Rigoberto Menéndez

Castellano Para hablar de la multicentenaria presencia de los árabes en Cuba y su irradiación en el espectro variado de nuestra cultura debe hacerse siempre en un sentido policromático y contextual. Aunque se conjetura sobre la presencia de tripulantes moriscos en las expediciones transoceánicas de Cristóbal Colón, el primer indicio de presuntas huellas demográficas lo aportan curiosamente las prohibiciones de la Corona Hispánica, que a través de sistemáticas Reales Cédulas emitidas durante todo el siglo XVI, advertían a las autoridades coloniales sobre la presencia ilegal en el Nuevo Mundo de personas "nuevamente convertidos de moros", denominación dada a los antiguos musulmanes españoles: los moriscos. La prohibición monárquica se extendía además a los esclavos de diversos grupos étnicos africanos como los beréberes y los yolofes, practicantes de la religión islámica. La evidente presencia de moriscos en América tuvo su reflejo en Cuba; en 1593 fue bautizado en la Parroquial Mayor de La Habana un morisco oriundo de Berberíe, quien tomó el nombre de Juan de la Cruz. Esta ceremonia y las similares practicadas a la moreria hispánica o africana fueron realizadas por altos signatarios coloniales de la Isla. Según hallazgos del Dr. Cesar García del Pino en 1596 Regresarron a La Habana algunas decenas de esclavos musulmanes, entre ellos un grupo de naturales de los antiguos reinos de Marruecos, Fez, Túnez y Tremecén y además dos moriscos. Estos vestigios documentales permiten catalogar la primera etapa de impronta árabe en Cuba como hispano-morisca y morisco-norafricana, compuesta por esclavos y personas libres convertidas al catolicismo. Como una influencia relacionada de alguna manera con esta presencia se observa la huella arquitectónica, pues durante el siglo XVII y principios del XVIII predominó en La Habana, Remedios, Santiago de Cuba y otras ciudades el estilo mudéjar, herencia importante de la escuela de construcción morisca de Sevilla. El estilo mudéjar es apreciable en edificios religiosos y civiles del Centro Histórico de la ciudad de La Habana (iglesia del Espíritu Santo, Casa de Oficios # 12 y Casa de Tacón # 4) y de Remedios (iglesia Parroquial de la Ciudad). La colonización española dejó en Cuba otras huellas de impronta árabe, como el legado lingüístico en varios miles de vocablos de procedencia árabe en la lengua castellana y aun en nuestros cubanismos, la conservación de importantes especies moriscas en la culinaria criolla y de plantas aromáticas en nuestra jardinería. Algunas influencias indirectas de la cultura árabe islámica llegaron además a través de los esclavos de diferentes denominaciones y grupos étnicos islamizados del África Occidental; ellos fueron portadores de saludos rituales como as salamu aleikum, que significa la paz sea con usted, la vestimenta blanca, el pañuelo turbante usado por las mujeres y otras costumbres íslamitas asumidas en la actualidad por diferentes sistemas religiosos populares cubanos. El gran momento histórico de presencia árabe en suelo cubano se produce a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, y hasta la primera del XX, con la entrada de libanases, pálestinos, sirios y en menor escala de egipcios, libios, argelinos y yemenitas. Parece que el primer representante de esta oleada fue José Yabor, llegado a Cuba en 1870. Las estadísticas migratorias prueban que entre 1906 y 1913 un 30% de los árabes que llegan a Cuba venían directamente de la denominada Turquía Asiática, y otros grupos de paises europeos y de toda América. El mayor porcentaje de esta inmigración corriaspondió a los libaneses, salidos de