Uneac is challenged to always be revolutionary and revolutionary.

The figure of the creator, or the work, or perhaps the national culture, or the project that is produced and reproduced from it and through it? In short, what is the priority of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba?

If one reflects carefully on the nature of this «social organisation for cultural and artistic purposes», on its emergence and history, one not only understands the many missions that converge in it, but also that they all articulate with each other, and that they must do so seamlessly.

For Miguel Barnet, Honorary President of Uneac, the priority «is to listen, to value, to temper all the points of view of the artists in a large mailbox of complaints and suggestions that, like a transmission belt, is passed on to the spheres of the State, the Government, the Ministry of Culture, the Party.

«If any cultural institution in the country makes mistakes in the application of cultural policy, that’s what writers and artists are there for, to judge and make constructive criticism. We have to be more and more demanding in terms of what we publish, what we promote. That our production responds to the ethical and artistic values of the country’s cultural policy,» he added.

Founded on 22 August 1961, the organisation was born to preserve the project of social justice and national independence, and also in pursuit of unity within the cultural, artistic and ideological diversity of the time.

Fidel’s thought and his words to intellectuals were essential for that birth: to unite in difference, always within the Revolution.

Nicolás Guillén, the first president of the writers and artists, summed up the initiatory feeling: «We know that we are part of that complex of dreams that is the new homeland, that is the Revolution; dreams that are fulfilled every day, that grow and materialise before our astonished eyes and incite us to seek the most intimate, the most faithful, the most honourable way to serve our liberated culture forever, every day».

Under the aegis of these principles: consensus, respect for diversity, artistic excellence, humanism and constant communication with the country’s leadership, the Union has grown with an institutional structure through the Island and concrete missions: to stimulate, protect and defend intellectual and artistic creation; and to recognise the broadest freedom of creation, to structure and promote it.

In short, it is a system that forms part of the cultural fabric of the country and ensures the civic interaction of its members in the development of their territories and the nation as a whole.

The challenges on this path are to continue to weave unity among creators, to promote and support the best of Cuban art, to encourage debate and criticism, and to support the ever-revolutionary forces in opposition to artistic conservatism.

The hierarchies have in Uneac a solid defender, which, in order not to err in its establishment and custody, must always embrace renewal.

In the country’s project, artists and writers are not part of an isolated elite, but protagonists of all national battles, alongside the people, and essential actors in the preservation of spirituality, values and ethics.