GREEN CUBA

CUBA VERDE

(GREEN CUBA)

Some forty years ago, Cuba became disordered in the world. Since then it has been an exception; exceptionally aggregated by its enemies, exceptionally loved by its friends, between those that are there, and by ACSUR-Las Segovias.

In this book, we desire to look at Cuba with great solidarity but with little habituality; that is to say, as exceptional.

In order to acheive this, we sent Martí Casanellas, a wonderful young photographer, to one of our projects of development in the Valle de Santa Rosa. Martí is twenty-four years old. Che died seven years before Martí was even born.

Cuba´s solidarity comes from life more than memory. Martí has not brought heroic looks, but has brought eyes that look deep into our own. The result is a rural Cuba, heroically fighting for life. This is what he means by "Green." Everybody knows what "Cuba" means, therefore, "Green Cuba."

In 1995, a PROJECT FOR SELF-SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT AND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, was initiated. This is the living reference of this book.

The project will last until the year 2000 and is financed by the European Union; the governments of France and Spain; insitutions of decentralized Spanish cooperation; Asturias, the municipalities of Alcorcón, Oleiros, San Martín del Rey Aurelio, Murcia, Sagunto, Lorca, Molina de Segura; the Asturian syndicate SUATEA and NGOs KATE (Germany), Oxfam (Belgium), Terre des Hommes (France), and ACSUR-Las Segovias, which is responsible for the coordination.

The Cuban counterpart is the National Association of Small Farmers (Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños [ANAP]), that is persistent in reactivating a self-sustainable rural development in Cuba, that attends to the basic needs of the population, respecting nature and not relying on exterior dependence.

The project directly will benefit some 4,000 people, Those people selected the objectives and have an important role in the entire work process. The work objectives are:

To duplicate the areas of cultivation, improving the quality of seeds, the extension of irrigation, and the diversification of cultivation.

To construct a plant for preserves and the making of sweets.

To increase the cattle and pork production for self-provisioning of meat and milk. To make best use of the harvest to help families. To improve the quality and extension of pastures. To elaborate shoes using the skins of sacrificed animals.

To construct a plant of bio-fuel that will make best use of cow manure.

To improve the correspondences in provisioning of water and electricity.

Workshops of enabling accomodations of different activities.

If, as we hope, the project maintains its current rythm, in the year 2000 there will be a substantial improvement of the living conditions of the people of Valle de Santa Rosa and will be able to be managed by their own community. The cooperation will serve in favor of human development, without creating dependence on outside sources. That is what we, at ACSUR-Las Segovias, intend to do in our work.

To order "Green Cuba", click here: Order Form. (En español)