sus territorios debido a la profunda crisis económica que asoló a los-productores nativos y a las contradicciones con el Imperio Otomano que generaron el descontento de las comunidades cristianas, en particular los maronitas. Los palestinos emigraron fundamentalmente en la etapa posterior a la Primera Guerra Mundial. Sólo entre 1920 y 1931 los censos recogen la entrada a Cuba de 9337 árabes del Mediterráneo Oriental. Desde el inicio de su entrada al país se presentó el problema de la denominación genérica del inmigrante árabe, registrado primero como turco independientemente de su etnónimo real. Después de la derrota turca primó la clasificación de sirios. Los lugares preferidos para el asentamiento fueron las regiones urbanas de la Isla, las zonas comerciales, y los pueblos con desarrollo de la industria azucarera y la actividad ganadera. Las áreas urbanas de residencia más importantes fueron las ciudades de La Habana y Santiago de Cuba, principales puertos de arribo de los arabohablantes. Además del centro de la ciudad de La Habana (hoy Centro Habana) y del Centro Histórico, los árabes residieron en Marianao, Santa Amalia, reparto Juanelo, Regla y pueblos de la actual provincia de La Habana (Güines, Bejucal, Quivicán y Bauta). En las provincias orientales además de Santiago las áreas preferidas fueron Guantánamo, Cueto, Manzanillo, Holguín, y Las Tunas. En Camagüey se agruparon en Guáimaro, Minas, Morón, Sola, Esmeralda, Santa Cruz del Sur y Ciego de Ávila. En el resto del país se comprobaron asentamientos en Santa Clara, Cabaiguán, Sagua la Grande, Matanzas, Cárdenas y Pinar del Río. La venta ambulante – con el clásico refrán de compro y vendo oro viejo – el comercio textil minorista especializado en confecciones de ropa y quincalierías, joyerías, tiendas de tejidos y los almacenes de importación constituyeron los renglones ocupacionales principales de los árabes en Cuba. De gran importancia fueron también las sastrerías y los restaurantes que ofrecían platos típicos de la culinaria levantina. La primera generación de descendientes se destacó y destaca en las ciencias médicas, y otros perfiles profesionales. El bloque de inmigrados árabes se distinguió por la diversidad confesional propia de la región de origen: cristianos maronitas, ortodoxos, melkitas, asirios caldeos y asirios nestorianos, latinos, musulmanes sunitas, chiitas y drusos. Los más activos en su práctica litúrgica fueron los maronitas quienes contaron con cuatro párrocos de su rito en La Habana, que realizaban las misas en lengua árabe en las Parroquias capitalinas de San Judas y San Nicolás, Jesús, Maria y José, y Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje. También los maronitas oficiaron en bodas, bautizos y defunciones de los miembros de la comunidad cristiano árabe de Cuba. La agrupación social de los inmigrantes fue en algunos casos a nivel de nacionalidad, con tendencia histórica hacia la unión de las tres nacionalidades más numerosas. La mayoría de las asociaciones étnicas árabes – que sumaron diacrónicamente más de treinta – eran de tipo benéfico y recreativo, teniendo algunas por excepción finalidades políticas. Gran parte de ellas se concentraron en el denominado Barrio Árabe de La Habana, que abarcó las calles de Monte, como arteria central y otras como San Nicolás, Corrales, Antón Recio y Figuras. También ocurrió un asentamiento sólido en el poblado santiaguero del Tivoli. En las no pocas décadas de su asentamiento en Cuba los árabes dejaron su presencia en las lás diversas esferas de la vida socio-política y cultural de la ínsula: más de una docena de ellos participaron activamente en las