The vice ministers of Culture Fernando Rojas Gutiérrez and Kenelma Carvajal Pérez were removed from their positions this Monday, January 8 and will be replaced by two much younger faces, those of Lizette Martínez Luzardo, 36 years old and until now general director of Cultural Policies, and Lillitsy Hernández Oliva, 41, and current president of the National Council of the Performing Arts.
“This movement responds to the country’s policy of gradual renewal of management cadres at all levels, and ratifies in practice the confidence of the Revolution in young people,” states the statement from the Ministry of Culture.
The statement uses the usual official language, which calls “liberation by renewal” at the departure of his predecessors, for whom he reserves ideological praise without any mention of their role in the management of the area. “The Board of Directors of the Ministry of Culture recognized the consecration, revolutionary loyalty and impeccable ethical conduct of both cadres.”
“The Board of Directors of the Ministry of Culture recognized the consecration, revolutionary loyalty and impeccable ethical conduct of both cadres”
Kenelma Carvajal, previously in charge of the Artistic Education area and who will now have “new tasks assigned by the Central Committee of the Party”, is the wife of photographer Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle, son of Fidel Castro and Dalia del Valle.
His activity in international forums is known and a little over a month ago he was an active part of the group of officials who attacked the Instar Film Festival, organized by the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism, directed by the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera. “Once again, the machinery of the counterrevolution attacking the institutional system of culture and the cinema festival of the Cuban people,” she wrote on her networks when sharing an official text contrary to the event.
Better known is Vice Minister Fernando Rojas Gutiérrez, who will continue as advisor to the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso. The vice minister, brother of the renowned historian residing in Mexico Rafael Rojas, has been one of the great battering rams of the regime, highlighting among his most recent actions the tense meeting with the artists of the 27N collective in which his boss ended up slapping the independent journalist Mauricio Mendoza.
That day, several artists who were holding a sit-in against the cultural authorities arrived at the ministry after paying tribute to José Martí on the eve of the 168th anniversary of his birth, demanding to meet with a high-ranking official to raise their concerns. Alonso and Rojas appeared for a conversation that turned into a dispute and ended with police repression.
Hernández Oliva attacked Yunior García Aguilera after the playwright, then in Cuba, called for a Civic March for Change in November 2021
His successor does not lack merits in that sense either. Hernández Oliva attacked Yunior García Aguilera after the playwright, then in Cuba, called for a Civic March for Change in November 2021. A few days before, the official met with him – presumably to pressure him to back down on its purpose – and, after the meeting, wrote on their social networks:
“This morning we spoke with Yunior García, a playwright who maintains a working relationship with one of our institutions. We learned about the authorities’ denial of his call for a march that violates our laws and the warning about the crimes he would incur if he maintained his performance. Yunior has accessed benefits to which every artist is entitled, including the granting of scholarships and prizes and has enjoyed salary protection for workers in the sector during a pandemic. His actions aimed at ignoring our institutions are not compatible with the contractual relationship maintained until now with the Cnae”.
Her place as president of the National Council of the Performing Arts will now be occupied by Rachel García Heredia, current provincial director of Culture of Holguín.
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