Dear Dr. Christian Cwik,
Invited professors, researchers and experts,
I would like to thank the Association of Continental American and Caribbean Studies and Culture of the University of Vienna for the organization of this event and for the cordial invitation you have extended to me.
I am very delighted to verify the high intellectual level of the experts that have been convened. I highly value the work of the Association, whose Doctor Cwik´s unquestioned leadership and passionate devotion to Latin America and the Caribbean topics provide prestige to it.
I would also welcome to Vienna, Doctor Sergio Guerra Vilaboy, holder of the 2017 National Award on Social Sciences and professor of the almost tercentenary University of Havana who will deliver the master conference on the theme that brings us together today: “Latin America, the Caribbean, and year 1968”.
Year 2018 marks 50 years of a series of developments which shook set structures on the politics, economy, culture, religion, and living habits throughout a large part of the world. They took place from Tokyo to Mexico, from Paris to Prague through Havana and Buenos Aires and in several cities of the United States. Their mobilizing effects regarding social consciousness were felt, with greater or lesser intensity, but they did not go unnoticed.
These movements led to the creation of new social actors that started to play a significant role in the respective societies such as young people, students, women, unionized workers, among others. Those were the times of indefatigable struggle for racial and gender equality and, above all, mainly, those were the times of intense fight of the left-wing movements against the Vietnam War.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, year 1968 is marked by the reaction of the successive regimes against the emancipatory movement of the progressive forces inspired by the Cuban Revolution. That is the year when Ché´s image travels the world as a synthesized expression of the struggles for a better world.
The Latin American students struggled for a new University, more diverse and inclusive one. The nationalist movements fought against the American interference in their political affairs and in the control of natural resources. The working class opposed the difficult life conditions and the absence of a system that ensured its most elementary social conditions. On the other hand, a movement that regards poverty critically and in a non-contemplative manner appears in the Catholic Church. This movement also proposes a new Liberation Theology.
Cuba was not exempted from difficulties as it faced the urgent development challenges in a complex international context.
Year 1968 did not necessarily show the same problems in Latin American and the Caribbean than in the European society. Notwithstanding, the intellectual influence of the movement which is taking place in Europe and that, in essence, also represents the struggle of new social and political actors that challenge the status quo power in the Old Continent, cannot be denied.
Scholars and experts’ reflection in this event concerning the impact of year 1968 in the Latin America and the Caribbean will be very interesting. Doing this reflection from the perspective of the 50 elapsed years favors an unbiased and wise regard. It will shed light on a movement which had an impact on culture, politics, and society in the whole world and whose effects and demands continue to be a pending task today.
I thank you so much
(Embacuba Austria)