Casa de las Americas opened its doors to U.S. intelligentsia

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 31 (ACN) Havana’s Casa de las Americas (CA) welcomed some 70 U.S. intellectuals visiting Cuba, including renowned figures such as the writer Alice Walker—author of the novel The Color Purple (1982)—and the artist and activist Andy Shallal.

They were received by Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso, CA president Abel Prieto, and prominent researchers like Victor Fowler, Zuleica Romay, Luisa Campuzano and Jaime Gomez.

Gómez, leader of the Native Cultures Program, told the visitors about the opening of CA in 1959, spearheaded by the heroine Haydée Santamaría, whose ties with intellectuals and artists from across Cuba and the continent he highlighted, as well as about the entity’s Literary Award and programs on theater, visual arts, music and other forms of art.

Essayist Zuleica Romay, director of CA’s Afro-America program, thanked the delegation for their visit and for their love and solidarity and remarked that the institutions has always strived to promote black cultures through studies on Africanism in the continent and spaces for reflection and talks with anti-colonial, socialist and anti-imperialist activists.

“The Afro-America Program honors and vindicates the struggles of our Afro-American ancestors by addressing the legacy left to us by centuries of colonialism and slavery,” she stressed.