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On the occasion of the fifth centenary of the encounter between the old and the new world cultures, the real meaning of that historical fact revealed itself on the horizon of all Cubans.
For our country, in addition to the historical debates about the exact place where the landing took place, it meant placing the Ibero-American role in a new theoretical, juridical and political position; to overcome the conceptions of reinforcement of a colonial vision that distorted the real meaning of the endeavor of conquest driven by the main dominant forces of the 15th century in Europe.
Since the very celebrations of the fifth centenary, a vision was promoted that emphasized the role of the conquering powers in the advances achieved by the peoples and nations of Latin America, and failed to mention the savagery committed in the name of a civilization process that caused the disappearance of more than seventy percent of our aboriginal population. Our country also faced, in the midst of the 20th century, the proposals that were tried to impose through the multilateral organizations for a sweetened celebration that ignored the Americanist and deeply-rooted indigenous approaches. Fortunately, these last proposals have found a fertile soil in several political projects of the new millennium that have a liberating vocation and of recognition of our ancestral cultures.
The coincidence of the emergence of the Ibero-American summits with celebrations of the fifth centenary allowed us to place, on a level of full recognition, the different meaning for the peoples of Our America, the historical responsibility of the old metropolis and the moral duty. La Fiesta de la Cultura Iberoamericana (The Festival of Ibero-American Culture) was born of this greater commitment, defending our identity from the capacity for dialogue and reflection of our intelligentsia, our artists and cultural promoters.