New York, 18 February 2020. Don Fernando Ortiz, recognized as the third discoverer of Cuba for his contributions to the Cuban social sciences and culture, as well as for his concept of Cubanness (cubanidad), would explain as early as 1940 that "The image of the creole ajiaco (stew) symbolizes well the formation of the Cuban people. (...) That is Cuba, the island, the pot set on the fire of the tropics (...). A singular casserole that of our land, like that of our ajiaco, which needs to be made of clay and be very open. Then, fire of burning flame and fire of ember and slow to divide the cooking in two; (...). And there go the substances of the most diverse genres and origins".
As a result of such a peculiar process of formation of nationality and identity, the largest island in the Antilles is honored to have Indo-American, European, African and Asian blood. The vast majority of its population is mixed race, as well as its customs and traditions, popular religiosity, the artistic expressions, traditional and popular culture and idiosyncrasy. Such miscegenation determines that it is a monoethnic, inclusive and mixed race country; which constitutes a bulwark as a nation.
The new Constitution of the Republic of 2019 ratified and strengthened the recognition and protection of the right to equality, as well as the prohibition of discrimination. In its text, the Magna Carta sets forth that all persons are equal before the law, receive the same protection and treatment from the authorities and enjoy the same rights, freedoms and opportunities, without any discrimination, which is prohibited and punished by law.
There is no institutional or structural racial discrimination in Cuba. Nor is it a widespread or common phenomenon in the country. The advocacy of hatred, the promotion of intolerance and the supremacist ideas based on national, religious or ethnic origin, and xenophobia are alien to the political, social and economic life of an island marked by cultural and racial miscegenation.
Nor is there discrimination in the access to the main positions of the Cuban State and Government. People with black or mixed race skin account for 41% of the members of the National Assembly of the People's Power, including the President of that Assembly; while the 2012 population census, which used self-identification as a method, revealed that 35.9% of the Cuban population considered themselves as non-white, i.e., black (9.3%) or mulatto (26.6%).
In Cuba, the Vice-president of the Republic, the President of the People's Supreme Court, the Attorney General of the Republic, the Minister of Justice, the President-Minister of the Central Bank of Cuba, the rector of the University of Havana, among other national personalities, are black or mestizos.
Nevertheless, despite the immense progress we have made in the guarantees for the exercise of the right to equality and non-discrimination, racial prejudices survive in the behavior and expressions of some people, arising from historical, social, and cultural factors.
In November 2019, the National Program against Racism and Racial Discrimination was established to tackle and permanently erase the remnants of racism, racial prejudices and racial discrimination that still linger on. This program has been designed as a Governmental Program and a Governmental Commission has been created, headed by the President of the Republic, whose objectives include identifying the causes that favor discriminatory practices; and promoting organized public debate on the racial problem within the political, mass and social organizations, as well as their presence in the media.
Permanent Mision of Cuba to the United Nations