luchas independentistas alcanzando distintos grados militares; igualmente en las luchas insurreccionales de la época neocolonial, los nombres de muchos descendientes se inscriben en el martirologio patrio. Los científicos arabohablantes y sus sucesores legaron imperecederos logros en diferentes disciplinas médicas, y en el campo artístico se aprecian sus éxitos en la música, la plástica, y la poesía sin perder de vista aquellos que sobresalieron en la abogacía y la enseñanza filosófica y que ganaron gran prestigio a nivel internacional. El cubano descendiente de árabe es el resultado etnogenético de dos formas de uniones: las endógenas, o sea de madre y padre árabe, y las interétnicas, donde sólo el padre o la madre eran miembros del etnos árabe, y tuvo un peso importante la parte cubana. Su tierra natal, su educación, autoconciencia, forma de identificarse, y su desenvolvimiento psico-social le hacen sentir cubano, pero numerosas costumbres y tradiciones de la nación de sus ancestros, transmitidos de generación en generación han quedado en ellos como práctica permanente. Mantienen en sus casas algunos de los platos típicos mesorientales y llevan en si mismo dos huellas imborrables de su etnicidad pasada: los rasgos físicos y los apellidos que simbolizan grupos patronímicos de sus sociedades agnaticias. Los inmigrantes levantinos y sus descendientes residentes en la Isla se agrupan actualmente en la Unión Árabe de Cuba, asociación no gubernamental constituida oficialmente el 4 de abril de 1979, como resultado de la unificación de la Sociedad Libanesa de la Habana, la Sociedad Centro Árabe y la Sociedad Palestina Árabe de Cuba. Dicha fusión significó el cumplimiento de un viejo anhelo de los directivos de dichas entidades: unificar la familia árabe en Cuba y desarrollar una mejor labor en la promoción y divulgación de la identidad, tradiciones y cultura árabes. La Unión Árabe de Cuba es miembro destacado y activo de la Federación de Entidades Árabes de América Latina (FEARAB-América) y desarrolla tratemos intercambios con las asociaciones árabes de los países que la integran. La comunidad cubano-árabe mantiene sus vínculos filiales e históricos con la patria de origen de sus antepasados a través de las relaciones bilaterales y de la FEARAB-América. Otra importante institución que trabaja en pro de la divulgación del patrimonio cultural árabe en nuestra patria es la Casa de los Árabes de la Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana; fundada en 1983, contiene en sus espacios un museo etnográfico, y dentro de sus salas, la más novedosa es la exposición memorial de la inmigración árabe en Cuba. Otros elementos se suman al acervo cultural de lo árabe en Cuba, que no escapó en los dos últimos siglos a la arabofilia en la arquitectura, como lo demuestran palacios y hoteles de renombre, o la costumbre de comprar tapices con escenas de beduinos, y mercadeo, e incluso la importación de objetos y estatuas alusivos a la cultura del Islam. Estos indicios se unen a aquellos recuerdos conservados por los propios descendientes, que incluyen desde biblias y coranes en lengua árabe, hasta el laúd, instrumento oriundo del mundo árabe que se ha incorporado a nuestra música popular. Toda la impronta cultural arábica en nuestra Isla se complementa con la solidaridad histórica y creciente que Cuba ha practicado con diversos pueblos árabes en sus luchas por la independencia y la justicia. El cubano actual ha heredado del pensamiento martiano la admiración de una civilización milenario cuyos componentes étnicos fueron al decir del Apóstol, "las criaturas más ágiles y encantadoras de la tierra".

