Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, at the Schomburg Center

Good evening,

Kevin C. Williams, Deputy Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Dr. Rosemari Mealy & Manolo De Los Santos
Co-Conveners, Harlem-Cuba Welcome Committee
Research in B Culture
Dear all, 

For Cubans, it is always an honor and a reason of satisfaction to visit Harlem and to pay tribute to its people.

We are linked by historic bonds of solidarity and cultural affinity.

Therefore, we always avail of our commitments to the United Nations to visit Harlem whenever we are in New York.

To be present here today in the Schomburg Center, it is a special privilege. It is one of the most relevant institution that studies and understands the history of African presence and its influence in the United States and in the Americas.

The information, the literature and the different materials treasured here allows us to understand the strong reality of slavery, racism, and segregation that is part of the development of this society.  They also help to appreciate the cultural wealth, the literary beauty and the most salient representation of the descendants of Africans that are part of the people of the United States and that influence the fiber of this country.

It is not possible to understand the United States without paying attention to such a rich heritage with its cruelty and its goodness, with its suffering and its beauty.

It is not possible either to understand Cuba without valuing the mix that integrate our people of fundamentally European and African mix, interrelated into one sole ethnic character that motivates pride in our national identity. 

It is not possible to understand Cuba without studying slavery, the role of African descendants in the struggle for liberation and against  colonialism, without appreciating the immense cultural wealth that results from a Latin and African mixture, without paying attention to the struggle against discrimination in our society, and without knowing of the Cuba´s revolutionary commitment to end all vestige of racism.

It is not possible to understand Cuba without paying attention to the extraordinary effort of solidarity that ties our people to the peoples of Africa.

There are direct ties between Arturo Schomburg and Cuba. He worked with José Martí, Cuba´s national hero in the struggle of the independence of both Cuba and Puerto Rico; he collaborated with the newspaper PATRIA, founded by Marti, and he visited our county in the early 20th century where he engages with important personalities of our country.

We want to pay tribute to Arturo Schomburg and his legacy.

We also wish to pay tribute to Langston Hughes, honored in this very room.
Finally, we would like to honor all those activists that struggle in this country for justice and against all types of discrimination. I refer, among others, to Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Marcus Garvey, Elombe Brath, Lucius Walker, and many others that have gained the sympathy of Cubans.

Thank you.