NEW YORK.-Culture has unsuspected reaches; it is a language that exalts, that knocks down walls, that catalyzes processes of rapprochement and emancipation.
This truth explains that when on Thursday afternoon the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, met with a large group of U.S. cultural directors, representatives, artists and promoters, he said to his interlocutors: "this meeting with you is going to be unforgettable".
At the headquarters of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, the Head of State told artists, intellectuals, philanthropists, businessmen and lawyers who gathered at the venue and who favor a rapprochement, a growing harmony between the island and the United States: "I am sure that we will achieve what we have set out to do, and that our peoples will continue to unite".
Expanding on the idea, the dignitary emphasized: "Our peoples are going to continue communicating; our peoples are going to continue sharing the best of their traditions, their essence, their roots, their histories, and also their cultures; and thus our peoples are going to be happier".
To the same extent that we build it -Diaz-Canel Bermudez said-, while the structures of the blockade are being undermined, the rapprochement through creation "will have more merit, because it will be the effort to overcome adversity, the effort to -with feelings, with affection, with spirituality- break" a siege that has been and is perverse.
When time goes by - the dignitary reflected - everyone will have the satisfaction of having contributed a grain of sand in this great work of closeness. "A thousand thanks for having been with us, a thousand thanks for this meeting", highlighted the Head of State, and advocated to continue nurturing this kind of confluences.
"Keep thinking about projects, keep proposing projects, keep working with our institutions; and also take care of yourselves because we know that doing that here, in the United States, is also a gesture of courage," said the Cuban President in a day that was full of beautiful ideas and passions.
This Thursday, as Díaz-Canel valued with the creators, was marked - "in the country where your government has wanted to strangle us" - by multiple displays of affection towards Cuba; by the encouragement of "kind treatment, unconditional support, and a tremendous hope that together we can build those bridges we are talking about".
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba thanked at the afternoon meeting all those who have contributed to maintain the cultural bridges that historically unite the two peoples; and advocated for strengthening artistic exchanges between Cuba and the United States.
He also highlighted the participation of artists and representatives of U.S. culture in various stages in Cuba, where they have always found the appreciation of the Cuban public. And in the same line of thought, he expressed the will to support the participation of Cuban artists in the U.S. stages, as well as to increase the exchange between the institutions dedicated to artistic education.
It was exciting to see the creators lining up to get to the microphone and from there share their feelings with the Head of State: there was talk of putting the strength of art before the blockade, of building bridges, of defending cultural projects that have done so much for the vicinity, of the speech delivered by President Diaz-Canel at the United Nations -qualified by intellectuals as a courageous intervention-. The blockade was a topic addressed at the meeting by more than one creator: "We are going to keep fighting, a voice was raised, until that damned blockade is lifted".
A particularly moving testimony was shared by an artist whose first contact with Cuba was on African soil: she contracted malaria there and was saved by doctors from the Caribbean country; that is why, she said, everything the United States is doing to Cuba is horrifying.
Finally, another woman made of passion and strength thanked Cubans for defending, against all adversities and shortages, the spirit of optimism.
The meeting ended up taking the form of a big family that gathers around affection and that gives each other truths and dreams. And it was at that moment -when everyone gathers around the human fire- that the American actor Danny Glover, a passionate friend of Cuba, who did so much for the Five Cuban Heroes imprisoned in the United States for having defended the Homeland from terrorist plans, arrived at the venue.
There was a beautiful dialogue between the actor and the Cuban President. Among other topics -such as Cuban leadership in the Caribbean area-, the President thanked Danny Glover for having been an inspiration for him in the battle against racism.
The Head of State told the U.S. friend about the program that the country's leadership frequently checks, whose essential purpose is the fight against racism in Cuban society.
The meeting with the cultural artisans took place in the context of the agenda to which the Head of State gives fulfillment within the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which Cuba attends in its capacity as president pro tempore of the Group of 77 and China.