English In order to talk about the multi-centenary presence of arabs in Cuba as well as their radiation in the different spectrum of our culture, a polychromatical and contextual direction should be taken into consideration. Though it is conjectured concerning to the presence of moors crew in the transoceanic expeditions of Christopher Columbus, the first clue about apparent demographic tracks is carefully contributed by prohibitions of the Hispanic Crown, which warned the colonial authorities through systematic Royal Letters emitted during the whole 16th century, about the illegal presence of people in the New World "newly converted into moors" denomination given to the ancient Spanish Muslims: the moorish. The monarchical prohibition was also extended to slaves from different ethnical african groups that used to practise the Islamic religion such as the berbers and the yolofes. The evident presence of the moors in America had its reflect in Cuba; in 1593, a moor coming from Berberia was baptized in the principal church in Havana. That moor got the name of Juan de la Cruz. This ceremony and the similar ones practiced to the african or spanish moorish, were performed by important colonial dignitaries of the Island. According to Dr. Cesar Garcia del Pino's discoveries, in 1596 several tenth of muslims slaves arrived to Havana, among them a group from the ancient kingdoms of Morocco, Fez, Tunis and Tremecen, as well as two moorish. These documentary records allow to catalogue the first stage of Arabic cast in Cuba not only as spanish-moorish but also as moorish-north-african, formed by either slaves and free people converted to Catholicism. As an influence related in some way to this presence the "mudejar" architectonic style prevailed during the 17th century and beginning ofthe 18th in Havana, Remedios, Santiago de Cuba and some other cities, as important inheritance of the moorish construction school of Sevilla. The "mudejar" style is appreciated in religious and civil buildings of the Havana City Historical Centre (Iglesia del Espiritu Santo, Casa de Oficios # 12 y Casa de Tacón # 4) and that of Remedios (Iglesia Parroquial de la Ciudad). The spanish colonization left in Cuba some other tracks of arab cast, for instance the linguistic legate in several thousand of terms from arabic origin in the castilian language and still in our cubanisms; the conservation of important moorish species in our cooking tradition and also aromatic plants in our gardening. Some indirect influences from the arabic-islamic culture came through slaves of different denominations and islamized ethnical groups from the Western Africa; they brought ritual greetings as as salamu aleikum, which means peace be with you, the white dressing, the turban worn by women and some other Islamic customs assimilated nowadays by different cuban religious systems. The great historical moment of arabic presence in Cuba soil breaks out from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th, with the arrival of people from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and in a lower rate people from Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Yemen. It seems to be that the first representative of this wave was José Yabor, who arrived to Cuba in 1870. The migratory statistics prove that between 1906 and 1913, a 30% of the arabs who arrived to Cuba came directly from the so-called Asian Turkey, and other groups from european countries and from all America. The greatest percentage of this immigration corresponded to people from Lebanon, the ones who left their territory due to the great economical crisis which devastated the native production workers, and also the contradictions with the Ottoman Empire, which contributed to the upset of the Christian communities, particularly the maronites. The Palestinian emigrated mainly after the First World War. Just between 1920 and 1931 the census already show that 9337 Arabs had arrived from Eastern Mediterranean. Since the beginning of their arrival to the country, there was the issue of the generic denomination of the arab immigrants, controlled first as turkish, independently of his real ethnic denomination. After the turkish had been defeated, the classification of sirius prevailed. The favourits places for the setting were the urban regions of the Island, the commercial zones and the towns which had development in sugar industry and also cattle activity. The most important urban areas of residence were Havana city and Santiago de Cuba, main ports for the arrival of the arab speakers. The arabs not only lived in the center of the city (at present called Centro Habana) and in the Historical Core, but also in Marianao, Santa Amalia, Reparto Juanelo, Regla and towns of today's Havana Province (Güines, Bejucal, Quivicán and Bauta). In the eastern provinces, apart from Santiago, their favourite areas were Guantanamo, Cueto, Manzanillo, Holguín and Las Tunas. In Camagüey they also gathered in Guáimaro, Minas, Morón, Sola, Esmeralda, Santa Cruz del Sur and Ciego de Ávila. In the rest of the country were also confirmed some other settlements in Santa Clara, Cabaiguán, Sagua la Grande, Matanzas, Cardenas and Pinar del Río. The hawker in the streets – using crying wares, among them, the typical saying: "I buy and sell old gold" –, the specialized minor textile trade mark for clothes and hardware stores, jeweller's shop, textile stores and importation store shops constituted the main occupational areas for the arabs in Cuba. The