La Habana, Cuba. 20 de Julio de 2011
•DECLARACION OFICIAL DEL CONSEJO DIRECTIVO DEL FESTIVAL ROTILLA.
•Motivo: Denuncia del Secuestro del Festival Rotilla.
Rotilla Festival, fundado en el año 1998, es el único evento de su tipo en Cuba.
Se realiza cada año en el mes de agosto, y durante tres días consecutivos promueve y expone la gran mayoría de las manifestaciones de la vanguardia artística cubana.
Es de carácter no lucrativo, totalmente gratuito y abierto a todos los públicos.
Al principio comenzó siendo un movimiento promotor exclusivamente de la música electrónica, a partir del 2008 incorporó a su programa artístico bandas musicales de los más variados formatos, pero siempre bajo el principio de promover lo alternativo dentro de las artes.
Igualmente el festival desde su nacimiento ha sido administrado de manera INDEPENDIENTE por sus fundadores, y sin prácticamente ninguna colaboración de las autoridades cubanas (estado-gobierno). Esa ha sido nuestra política y nuestra posición, queríamos crecer desde nosotros mismos, desarrollarnos y generar un movimiento auténtico dirigido especialmente hacia los jóvenes teniendo muy en cuenta sus verdaderas expectativas y exigencias.
En la ultima edición (2010), ya por las propuestas artísticas, por el eco de prensa tanto nacional como internacional, por la larga trayectoria y el renombre adquirido mundialmente, el festival obtuvo el récord en asistencia de 20 000 personas, colocándose así como el evento mas largo en tiempo y de mayor asistencia juvenil dentro la isla. La gran cantidad de materiales fílmicos acopiados en todo este tiempo así lo legitiman.
Hoy, en el 2011, Rotilla Festival enfrenta su mayor oprobio.
El Gobierno Cubano, en la persona del vicepresidente Estaban Lazo, junto al Ministerio de Cultura, en la persona del viceministro Fernando Rojas, pretenden secuestrar el evento de las manos de sus organizadores y fundadores, y realizarlo desde las instituciones estatales, arrebatando y plagiando para esto nuestro nombre, nuestros días señalados y nuestra convocatoria, violentando el concepto propio del evento, llevando al “festival“ bandas que modifican el formato que nosotros, sus legítimos dueños, habíamos establecido. Por otra parte, las instituciones en cuestión han ofrecido remuneraciones económicas a los artistas participantes en este “evento“ para de este modo deteriorar la relación social establecida históricamente (sin basamento lucrativo) entre los organizadores originales y los artistas, asegurando así la presentación de estos últimos.
Tradicionalmente había existido un dialogo con las autoridades, donde estas presionaban para que no se presentara determinado grupo y en cambio cooperaban para que se realizara el festival, se había establecido así un modus vivendi, de coexistencia. Nunca ha sido algo cómodo informar a un artista que no puede presentarse, pues el Ministerio de Cultura lo rechaza. Pero ese, es el folklore tradicional que en cuanto al arte se vive en Cuba. Eso es por todos conocido.
Sin embargo, en esta ocasión… han ido demasiado lejos las llamadas instituciones.
Nos han comunicado informalmente, a través de Noel Soca, funcionario que dirige la Comisión de Recreación y Cultura en la nueva provincia de Mayabeque, que no teníamos mas nada que ver con ello, que el festival sería realizado por el Ministerio de Cultura y el Instituto de la Música en los días señalados, pues los jóvenes iban a asistir de cualquier manera.
La directiva del Festival Rotilla acudió al Ministerio de Cultura sabiendo que se estaba realizando una reunión con motivo y nombre “Rotilla“, en las oficinas de Fernando Rojas, viceministro de cultura.
De ella fuimos cortésmente expulsados, no habíamos sido convidados.
Una cosa es la censura (ya tradicional), otra muy diferente es el robo, el plagio y el secuestro de una obra que ha alcanzado muy altos niveles de atención a nivel incluso internacional, y que cuenta con las congratulaciones de miles de jóvenes cubanos que allí han asistido por años.
