Salvador, Bahia, Brazil December 17, 2008

Your Excellency Army General Raul Castro Rúz President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers Palacio de la Revolución Plaza de la Revolucion Havana, Cuba

Mr. President:

I am obliged to frame this as an Open Letter because it is the only way I may get through to you directly. Moreover, I want my fellow citizens and those worldwide who are interested in the vital problems of our times to hear what I am about to say.

You are a descendant of Europeans born in Spain; I am a descendant of Africans born in the Caribbean. We are both Cubans. However, being Cuban confers no specific privilege on either of us as human beings. What it does confer is the right to have a say in the affairs of the country of our birth. So, I avail myself of that right unapologetically.

I am aware of the vast differences that separate our respective ideas about life, social relations, and how the affairs of our country must be conducted. We also differ in how to interpret the daily realities that negatively impact the lives of most Cubans. But you as the president of our country, and I as a citizen, share a common responsibility: to shoulder the burden of shaping our present and molding the destiny of our nation. Regardless of class, gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation, whatever Cubans do or refrain from doing will determine the future for all.

I have always upheld and respected our national sovereignty. That is why I steadfastly opposed any measure that could have endangered Cuba’s independence or hurt the best interests of its citizens, whether it be an economic embargo or threats against our national territory. However, those same reasons have made me an advocate for the inalienable right of the Cuban people, or of any other people for that matter, to shape their future and manage their own affairs through representative institutions and elected officials. The latter are chosen in truly free and fair democratic elections. During such elections, different ideas are debated and organized movements and parties with differing political platforms and social proposals vie for power. I believe that only then can a people exercise the right to choose whatever suits them best. Therefore, I am against any form of dictatorship or totalitarian system, whether it be led by the so-called Right, or by what is designated as the Left. I certainly do not share the opinion that democracy is a luxury reserved for the rich.

I will not beat around the bush to express my strong conviction that racism is our country’s most serious and tenacious problem. It has stood the test of time and is constantly on the rise. It is a phenomenon that gains new ground and expands its influence over our body politic, cultural life, and economy.

Notwithstanding the grandiose but vacuous speeches, or bombastic but no less deceitful declarations on the alleged elimination of racism and racial discrimination, wherever we look in socialist Cuba our eyes are confronted with a cobweb of social and racial inequities and racial hatred against black people. No doubt, these issues were bequeathed to us through centuries of oppression. The Revolution that empowered itself in 1959 merely inherited them. However, the revolutionary leaders showed themselves particularly inept at correctly interpreting that reality. In the final analysis, these leaders were men and women from the white middle class that had always dominated the country, monopolized its political life, and determined the direction of its economy.