tailor's shops were of great importance for them; and there were restaurants which offered typical dishes from their countries. The first generation of descendants was distinguished and still it is in the medical science and other professional profiles. The block of arabic immigrants was distinguished forthe confessional diversities, typical from its place of origin: maronite Christians, orthodoxies, melkites, chaldaic asirians and nestorian asirians, latins, sunnite muslims, shiites and druses. The most active in their liturgical practice were the maronites who had four parsons of their ritual in Havana, who used the arabic language when celebrating the masses in the city Parochial Churches of San Judas y San Nicolás, Jesús, Maria y José, and Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje. The maronites also officiated in weddings, baptisms and funeral ceremonies of members of the arab Christian community of Cuba. The social gathering of the immigrants was in some cases at national level, having a historical tendency towards the gathering of the three most populous nationalities. Most of the arab ethnic associations – which were over 3O – had welfare and recreational nature, having some of them for exception political purposes. Many of these institutions were concentrated in the so-called Barrio Árabe de La Habana (Arab Neighbourhood of Havana), including Monte street, as the central main highway and some others such as: San Nicolás, Corrales, Antón Recio and Figures. Also a solid settlement took place at Tivoli at own in Santiago de Cuba. During the arab settlement (which were not of few decades) it can be observed how they left their presence in the most different are as of the socio-political and cultural life of the Island: more than a dozen of them participated actively in the independence wars and obtained different military degrees; in the insurrectional fights of the neocolonial period, the name sofmany descendants are booked in the native martyrology. The arab-speaking scientists and their successors legated remarkable achievements in different medical disciplines, and also successes can be appreciated in the artistic field such as music, plastic, and poetry, as well as those who were outstanding figures in law and philosophical teaching, getting a great prestige in the international field. The cuban descendant from arabs is the ethno-genetic outcome of two ways of joining: the endogenous, that is both parents being arabs, and the inter ethnical where only one of the parents being arab and the cuban part play an important role. Their native country, education, self consciousness, way of identifying and their psychosocial development make them feel like cubans, but several customs and traditions from their ancestors' nation, transmitted from generation to generation, are still kept by them as a permanent practice. They even keep some of the typical middle east dishes at home, carrying out as well two indelible tracks of their last ethnology: the physical features and iast names that symbolize patronymic groups of their agnatical societies. The middle east immigrants and their descendants who live in the Island are grouped at present at the Arab Union of Cuba (Union Árabe de Cuba [UACI]), a non-governmental association officially constituted on April 4, 1979, as a result of the unification of the Lebanon Society of Havana, the Center Arab Society and the Palestinian Arab Society of Cuba. This union meant the fulfilling of an old wish that the managers of such entities had: to unify the arabic family in Cuba and to develop a better task in the promotion and diffusion of identity, traditions and Arab culture. The Arab Union of Cuba is an active and out standing member of the Arab Entities Federation of Latin America (Federación de Entidades Arabes de América Latina (FEARAB-America), developing fraternal exchanges with the Arab associations from the countries which arecomposed in it. The cuban arab community keeps its filial and historical links with the native homeland of their ancestors throughout the bilateral relations and the FEARAB-America. The Arab's House (Museo Casa de los Árabes) from the Havana City Historian Office is another institution which works towards the diffusion of the arabic cultural patrimony in our country. This institution was founded in 1983 and it has an ethnographic museum and inside its rooms, the most beautiful one is the memorial exposition of the arab immigration in Cuba. Some other elements are also added to the cultural arab heritage in Cuba; it had not escaped since the last two centuries to the arab influence in architecture, as it is reflected in palaces and well renown hotels, or the custom of buying tapestries containing bedouins scenes and trade, as well as the importation of objects and statues denoting the culture of the Islam. These clues come together to the preserved remembrances by the descendants themselves, who include not only Bible sand Korans in arabic language, but also the lute, a native instrument of the arabic world which has been brought to our popular music. All the cultural arab cast in our Island is accomplished to the historical and increasing solidarity that Cuba has already practiced with different arabic peoples in their fights for independence and justice. The cuban of nowadays has inherited from Marti's thought the admiration of a millenary civilization whose ethnical components were as the Apostle said: "The most charming and agile creatures on earth".

