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Last Updated: Dec 15, 2007 - 2:55:41 AM |
Historical Perspective
Going back into the future
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| EL MORRO: SPANISH FORT IN HAVANA CUBA
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The Caribbean experience is dominated by two opposite but not necessary contradictory vectors.
One, seemingly going backward, is the fidelity to historical and ethnical traditions which are the root of the search by the Caribbean people for their national and regional identity.
This vector is deeply rooted in the Caribbean history of struggle against slavery and in the affirmation of the African ancestry of the majority of the people. It is the syntactic base of all the literary, artistic, cultural expressions of the region. The Caribbean mind uses this syntactic base as a mold in which it generates a wonderful Trans Caribbean Textual Fusion between the various human cultures (Arawacks, Carib, West African, English, French, Spanish, Dutch, East Indian, Arab and even Chinese). The resulting rich mixture could be called a Metacreole Fusion.
The other is the trend toward modernization which is fueled by two factors: the need for amelioration of the living conditions of the people and the necessity of integration of the Caribbean in the world economy.
Contrary to appearances those two vectors reinforce each other, because by going back into its roots and solidifying its identity, the Caribbean will be capable to sustain an integrated, peaceful and gradual economic development that will rest on the existential affirmation and the intellectual development of its most important resource which is its people
By taking those two vectors into consideration the impartial observer realizes that the synthetic model which seems to represent most closely the Caribbean experience is one that sees it as going backward toward a better future
Read the full page in the history section
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