A New Community-based Newsletter

Yenisel Rodríguez Perez

In Havana’s Santos Suarez neighborhood, a monthly publication has been founded that seeks to make the daily lives of its inhabitants visible in print. The first issue has already been distributed to local residents.

While the current circulation of the newsletter covers only five percent of the neighborhood’s readers, work has begun so that in the medium term the costs and design for the newsletter’s production can involve more people.  This would help ensure that the community-based character of the publication is truly representative of the interests of the most of the neighborhood’s residents.

At the moment there is a team of enthusiastic activists who are pulling together the publication. They seek out the information and take care of the printing while sharing their experiences and knowledge about production, administration and organization of such an operation.  The atmosphere is upbeat and conducive to the consolidation of the Santos Suarez Autonomo newsletter.

Local residents have received the first issue of the newsletter with open arms. Most of them evidenced none of the “political paranoia” of those who are ideologically suspect of any non-government publication that goes beyond commercial advertising or dogmatic proselytizing.

The publication is a contribution made by local members of the Critical Observatory collective. They are looking to “update” the socio-political culture of residents of Santos Suarez, a neighborhood, whose strength lies in its ability and willingness to take on its own projects.