(http://freeweb.supereva.com)

By SUSAN HURLICH*
Special to Shunpiking Online*

(HAVANA) -- "What I learned from my father was to love Palestine, the land of his birth", says Maria Deriche, born in Camaguey and raised in the town of Ciego de Avila (both in the eastern part of central Cuba) and today head of the Cultural Commission of the Arab Union of Cuba.

With these words, 66-year-old Maria begins to talk about the Cuban Arab community, today numbering some 50,000 people of whom about one-quarter are affiliated with the Arab Union of Cuba.

"My father came to Cuba in 1912", continues Maria, "and like many Arabs at the time, he came to make a better life. He was single when he arrived, he knew how to read and write Arabic, and he quickly found a job."

The story of Maria's father is typical. Between 1860 and 1930, some 600,000 Arabs -- mainly from Lebanon (the largest group), Syria and Palestine -- left their home countries because of economic crisis, hunger and lack of jobs to seek their fortunes overseas. Over 80 per cent went to the Americas, at that time considered the "Continent of Hope", and ended up mainly in Argentina and Brazil, followed by Cuba, Uruguay and Mexico.

From 1860 to 1898, Cuba was mainly a transit point for Arab immigrants going to the U.S. (over 60 per cent), with the remainder staying on the Caribbean island. By the latter 1930s, the total Arab population in Cuba numbered almost 34,000, after which Arab immigration into Cuba decreased. Although most new arrivals settled in Havana, especially near the port area where they worked in commerce and trade, there were also smaller Arab settlements in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Granma, Holguin, Las Tunas, Ciego de Avila, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, etc.

Arab immigrants in Cuba worked as day labourers, farmers and merchants. Many were also involved in mercantile trade, as silk and fabric traders, some had hardware, jewelry and furniture stores or even importing and warehousing firms.

"My father was a travelling salesman selling textiles and other goods," explains Maria, "and sometimes he would be gone for an entire week. But when he was home, he would become nostalgic for his birth country and would sing songs to us and do dances from Palestine. He also taught me to say, from the time I was a little girl, that I'm a Cuban-Palestinian."

"Most important, we never felt rejected by Cuban society. My father used to say to each of his six children that an immigrant is always an immigrant, but that Cuba was good at accepting them."

Like the majority of Arab immigrants in Cuba, Maria's father easily learned Spanish and married a Cuban, thus becoming quickly assimilated into the larger society. "But Cubans of Arab origin always celebrated their important days and were aware of their ancestry," says Maria.

"My father was a Muslim all his life and kept very strict dietary habits," she continues, "and although I'm not Muslim, my granddaughter is. She does Arabic dancing and is in love with the Islamic world."

As part of their efforts to maintain their identity and culture in their adopted country, Arab immigrants eventually founded some thirty different societies around the country. Based mainly on country of origin, the first societies were founded in Havana and included the Syrian Advancement Society (1918), the Palestinian Arab Society (1919) and the Lebanese Society (1920). In Santiago de Cuba there was the Society of Arabs. Ciego de Avila had a Lebanese Society, one of the few that had a Womens' Committee, and other societies existed elsewhere. Mainly welfare and recreational groups, some offered classes teaching members to read and write in Arabic, or had libraries or even radio programs about Arab culture. There were also several Arab newspapers, the first being Al Etehad (1918) published in Havana.

"Because there was no Palestinian organization in Ciego de Avila", elaborates Maria, "our family, especially my father, closely associated with the Havana group and met with them whenever he went there."

And then, in April 1979, there was a change which was to have a profound impact on the Cuban-Arab community: the unification of the different groupings into a single national organization. Called the Arab Union of Cuba (UAC), it began with the merging of the Palestinian and Lebanese Societies in Havana, the Arab Centre Society in Havana and the Lebanese Society in Ciego de Avila.

