“All Blend” is a cycle promoted by Cuba’s Embassy to Uruguay to celebrate its first year supported by artists, intellectuals, Uruguayan institutions and Cuban residents there.
This time, the venue was provided by the Municipality of Montevideo and the backdrop was May, as the Month of Memory and homage to the dictatorship’s (1973-1985) victims, as by that time there had been thousands of detainees, almost 200 missing persons, and flagrant violations of human rights.
The testimonies of those prisoners, their faces brought by brushes, their drawings of the cells, tortures, the images of the missing have been heard in speeches or shown in paintings and videos.
Mario Paz has been in charge of music by playing the guitar and singing, in the meantime, people have recalled several times prisons as the one of Punta de Rieles, or the one of the countersense, “Libertad,” -Freedom.
On the encounter, Andres Humberto Bellizzi and Carolina Barrientos were among the honoring victims; in addition, Cuba’s Ambassador Zulan Popa praised the meeting as it united two countries separated by their geography, but bonded with Jose Marti.
Mexican Ambassador Victor Manuel Barcelo, recalled that his country’s Embassy here received and processed the assylum of 450 Uruguayans persecuted by that de facto Government at that time.
Cuba remembered May as the month that marked the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Agrarian Reform Law, which is celebrated by Cuban peasants.
Historian and writer Edel Morales, a resident here, spoke about their traditions, the Cuban peasant music, Cultural Heritage of Humanity, represented by poets whose origins are the countryside.
Cuban actress Lisandra Martin and her compatriot, writer Eldys Baratute, also referred to the progress made in respect for sexual diversity and the benefits of the Family Code in their country.
The encounter was propitious for the presentation of the young publishing house El Berretin, with works of social contents, and it was noteworthy standing out the black period of Uruguayan history.
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