El equipo organizador de Rotilla Festival, quiere dejar muy claro y de manera categórica, que este año 2011, se cancela el Festival Rotilla, por la violencia ética que han manifestado las máximas autoridades de la cultura cubana.
Nosotros, realizadores y autores de Rotilla Festival, y en mi nombre propio, su director y fundador, DENUNCIAMOS el robo, el plagio y el secuestro que esta actitud significa para todos los jóvenes de esta tierra que hoy representamos. Denunciamos la excesiva y terca censura que se esta ejerciendo contra cualquier actividad cultural que NO provenga de las llamadas instituciones. Denunciamos el acoso a que estamos siendo sometidos de manera constante, a la vigilancia y las amenazas sutiles o directas de las que somos objeto cotidianamente.
“Un país no se dirige como se dirige un campamento!“ Dijo en ocasión de la guerra chiquita José Martí al generalísimo Máximo Gómez.
Y es que en un país debe primar un pensamiento plural, su sociedad debe ser dueña y soberana verdadera de la nación, y por encima de todo, dueña de la buena obra construida con el esfuerzo de los años y el sudor de la propia frente.
El robo de una obra propia, que se concibe como proyecto de vida, es el acto más inmoral y deplorable en que se puede ver involucrado el estado-gobierno de una nación. Rompe con todos los principios de la ética revolucionaria, cuyo concepto esta escrito en cada esquina de cada barrio de todo el país.
Queremos advertir a nuestros líderes, que este tipo de actos, atacan incluso la base del contrato social vigente en la sociedad cubana. Arremeten contra el principio de respeto que un pueblo debe tener por su gobierno.
Consideramos que incluso, contradice los mismos lineamientos que se acaban de lanzar con razón del VI Congreso del Partido Comunista de Cuba, ignorando algunos de los principios que allí quedaron plasmados; dejándonos a los hijos de Cuba sin norte de guía y sin esperanzas.
Para reconstruir la nación, es evidentemente necesario que participemos todos.
Y esa participación solo se puede generar con la confianza y el respeto entre el estado–gobierno y la base de la sociedad, sus gentes.
Este tipo de actos sembrarán entre nosotros, hoy los más jóvenes, la desconfianza a construir y crear en nuestro suelo, pues no existe garantía de hecho ni derecho de que serán respetadas nuestra creación o nuestra inversión en tiempo y recursos humanos y materiales.
Dejamos claro a nuestra contraparte institucional que iniciaremos los procesos legales correspondientes en su contra, pues este acto no es solo violatorio de todos los conceptos de ética y moral conocidos, sino también de un conjunto de leyes sobre derecho de autor y propiedad intelectual que esperamos, estén aún vigentes en la nación cubana.
Es hora que cada uno de nosotros exijamos los derechos que nos corresponden como ciudadanos, y que estos marquen nuestra relación con las instituciones.
Es tiempo de poner orden a la insensatez y la arbitrariedad.
Queremos hacer nuestro ejercicio en nuestra tierra, invertir y ganar haciendo lo que hacemos, nuestro negocio personal, nuestra fiesta, nuestro festival, ese derecho, sí que lo exigimos, por que no lo tenemos. Es justo y necesario.
El equipo de Rotilla Festival invita a todo aquel que se identifique o adhiera a esta causa que se haga eco de este discurso y que lo difunda por cualesquiera de los medios a su alcance. Así edificaremos hoy la solidaridad del mañana.
Esperamos que este comunicado sea recibido con el mismo respeto que hemos querido imprimirle, pues es nuestra intención dialogar para reformar, para crecer y salir adelante, para construir una nación para todos donde todos tengan a salvo su propio espacio y crezcan como individuos capaces y seguros de sí.
Que no quepa duda que vamos a continuar reclamando el derecho a realizar nuestro festival en los próximos años, es nuestro legítimo derecho.
