The following paper was presented at Miami Dade College for a conference

focusing on Cuba. The panel I was in discussed environmental issues.

Carlos González
25 June 2004

A Realignment of the Cuban Soul and Imagination:

Reconnecting with Air, Land, and Water

The conversation about the future of the island’s ecology seems overwhelmed by

political concerns; the future of the island’s systems of life do not seem

promising, but then again, where are the promising futures for the integrity of any

of Earth’s life systems right now? We are all living in very difficult times. The

planet is undergoing the most insidious human intervention, leading to the

greatest devastation since the last great die off 65 million years ago. It is

estimated that humans use 40 per cent of the planet’s “net primary productivity”

(Suzuki, 1997, p. 146). Our use of this energy comes at the expense of other life

forms through our participation in industrial agriculture, logging, and industry

(Suzuki, 1997, p. 146). As a result, primarily of our current habits of so-called

production and consumption, an estimated 50,000 species become extinct every

year—this number translates to 137 every day, and six each hour (Suzuki, 1997,

p.150). Our human ancestors never saw or experienced anything of this

magnitude. The very fabric of life is being torn apart and it seems like only a

small fraction of humans are actively responding. Many of us in the West are

entranced by a consumer lifestyle that is becoming endemic and worldwide and

now threatens the entire planet. This is the wider context of this particular

conversation on Cuba.
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It is difficult to live in South Florida and to escape the very recent history of the

island. The wound of exile is deep, and the Cuban imagination in and off the

island seems fixated on the last 45 years. The pain of this longer than expected

crisis could easily lead to an embracing of what seems to be the brighter future of

American style consumerism, but to move in this direction is to miss the

opportunity to re-imagine and re-work what it means to be human in relationship

with rather than in opposition to the life systems that support us. It is also useful

to note that from a historical perspective the last 45 years is a very short period

of time. From an ecological one, it’s is not even a blink of an eye. Looking at

Cuba from a larger context is important because the threads of the current

violence and destruction are embedded in our longer (yet still very recent)

history.

I would like to focus on our immediate ancestors and look at the last 500 years of

European settlement; the patterns for the current devastation could easily be

seen as the Spanish stepped foot on Cuba’s shores. As they did, they planted

the seeds for the current environmental crisis. My aim is not to focus on

Columbus; instead, what is significant is the culture that survived him and

somehow is still intact all these years.

On a human level, Columbus and those who followed him unleashed a genocide

that even to this day many fail to fully acknowledge and internalize. Soon after
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first contact, the Carib, Taino, and Siboney people in Cuba were exterminated.

How was this mass murder possible? More importantly, have we learned

anything from it? Given the news from so many places around the world today,

the Sudan, Rwanda, and the Amazon region with the continuing extermination of

tribal people by transnational corporations seeking new oil and mineral reserves,

the lesson is one that I don’t believe we have learned all that well.

At the root of the genocide and mistreatment was a deeply held belief that native

island people and the Africans who came after lacked subjectivity, that is inherent

worth because of their own being and existence. In essence, they were seen

and treated as objects, resources to be used and exploited for the benefit of

those who held political and economic control and power.

The objectification of native peoples continues in many places around the globe.

It is clear to me that this initial response by the colonizers was terrible and

inhumane. The popular view may be that our ethics have evolved and we now

have a more humane outlook that would never commit such an atrocity given the

opportunity.

But the culture that gave fruit to the genocide of first people throughout the

America’s is intact and now even more entrenched after more than 500 years of

technological refinement. Cuba’s recent dabbling with communism is not a

departure from a modern Western philosophical system that denies subjectivity

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to all non-human forms. On the contrary, it is a logical extension of a thinking

that values functionality, reduction, and production over all forms of life, including

human.

Capitalism, as practiced in the West, also comes up short. This is clear as we

observe ourselves living on this side of the Straits; the culture of death brought

on by several thousand years of ever increasing separation from Nature is

unfortunately seen as a blessing. Note our air conditioned houses, giant SUV’s,

and inordinate reliance on fossil fuels. Progress at the cost of Air, Earth, Water,

and the fabric of life is not questioned; it is the measure of our success and our

progress.

For most of us living away from our beloved island, the culture of insatiable wants

is completely invisible and unquestioned; it has become so much part of the

fabric of current life. Viewing nature as a resource to be used primarily for

human good is business as usual. Because of our myopic cultural lenses, much

of what we call sustainability is usually seen within a framework of fine-tuning our

technology rather than a dismantling of the culture that created the ever-

deepening ecological meltdown. We continue to assume that increasing

economic prosperity, as measured by increased consumption, is most desirable.

