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CLARIN

Fidel’s Unfinished Dream — Massive Art School Is Metaphor For Cuba

Almost there
Almost there
Miguel Jurado

-Analysis-

One of Cuban leader Fidel Castro"s most visionary, and least affordable, projects was the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte or the National Art Schools.

The complex was built on a confiscated golf course that proudly displayed to the world the struggle and passion of Cuba's revolutionary artists. The project, still half-finished 60 years after it was first begun, trained some of the country's most brilliant and promising students. The school, which has detached, hut-like structures made of warm-colored brick, held the spirit of the early days of the Cuban revolution.

In 1961, Castro and his then close associate, Ernesto Che Guevara, commissioned three architects — two Italians and a Cuban — to build the school at the site of a former golf club in Havana. Dancers, musicians and painters began to move into the school even as it was still being built.

The revolution's changing fortunes impeded the school's completion; the government had to move funds to address the country's more pressing needs like housing. Facing a shortage of steel and concrete, architects Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi turned to an "organic" alternative — bricks.

Long and winding road — Photo: TomL1959

The team used this material to build Catalan and tile vaults in the Mediterranean style. The architectural form of the school was free and unusual, which struck a sharp contrast to the dominant modernism of the 1960s, which was a fusion of modernity, colonial tradition and elements of black culture.

Each architect designed a part of the school independently and sought to blend his side with the landscape. Roofed corridors linked the various pavilions.

But beauty came at a cost that the state could not afford. Critics protested that the school was a waste of public money in a socialist economy and that the architecture was too "sensual" and "bourgeois." The project was halted in 1965. Porro went to Paris, Garatti returned to Milan. Gottardi remained in Cuba.

The three were once again invited in 1999 to finish the project. Construction resumed but progress remained slow. For now, it's a beautiful, long overdue work-in-progress.

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Geopolitics

Iran-Israel: Why It's Not Over Yet

Israel's recent strike on central Iran was a warning shot for Tehran, tempered by a desire to close the recent spate of tit-for-tat attacks and by pressure from the U.S. Yet this may have only ended round one of the Iran-Israeli showdown.

An Iranian veiled woman carries a placard written ''DOWN WITH ISRAEL'' during an anti-Israel rally in Tehran.

An Iranian veiled woman carries a placard written ''DOWN WITH ISRAEL'' during an anti-Israel rally in Tehran, April 19 2024.

Rouzbeh Fouladi/ZUMA
Hamed Mohammadi

-Analysis-

Only Iranian officials know exactly the extent of damage caused by the Israeli airstrike near the central Iranian city of Isfahan on April 19. Yet the strike — in response to Iran's drone and missile attacks on April 14 — seems to have done very little damage, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling it "lame" on X, formerly Twitter. Any reports on the impact have broadly been based on speculations or estimates using satellite pictures or informal sources.

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The Israeli strike was so controlled that Iran's army chief could claim it was the work of mini-drones or micro-projectiles that had failed to cause any damage. But experience has shown that Tehran's initial reaction to such incidents is always to downplay their seriousness.

If the strike had been destructive, regime propaganda would have minimized its scope and significance — although, in that case, the damage and the regime's own rattled nerves would be harder to conceal.

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