"Although initially there was a certain reticence within the Cuban-Arab community to unite," explains Maria, "once the groups united in Havana, many of the provincial associations also united. For example, in Ciego de Avila, the Lebanese Society immediately opened its doors to Cuban-Arabs from other countries."

Representing all citizens of Arab origin and their families in Cuba, the UAC promotes and disseminates Arab identity, traditions and culture.

"Unity of the Arab community in Cuba is very important", says 61-year-old Alfredo Deriche Gutiérrez, president of the Arab Union of Cuba, adding that "belief, nationality or race of a person is not a consideration for membership".

Nation-wide, the UAC has almost 10,000 members, about half of whom live in Havana and the rest in Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, Sancti Spiritus and Holguin. UAC activities include weekly "Dialogues about Arab Culture" (organized by Maria), a yearly literature competition, a bi-annual art competition, courses in Arabic, traditional dance groups, and much more. The UAC also organizes a bi-annual International Symposium on "Arab and Islamic Presence in the Americas", with participants from around the world, and has its own radio program and magazine. At its headquarters in Old Havana, the UAC receives regular visits from the Arab diplomatic corps, visiting delegations from Arab countries and celebrates important dates and events in the Arab world.

There is also a small Muslim community in Cuba. Although the number of Muslims was never great -- most of the early Arab immigrants being Maronite Christians or members of other religious sects -- it's only been during the past decade that there has been a small movement in the country to convert to Islam. Today, Cuba's Islamic community numbers about 550 individuals, of whom 380 live in Havana and the rest in different provinces; many are also active in the UAC. There are no mosques in Cuba, nor were there ever, so Muslims meet in the private homes (prayer houses) of members for their rituals and orations.

Through the UAC, the Cuban-Arab community maintains active relationships with other Arab associations throughout Latin America. Since 1981, the UAC has been a member of the Arab Entities Federation of the Americas (FEARAB-America) which, since its foundation in 1973, has brought together some twenty National Federations representing 18 million Arabs and their descendants throughout the region. (In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are some 500,000 Muslims.)

At its October 2001 meeting, FEARAB-America participants agreed to the "Vina del Mar Declaration", which condemns the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001 as well as Israeli state terrorism in the Golan Heights and Lebanon, calling for the recognition of an independent Palestinian state alongside an Israel within its 1967 boundaries.

"For over 46 years, I've worked within the Cuban-Arab community," says Alfredo Deriche, vice-president of FEARAB-America, "and I am passionately committed to and love the Palestinian cause."

Maria -- a co-founder of both the Cuban Womens' Federation and the Committee in Defense of the Revolution in Ciego de Avila, and later director of the provincial library after Fidel Castro's movement came to power in 1959 -- echoes her brother's sentiments. In a quiet voice, she tells the story of how she once applied for a visa to visit the tiny village of Misraa Charavia (north of Jerusalem, part of the West Bank) where her father was born, but was refused a visa by the Israeli government. Reflecting on the Middle East, she says, "I feel a tremendous obligation to the Palestinian people, who are also my people. My father never forgot the land of his birth, and I can't either.

"When I see reports on TV and in the newspapers of how Palestinian children and women and elders are dying, of children without their fathers and mothers, I want to call on the conscience of the world. I've always loved the book by Anne Frank for how it helped people understand what was happening to the Jews. But what about all the untold stories of Palestinian children? They're also dying and we must work to remind the world of them."

-- -- -- -- --

*SUSAN HURLICH is a Canadian anthropologist and freelance writer who has been living and working in Cuba since November 1992. She is an occasional contributor to Shunpiking Magazine.

A version of this article was originally published in the November/December 2003 edition of http://www.vcn.bc.ca/outlook/current_issue/current_issue.htm, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Comments to : shunpike@shunpiking.com Copyright © 2004 New Media Services Inc. The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of shunpiking magazine or New Media Publications. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. Copyright of written and photographic and art work remains with the creators.