MATRAKA PRODUCCIONES • ROTILLA FESTIVAL
English Translation
Havana, Cuba. July 20th, 2011
English Translation
Havana, Cuba. July 20th, 2011
*Official Statement of the Directive Council of the Rotilla Festival
* Purpose: Denunciation of the Hijacking of Rotilla Festival
Rotilla Festival, founded in the year 1998, is the only event of its kind in Cuba.
It is brought together every year in the month of august, and during three consecutive days it promotes and exposes the great majority of the demonstrations of the Cuban artistic vanguard.
It is of a non-lucrative character, completely free and open to the public.
Originally it began as a movement promoting electronic music exclusively, since 2008 it incorporated in its artistic program musical bands of the most varied formats, but always under the principle of promoting the alternative within the arts.
In the same way, since its beginnings the festival has been administered INDEPENDENTLY by its founders, and practically without any collaboration of the Cuban authorities (state-government). That has been our policy and our position, we wanted to grow by ourselves, develop ourselves and generate an authentic movement aimed especially at the youth with their true expectations and demands very much in mind.
In our last edition (2010), already because of the artistic proposals, because of the national and international press coverage, because of its long trajectory and the renown it has acquired world-wide, the festival obtained a record attendance of 20,000 persons, thus placing itself as the longest running and most attended youth event in the island. The great quantity of film material gathered in all this time legitimizes this claim.
Today, in 2011, Rotilla Festival faces its greatest disgrace.
The Cuban Government, personified by vice-president Esteban Lazo, together with the Ministry of Culture, personified by vice minister Fernando Rojas, try to hijack the event from the hands of its organizers and founders, and produce it from government institutions, seizing and plagiarizing our name, our scheduled days and our convocation, distorting the very concept of the event, bringing to the “festival” bands that modify the format that we ourselves, the festival’s legitimate owners, had established. At the same time, the institutions questioned have offered the participating artists of this “event” monetary remuneration, in that way deteriorating the social relationship established historically (on a non lucrative basis) among the original organizers and the artists, thus securing the performance of the latter.
Traditionally there existed a dialogue with the authorities, where they pressured us so that a certain group did not perform, and in exchange they would cooperate to allow the festival to happen. Thus, was established a modus vivendi, of coexistence. It has never being easy informing an artist that he cannot perform because the Ministry of Culture rejects him; but that is the traditional folklore that we live in Cuba regarding art; everyone knows it. However, this time…the so-called institutions have gone too far.
They have informed us informally, by way of Noel Soca, government official who heads the Commission of Recreation and Culture in the new province of Mayabeque, that we no longer had any involvement in the subject, that the festival would be run by the Ministry of Culture and the Institute of Music on the designated days, as young people would attend anyway.
The board of directors of Festival Rotilla headed to the Ministry of Culture, knowing that a meeting was being carried out with the purpose and name “Rotilla”, in the offices of Fernando Rojas, vice minister of Culture. From this meeting we were politely expelled; we had not been invited.
Censorship (already traditional), is one thing, and something very different is the theft, plagiarism, and hijacking of a work that has reached such high levels of attention at even international levels, and that can count on the congratulations of thousands of young Cuban people who have attended for years.
The organizing team of Rotilla Festival wants to clearly and categorically assert, that in this year 2011, the Rotilla Festival is cancelled, due to the ethical violence that has been manifested by the highest authorities of Cuban culture.
We, organizers and authors of the Rotilla Festival, and I myself, its director and founder, DENOUNCE the theft, plagiarism, and hijacking that this attitude represents for all the young people of this earth that we today represent. We denounce the excessive and stubborn censorship that is being exerted against any cultural activity that DOES NOT originate in the so-called institutions. We denounce the harassment to which we are constantly being subjected. We denounce the surveillance and the subtle or direct threats to which we are subject daily.
