citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crisis, which is not new, but is at least thirty years old, has been intertwined with an erosion and fracture of political consensus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some would love to see a political crisis break out because they believe that, from this universe of destabilization, in these troubled waters, certain fishers can make a profit.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, a new political subject has emerged: that generation that did not know the pre-revolutionary past and cannot compare it with the Revolution. Nor did they live the years of glory of the Revolution. They have lived their entire lives in crisis, and they do not build consensus in the same way as previous generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

There has also been a change of leadership in Cuba. The generation that had historical legitimacy in the eyes of large sectors of the population has been withdrawing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another important issue that leads to the erosion and fracture of consensus is the management of the crisis. It is evident that there have been errors. Measures that have been applied at the wrong time; others that, perhaps with the best intentions, have been counterproductive in their practical results; sequences that have not been the most appropriate. To a great extent, there has been a failure to implement the <\/span>reform program<\/b><\/a> defined by the Guidelines of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in 2011. Opportunities have not been taken advantage of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, it seems that fundamental supports in the consensus have been neglected, which under no circumstances can be harmed and have deteriorated perhaps more than necessary, such as <\/span>education and health<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Antonio Romero: \u201cIn Cuba, dogmas prevail over economic rationality\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n