Art Instructors, the 15 Year-old Waltz

Making it massive, to share, to promote, to create are some of the words for this celebration and the topic: The best of Cuban culture...

The objective of art instructors, the amateur movement, the Culture Houses, are present in the Speech to Intellectuals given by the leader of the Cuban Revolution in date as early as 1961:

“… One of the Revolution’s fundamental purposes is to develop art and culture, in fact so that art and culture become a true patrimony of the people.

Just like we have wanted for the people a better life regarding material things, we also want for the people a better life in the spiritual realm, we want for the people a better life in the field of culture. Just as the revolution is concerned about the development of conditions and the strengths that allow the people the satisfaction of all their material needs, we also want to develop the conditions that allow the people the satisfaction of all their cultural needs.”

It’s easy to recognize that very feeling in the optimism with which Fidel welcomed the second graduation of the schools of instructors that he encouraged in the beginnings of the third millennium:

“It’s amazing the path that opens up toward the training of sensibility and appreciation of arts among the youngest and towards the ambitious purpose of creating a massive and comprehensive general culture in our people.

“A culture that is not only artistic, but also historical, scientific, economic, geographical, environmental and in the most diverse fields of knowledge, with a deep humanist meaning.”

It’s in fact to instruct, of training the aesthetic pleasure, the artistic sensibility of Cubans, it’s to elevate to the maximum the critic capacity to tell apart between banality and art, between vulgarity and creation, thus was created the José Martí Brigade of Art Instructors, an idea born from Fidel that in 2019 will reach its 15^th anniversary.

What are we going to dance in that party? Hopefully, rumba and mambo and the Waltz of Butterflies no wonder we had Lecuona and everything that’s good and beautiful that we Cubans have been able to create, the wonderful heritage we have amassed for centuries, before portable speakers came into fashion and certain sectors forgot that what’s national, and authentic transcends and becomes universal.

Once again in Cuba we bet for the amateur movement, the workshops at Culture Houses, the visualization of groups displaying authentic Cuban features, facilities are remodeled and reviving the true Cuban essence is paramount. It’s urgent.

The challenge is to make massive the best of the Cuban culture, the treasure of our authentic groups, and the repertoire of creations that have grown in this country where talent is widespread.