“A country is not governed as one governs the barracks” Said Jose Marti to the general Maximo Gomez on the occasion of the small war. We believe a country should foster pluralist thought, its society should be the owner and true sovereign of its nation, and above all, owner of the good work constructed with the effort of many years and with its very own sweat.
The theft of one’s own work, conceived as a life project, is the most immoral and deplorable act that the government of a nation could be involved in. It violates all the principles of revolutionary ethics, whose concept is written in each corner of every neighborhood across the whole country.
We warn our leaders that this type of behavior attacks even the base of the social contract that is in place in Cuban society. They attack the principle of respect that a populace (nation) must have for their government. We believe this even contradicts some of the same points that have just been released by the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, ignoring some of the principles that were set forth; leaving the children of Cuba wandering aimlessly without hope or direction.
To reconstruct the nation, it is evidently necessary that we all participate. And that participation can only be generated with the confidence and the respect between the government and its people. Such acts will plant in us, today’s youth, the distrust to build and create in our own land, because there is no guarantee that either our creations nor our investments in time, human resources, and material resources will be respected.
We made it clear to our institutional counterpart that we will initiate the corresponding legal proceedings against them, because this act not only violates all known ethical and moral concepts, but also a set of laws on copyright and ownership of intellectual property that, we expect, are still in force in the Cuban nation.
It is time that each of us demand the rights that correspond to us as citizens, and that these rights mark our relationship with institutions. It is time to bring order to the folly (stupidity) and arbitrariness.
We want to do our exercise in our land, invest and earn doing what we do, our personal businesses, our parties, and our festival. That right, which we demand, but do not have, is just and necessary.
The Rotilla Festival team invites anyone who identifies with or adheres to our cause to disseminate this speech by any means at their disposal. This way we can build, today, the solidarity of tomorrow.
We hope that this news is received with the same respect that we intended to print it. It is our intention to discuss reform, to grow and succeed, to build a nation for all where everyone has their own space to grow as confident and capable individuals.
Let there be no doubt that we will continue demanding the right to carry out our festival in the coming years, it is our legitimate right.
MATRAKA PRODUCTIONS – ROTILLA FESTIVAL
Translated by Roots of Hope
* Purpose: Denunciation of the Hijacking of Rotilla Festival
Rotilla Festival, founded in the year 1998, is the only event of its kind in Cuba.
It is brought together every year in the month of august, and during three consecutive days it promotes and exposes the great majority of the demonstrations of the Cuban artistic vanguard.
It is of a non-lucrative character, completely free and open to the public.
Originally it began as a movement promoting electronic music exclusively, since 2008 it incorporated in its artistic program musical bands of the most varied formats, but always under the principle of promoting the alternative within the arts.
In the same way, since its beginnings the festival has been administered INDEPENDENTLY by its founders, and practically without any collaboration of the Cuban authorities (state-government). That has been our policy and our position, we wanted to grow by ourselves, develop ourselves and generate an authentic movement aimed especially at the youth with their true expectations and demands very much in mind.
In our last edition (2010), already because of the artistic proposals, because of the national and international press coverage, because of its long trajectory and the renown it has acquired world-wide, the festival obtained a record attendance of 20,000 persons, thus placing itself as the longest running and most attended youth event in the island. The great quantity of film material gathered in all this time legitimizes this claim.
Today, in 2011, Rotilla Festival faces its greatest disgrace.
The Cuban Government, personified by vice-president Esteban Lazo, together with the Ministry of Culture, personified by vice minister Fernando Rojas, try to hijack the event from the hands of its organizers and founders, and produce it from government institutions, seizing and plagiarizing our name, our scheduled days and our convocation, distorting the very concept of the event, bringing to the “festival” bands that modify the format that we ourselves, the festival’s legitimate owners, had established. At the same time, the institutions questioned have offered the participating artists of this “event” monetary remuneration, in that way deteriorating the social relationship established historically (on a non lucrative basis) among the original organizers and the artists, thus securing the performance of the latter.
