TWhen Alejo Carpentier, the most important Cuban novelist and perhaps the contemporary Cuban writers known abroad, was asked about the origin of Cuba's inhabitants, he answered: "We all came in boats".

The conquerors came from Spain in boats, and within a short time wiped out the island's natives with harquebus, disease and hard labor on the riverbanks searching for a gold that was never found. Then thousands and thousands of slaves were brought in the hull of the slaves boats from the coasts of Africa's Gulf of Guinea, Old Calabar and the jungle of Mayombe to replace the native labor force and they contributed, under the snaps of the whips, to the development of a sugar plantation economy. By mid 19th century, the Chinese coolies arrived also by boat and, some time before French colonial settlers, crossing the Windward Pass, had landed in the eastern part of Cuba, fleeing from Toussaint L´Ouverture´s revolutionary Haiti.

Later, peasants from the Canary Islands also came over by boat, willing to harvest fragrant tobacco and tropical fruits, and so did Arabs and Jews who opened their stores in urban areas, enterprising Spaniards who married the local population, giving way to crossbreeding, and also Indians from Yucatan, teachers and soldiers from the recently liberated lands in Latin America, and even Japanese, Americans and Swedes, who settled in small agricultural communities.

From this diversity, however, unity emerged as a concept of nation and nationality, defined throughout time and definitely merged in the melting pot of liberation struggles. Mixed bloods and common hopes created a sole basis, a unique sensitivity, in other words, our own culture. One of our most eminent scholars, Don Fernando Ortiz, studied this process and labelled it transculturation.

If we were to define the essence of Cuban culture, we would have to asses two main elements: its integrating orientation and its universal call. One cannot exist without the other.

The most universal of all Cubans was our poet José Martí, with his exalted personal and social sensitivity. He led a pilgrim's life-Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica and Costa Rica-devoted to the liberation struggles of his homeland. He also led a very fruitful literary life. Critics of all trends include his prose and poetry among the best in Spanish and he is known as a forerunner of Spanish American Modernism, of which the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío was the best representative. All topics, all human endeavours are found in his texts, under the watchful eye of ethics, committed to the betterment of mankind, to the development of tenderness. They are a lesson in universality and Cuban spirit, and in knowing how to exalt and distinguish the domestic from the foreign, by assimilating the best essences of both.

This idea was also embodied in the works of Alejo Carpentier, who like no other among us found the exact words to describe Havana, the City of Columns, with its unique Baroque style, but who-with typically islander´s ironical approach-attracted European readers with The Harp and the Shadow, a story providing a different approach to Christopher Columbus, and Baroque Concert, recreating the ordeals of a Spanish American and his black slave during the Venice Carnival or The Century of Lights, revealing the Enlightment trends in the Caribbean. It is very fortunate that Cuban culture has taken this blend legitimately, making it transcends the frontiers between high brow and low brow in fine arts and the community folkloric expressions. When speaking of the son, a music genre with Spanish and African roots, that emerged in Cuba and includes what today is known as salsa, we are speaking to the famous traditional septet Habanero, the Ignacio Piñeiro septet, or the Old Santiago Trove or to the orchestras such as Aragón and Jorrín, Arcaño y sus Maravillas, or band such as Casino, Sonora Matancera, Arsenio Rodríguez or those that today fill the nights with their songs; also the poetry of Nicolás Guillén, who blended street language with the most rigorous Spanish metric, the symphonies and chamber music of Alejandro García Caturla and Amadeo Roldán, vanguard musicians just like Igor Stravinsky or Edgar Varese were.

In the field of Fine Arts we go from Wilfredo Lam, attracted by surrealism, a friend of Picasso´s and conciliator of European, African and Asian elements in his painting La Jungla(The Jungle), which is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Arts in New York, to Raúl Martínez, a painter who has incorporated pop to reflect the heroes of today´s Cuba, the sensuality of Victor Manuel, the City of Havana Collection, the Floras and the carnival of René Portocarrero, Mariano Rodríguez´s cocks and Amelia Pelaez´s stained glass, Carlos Enriques´s riders, Fidelio Ponce´s Habaneras and Servando Cabrera Moreno´s militiamen.

Alicia Alonso, prime ballerina assoluta, brought to dancing the best of word ballet to incorporate it into our universe of emotions and gestures, in what is today acknowledge as the Cuban School of Ballet. Modern and folkloric dance have also shown achievements and originality and feature many outstanding artists.

José Lezama Lima-worldwide famous by his novel Paradiso-, added the mysteries of Góngora to the secrets of a Havana of houses to escape the tropical heat of its streets. Outstanding men of letters and literary critics such as Juan Marinello and José Antonio Portuondo are also present in any portrait of Cuba's intellectuals.

The poetry of Nicolás Guillén stands out for the lyric, the majesty it endows in folklore and social struggles, which many times becomes epic. And that of Navarro Luna, also a committed poet. And Dulce María Loynaz, a master poetess winner of the Cervantes Award for Ibero-American Literature. Cubans appears in the hope, love and work of Roberto Fernández Retamar, Pablo Armando Fernábdez, Miguel Barnet, Francisco de Oraá, Eliseo Diego, Cintio Vitier an Fina García Marruz.