Hate Rally & Warning to Cuban Artist Tania Bruguera
HAVANA TIMES – On June 3rd at the headquarters of the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism (Instar) in Havana, artist Tania Bruguera received a visit from a group made up of about fifteen people who warned her of the consequences of continuing with her activities and demands. At the head of the collective was a woman who presented the others as “community factors” [i.e. disciplinarians] and told the artist that she has to quit “with the little game” and “the counterrevolution.”
“We have to tell you that it has to end with the ’savage’ horde and the counterrevolution you have here. We are waiting for one of you to come out to face us, but since you don’t have the courage, quit with this here and now,” the woman said excitedly.
“All of you are worms [gusanos], fine,” she continued. “We here in the community are not going to allow, not from you or anyone else, this disaster that you are creating here.” The leader of the group described those present as “revolutionary troops” and maintained that they will not consent to any act of the “counterrevolution” because in this community “there are women and men that can ’make waves’ [be brave],” she added.
Bruguera told 14ymedio that the group arrived at her house without even knowing what Instar is and believes that what happened was more than an act of repudiation. “It was an alert… something very strange, a threat,” said the artist.
“It is evident that whose who gave them an order didn’t prepare them. It seemed like a rushed and poorly prepared event. What was clear is that there were people willing to strike out and who wanted confrontation. Their objective was to provoke, but in Instar our philosophy is that violence it is eliminated with civic education,” said the artist.
Instar denounced what happened in a statement published on social networks in which it specified that the intention of the group was to speak with Tania Bruguera, but thatat that moment the artist was in a work meeting.
“It is common for neighbors of our headquarters and other Cuban citizens to contact us for matters related to the neighborhood or personal situations. However, this number of people has never come together, they have always identified themselves with their names and the matter to be discussed, and, above all, they have never filmed us from the opposite sidewalk, as happened in this case and is recorded in the attached video,” the note states.
In the recording you can see the visual artist Camila Lobon, one of the coordinators of the space, greet the group through a grating. Lobón asks that they identify themselves as she does not recognize them as neighbors of the neighborhood. “Only then did they say, without further details, they were ’from the community of the Cathedral’, where our institute is located,” the post clarifies. When Lobon realizes that there is a person filming from the sidewalk in front, she also begins to record the second part of the conversation.
“It is obvious that these are acts planned by the Government, they don’t arise spontaneously or from the conscience of the citizens. The woman who launches the threats initially confuses Aminta D’Cárdenas, one of our coordinators, with Tania. Then she rectifies it can calls her ’ringleader’,” the post says.
According to Instar, none of the residents of the neighborhood participated in this act and greeted the members of the institute “kindly” when they left the headquarters minutes later.
Last week, the presenter Humberto Lopez once again dedicated one of his TV programs to Bruguera, 27 N, and other activists, accusing them of having ties to the government of the United States and receiving financing from that country.
Hopefully the horrible communist tyranny will end one day soon.
But i have my doubts i don’t see it happening anytime soon.
The police state controls everything.
Cuban dictatorship anyway tell to the world that the opposition is just a few ppl (4 Gatos). But if they are so sure about how few there are why the Cuban regime so afraid for the opposition to organize? The dictatorship knows that in a free international supervises elections the regime would lose the elections. They are destroying the bankrupt country but never give up the power. The Cuban regime is and works
Mafia style. Poor Cubans and those that once believed in the system sacrificed their youth and today they do not have even a pain killer to calm an ordinary headache. Oh by the way. The “Embargo” DOES NOT PROHIBIT THE CUBAN DICTATORSHIP TO BUY MEDICINE from USA. The only obstacle is that they have to pay first.
Dan, no I’m not Cuban, and never portrayed myself as such. I just lived there for seven years working for two Cuban Communist Party companies. But that’s not here nor there. Everybody has their life experiences and observations. The people who write in the website are not told what to write. In the Cuban media which I worked with, journalists are well aware of the many subjects they can’t write about if they want to keep their jobs and remain a trusted employee. I have tried to get other pro-government people/journalists to write but they don’t want to. They are afraid of two main things. One is guilt by association with an “illegal enemy” publication. They never say that up front, it’s just implied. They just don’t respond. The other is that in the Cuban State monopoly media authors or TV show participants don’t have to face many critical comments on their articles or opinions. Since they don’t believe in debate or exchange with someone who thinks differently, they feel safer in the protected government/Party spaces where there is one absolute truth. Also, if you know of a decent pro government writer interested in being part of Havana Times please make the contact for me. Especially someone wanting to write about Cuba issues, we are not a US centered publication. There are plenty of those already. By the way not one cent of my tax dollars has gone to the US government in the last 40 years (except some sales tax). I have also put my life on the line in opposition to US foreign policy in Latin America and don’t regret having done it.
Nice dodge, Circles. I once somehow thought you were Cuban, until I saw a video of you. To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, you are not Cuban, and you can do little to influence the Cuban Government. You are American, and it is YOUR government which sanctions and subverts Cuba, and supports with your tax dollars the Death Squad Government of Colombia, Honduras, ect. So, if you truly were concerned about Democracy, human rights, ect., you would be working to do something about the multitude of countries you indirectly support, that are leagues worse than Cuba, rather than attacking that country already under siege by the rich and powerful. BTW, when did I say USA is hell on earth ?
You win Dan, things are worse in the USA or Colombia so Cubans who don’t support their government or its policies should put up and shut up. And by the way I said government supporters AND State Security. Personally I don’t think anybody should be harassed, jailed, lose their job, or be put under house arrest for expressing their opinion or encouraging peaceful protest against what they consider retrograde laws and policies. In fact, since the US is hell on Earth, according to your logic, nobody anywhere else should be complaining about conditions in their countries.
I see it differently, the US is not the center of my world, even if it’s politicians and many citizens act like it is.
Circles – I remember the atmosphere in the US after 9/11. And let’s do a little comparison first. How many people were killed in the US by Islamic terrorists. How many Cubans were killed by Anti- Castro Terrorists. How much damage did the Islamicists do to the US economy. How much damage has been done to the Cuban economy. If you are sane and rational, and if you know the actual history of what Cuba has had to endure (of which I am becoming dubious) you will see that there is absolutely no comparison whatsoever. Now, in 2001, what if you professed support of Iran, Al Queda, Iraq, or any of the boogeymen US citizens were programmed to hate and fear ? Ask the hundreds of people beaten up and threatened just because they looked Muslim or wore a turban. I was in DC a week after 9/11 protesting against invading Afghanistan, and I can tell you the reception the cops and the public gave us. So, you think that average Cubans don’t have reason to yell “gusanos” at these people ? You, like all of your ilk, unfailingly and without proof claim that these individuals are government agents, not private citizens. I myself have ridiculously been accused of being a MINIT agent, just b/c I am not rabidly anti-Cuban.
BTW, I’m still waiting for your righteous indignation about the 70 or so peaceful protestors gunned down by the Colombian Government IN -THE – PAST- MONTH. (How many Cuban protestors have been shot in the past 62 years ?)
I guess your are right Dan. Government supporters and State Security have the right to hold hate rallies and harass people who oppose government policies and/or the leaders. Especially if they are artists, non-goverment journalists, and/or critical thinkers. Having monopoly control on all legal media in the country just isn’t enough. Your’s is a great idea. Repress, harass and/or imprison all minority currents because others support the repressive government. Hurray for total government censorship as well!
There are millions of Cubans who disagree and dislike these so-called dissidents. But in the Q-Anon -like conspiracy thinking of HT, and similar anti-government circles, there is no free agency among the patriotic Cubans.