Traditionally there existed a dialogue with the authorities, where they pressured us so that a certain group did not perform, and in exchange they would cooperate to allow the festival to happen. Thus, was established a modus vivendi, of coexistence. It has never being easy informing an artist that he cannot perform because the Ministry of Culture rejects him; but that is the traditional folklore that we live in Cuba regarding art; everyone knows it. However, this time…the so-called institutions have gone too far.
They have informed us informally, by way of Noel Soca, government official who heads the Commission of Recreation and Culture in the new province of Mayabeque, that we no longer had any involvement in the subject, that the festival would be run by the Ministry of Culture and the Institute of Music on the designated days, as young people would attend anyway.
The board of directors of Festival Rotilla headed to the Ministry of Culture, knowing that a meeting was being carried out with the purpose and name “Rotilla”, in the offices of Fernando Rojas, vice minister of Culture. From this meeting we were politely expelled; we had not been invited.
Censorship (already traditional), is one thing, and something very different is the theft, plagiarism, and hijacking of a work that has reached such high levels of attention at even international levels, and that can count on the congratulations of thousands of young Cuban people who have attended for years.
The organizing team of Rotilla Festival wants to clearly and categorically assert, that in this year 2011, the Rotilla Festival is cancelled, due to the ethical violence that has been manifested by the highest authorities of Cuban culture.
We, organizers and authors of the Rotilla Festival, and I myself, its director and founder, DENOUNCE the theft, plagiarism, and hijacking that this attitude represents for all the young people of this earth that we today represent. We denounce the excessive and stubborn censorship that is being exerted against any cultural activity that DOES NOT originate in the so-called institutions. We denounce the harassment to which we are constantly being subjected. We denounce the surveillance and the subtle or direct threats to which we are subject daily.
“A country is not governed as one governs the barracks” Said Jose Marti to the general Maximo Gomez on the occasion of the small war. We believe a country should foster pluralist thought, its society should be the owner and true sovereign of its nation, and above all, owner of the good work constructed with the effort of many years and with its very own sweat.
The theft of one’s own work, conceived as a life project, is the most immoral and deplorable act that the government of a nation could be involved in. It violates all the principles of revolutionary ethics, whose concept is written in each corner of every neighborhood across the whole country.
We warn our leaders that this type of behavior attacks even the base of the social contract that is in place in Cuban society. They attack the principle of respect that a populace (nation) must have for their government. We believe this even contradicts some of the same points that have just been released by the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, ignoring some of the principles that were set forth; leaving the children of Cuba wandering aimlessly without hope or direction.
To reconstruct the nation, it is evidently necessary that we all participate. And that participation can only be generated with the confidence and the respect between the government and its people. Such acts will plant in us, today’s youth, the distrust to build and create in our own land, because there is no guarantee that either our creations nor our investments in time, human resources, and material resources will be respected.
We made it clear to our institutional counterpart that we will initiate the corresponding legal proceedings against them, because this act not only violates all known ethical and moral concepts, but also a set of laws on copyright and ownership of intellectual property that, we expect, are still in force in the Cuban nation.
It is time that each of us demand the rights that correspond to us as citizens, and that these rights mark our relationship with institutions. It is time to bring order to the folly (stupidity) and arbitrariness.
We want to do our exercise in our land, invest and earn doing what we do, our personal businesses, our parties, and our festival. That right, which we demand, but do not have, is just and necessary.
The Rotilla Festival team invites anyone who identifies with or adheres to our cause to disseminate this speech by any means at their disposal. This way we can build, today, the solidarity of tomorrow.
We hope that this news is received with the same respect that we intended to print it. It is our intention to discuss reform, to grow and succeed, to build a nation for all where everyone has their own space to grow as confident and capable individuals.
Let there be no doubt that we will continue demanding the right to carry out our festival in the coming years, it is our legitimate right.
MATRAKA PRODUCTIONS – ROTILLA FESTIVAL
Translated by Roots of Hope
