Democracy and Time in Cuban Thought: The Elusive Present

How the temporalities of past, future, andpresent have been used in Cuban political rhetoric and expressed in Cuban culture In this fascinatinganalysis of political discourse in Cuban culture, María de los Ángeles Torresfocuses on how the concept of time has been employed by different politicalprojects. While the past and future are often evoked in rhetoric associatedwith authoritarianism, Torres argues, an emphasis on human actions in thepresent is important for a more democratic political culture, and she searchesover a century of Cuban thought for this perspective.            Delving into political texts andessays, literature, and art, Torres puts theories of temporalities inconversation with the Cuban experience. Torres closely examines the use of timeand its political implications in Fidel Castro’s“History Will Absolve Me” speech, the writings of Jose Martí and Che Guevara,the poetry of Eliseo Diego and the Orígenes group, and paintings andperformance art by Cuban exiles Nereida García Ferraz, María Martínez-Cañas,and Tania Bruguera.            Recent events in Cubahave placed the search for democracy and social justice center stage, andTorres also studies the temporalities underpinning thesemovements, asking whether these projects are providing alternatives to overusedpast and future tropes. She suggests ways of thinking for today’s activists,encouraging them to remember history and imagine new possibilities whilecultivating space for human agency now. Publicationof this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the AmericanRescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Read more