Let me reiterate, Cuba’s current repressive and destructive regime is not a break

from the historical past. The present, with its grave human rights abuses and
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shady environmental record, is a logical extension of the same system that

exterminated Tainos and all other first peoples since contact. At the core of this

system is the belief that we live in a dead world of objects, a world de-souled,

one where certain humans in power determine the value of plants, animals,

entire ecosystems based solely on the benefit they may accrue from consuming

and destroying them.

On a non-human level, the last 500 years have been even more devastating to

the island. The colonizers not only brought their culture of consecrated greed,

they also brought their diseases and domesticated animals. “Cuba lost most of

its primary forests in the early years of European occupation…” (Silva Lee, 1996,

p. 15). “Between one-quarter and one-third of all mammalian extinctions since

1500 occurred in the West Indies” (Silva Lee, 1996, p. 2). We could come up with

a dreadful list of what has been lost and what is soon to go under the wave of so

called development, but this is the work for others to do who have a clearer view

of Cuba’s flora and fauna.

What I’m trying to say is this: The Cuban ecological crisis is grave and mirrors

the ecological crisis found in the rest of the planet. Its roots are neither political

nor financial; these are only symptoms. The root of the Cuban problem with

Nature is cosmological. The island and the people who came after Columbus

inherited and worked from a basic premise that sees and treats the Universe as a

mechanism, as scenery, as backdrop, rather than as a living and evolving entity

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with soul, mystery, and spirit where humans play a minor supporting role along

with all of the other actors on the ever expanding cosmic stage. Moving the

conversation toward the root of the problem rather than the symptoms, allows us

to move away from the knee jerk reaction of blaming and focusing exclusively on

the very recent past with its many failings or naively thinking that future so called

sustainable development will be something other than a mirage, a form of green

wash to allow the mechanics of the culture to continue turning the living into

consumable and profitable products.

To talk of a possible future for the island that is truly sustainable inherently calls

for a redefinition of the ethics of Western objectification through the careful

practice of reconnection with Land, Water, and Air. We will need to learn to live

freely, deeply aligned with the biotic communities of the island, knowing that to do

so will allow the unborn generations of humans and other than human inhabitants

of the island a possible future.

Ecological models that continue to place human interests above those of the

larger biotic community will inevitably fall short and perpetuate the destructive

understanding that humans are somehow separate from the rest of nature. The

myth of controlling our environments has led us to dam and straighten rivers,

drain wetlands, and cut down forests. Models that fail to grasp the inherent

subjective nature of all beings, even if they do so in the name of ecological

sustainability, will in the end continue to prop up the culture of separation.

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The challenges facing Cuba’s ecology are profound. What an amazing time to

be alive! Unlike our European forefathers, we may now be poised to reexamine

ourselves to create a society that respects Earth and all of its diverse

manifestations of life.

If we are to move in this direction, a deep reevaluation is in store for those who

live in and off the island. The dreams of a consumer paradise with great beaches

and memorable nightclubs must somehow transform themselves into something

quite different. How that transformation will take place is not clear to me. I do

know that there’s some really good work to be done, and hopefully, some of this

work we’re engaged in at this conference.

I sense that to move in this direction will mean a new contract Cubans will have

to make with the island and all of its biotic communities. All institutions, but

primarily those related to education, will need to rethink their particular disciplines

in light of the larger picture of an ecology that is cosmologically both human and

non-human centered and focused. At the same time this institutional re-

imagining and reworking is taking place, an invitation will need to go forth to all

Cubans to reinterpret our past within this larger framework of biotic participation

based on the deepest respect for all life forms. The rebuilding of Cuba may then

move not just to refurnish and remodel the decaying buildings of the past, but
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more importantly, it will move into the deep waters of soulful heart work where

Cuba’s people align themselves with Earth in fruitful coexistence.

With time this new contract with Land, Air, and Water—with biotic life that

includes humans—will honor the memory the land still holds and will do so with

the flavor and sounds that have for at least 6,000 years enticed humans to the

island. Beginning this conversation, even as we have in this short amount of

time today, is a vital opening. There is no greater and better theme to bring us

together and re-imagine and reinvent ourselves as Cubans in harmony with our

beloved island and ourselves.

The work ahead and inside each of us is daunting. If we set our hearts and

minds to it, we probably have just enough time. The key is to start and do so

knowing so much is at stake. I fear the onslaught of so called development that

will ensue once there’s political change on the island. My hope is that somehow

the efficiency that has laid waste to so much of this continent in so little time will

find itself mesmerized by the greater pleasures of island breezes, colors, sounds,

and yes, people.

References

Silva Lee, A. (1997). Natural Cuba. Saint Paul: Pangea.

Suzuki, D. (1999). The sacred balance: Rediscovering our place in nature.

Vancouver: Greystone Books.
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