Intellectuals Against Facism

European and Latin American intellectuals, including the Cubans Alejo Carpentier, Juan Marinello, Nicolás Guillén, Félix Pita Rodríguez and Leonardo Fernández Sánchez, gathered in 1937in Valencia, Spainduring the 2nd. International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture to protest against the fascist boom that was showingits worstside in the Spanish civil war.

Eight decades later, when that ideology - now disguised in other ways that threaten the  peoples’ freedom – continues in the world, the same principleto consider the emancipatory outpost based on the thought persisting in the will of those who have convened in Havana since November 28 at the Valencia Congress 1937/ Havana 2017. Intellectuals, politics and culture.

Based on this historic meeting of the 1930’s last century in order to reflect on what the so-called Spanish civil war meant for intellectuals of that time, academics and researchers from Spain, Brazil, the United States, France and Cuba take part at the event convened by the Alejo Carpentier Foundation and the University of Valencia.

Also the debates have remained alive todayhighlighting the hegemonic processes in the cultural field analyzed from the artistic and symbolic production. Among the speakers that defend these approaches can be mentionedthose by the director of the Temasmagazine Rafael Hernández (Intellectuals, civil society and political power in Cuban socialism) and by Núria Girona Fibla from the University of Valencia, (How is a fascist child educated?Politics and subjectivity in childhood stories), among others.

The closing ceremony will take place at the venue of themeeting, theCasa de los Condes de la Reunión, in Havana’shistoric center this Thursday, and a speechby the City Historian and National Prize of Social Sciences, Eusebio Leal Spengleris expected.

Translated by ESTI