HAVANA, Cuba, Sept 20 (acn) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez participated on Sunday in an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the meeting between the leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro and US black civil rights activist Malcom X at the Theresa Hotel in New York.
Rodriguez arrived in New York to participate in various summits called by the United Nations and in the discussions of the 65th ordinary period of sessions of the UN General Assembly, Prensa Latina news agency reports.
The commemoration took place in a facility only a few meters from the building in which the Theresa Hotel was located in 1960.
Foreign Minister Rodriguez addressed a very attentive and appreciative audience, speaking about the solidarity between Cuba and African-Americans all these decades.
“Fifty years after Malcolm X met with Fidel Castro in New York in the midst of the Cold War, the Cuban people still rely on the support of African-Americans,” Cuba’s FM said.
Rodriguez said the Cuban delegation to the United Nations in 1960 received support from Malcolm X and other black leaders and forged a lasting bond between “Cuban revolutionaries and the African-American progressive people.”
The diplomat added that while the Cold War is long over, the threat of nuclear war still looms if Iran is attacked over its nuclear program.
“Today, the same firm voice of our historical leader is in front of an international call for peace, and cautioning about the risk that a military attack against Iran would have for the world, putting it on the brink of a nuclear war,” Rodriguez said to a cheering crowd.
The celebration included a panel comprised of Rosemari Mealy, author of the book `Fidel and Malcom X: Memories of a Meeting’; and William Sales, a professor of African Studies at the Seton Hall University.
Other speakers included Jane Franklin, author of the book `Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History’; veteran trade union militant Ashaki Binta; and Evelyn Erickson and Narciso Ortiz, two young Americans who graduated from Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine.
The Cuban supporters asked for help freeing five Cuban antiterrorists imprisoned in the United States since 1998 and they also remembered the legacy of the Rev. Lucius Walker, who died on September 7. He was the executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizations (IFCO)-Pastors for Peace, an organization he led since its founding in 1967, and who directed a program to send Americans to study medicine in Cuba.
http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2010/0920cuban-fm-participates-event-commemorate-fidel-malcom-x-new-york.htm
