Cuba accuses Spain of `veiled attack` through Delhi art show

New Delhi: A month-long exhibition of paintings by eminent Cuban novelist, dramatist and artist Severo Sarduy brought to the capital by the Spanish embassy Saturday has ruffled the Cuban government, which alleges that the exhibition is "launching a veiled attack on Cuba through its catalogue". Cuban Ambassador to India Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos protested the "contents in the catalogue which touched upon of the humiliation writer-painter Sarduy suffered under the totalitarian regime in Cuba". "I am very unhappy with a section of the content in the catalogue with references to the humiliation that Sarduy suffered under the totalitarian regime in Cuba. It is a veiled attack on Cuba," Ramos said at a press conference at the Instituto Cervantes where the exhibition "El Oriente de Severo Sarduy" was inaugurated. "The catalogue says Sarduy suffered humiliation at the hands of the totalitarian Cuban government...which is why he spent most of his life outside Cuba," Ramos translated the catalogue as saying. Sarduy, who was born in Camaguey in Cuba in 1937, spent half of his early life in Cuba, several decades in Paris and travelled extensively in India, Bhutan, Nepal and China, where he was deeply influenced by Taoism and Buddhism. Sarduy was known for his pre-occupation with African and Chinese presence in Cuba. He died in 1993. The Cuban ambassador`s remarks were directed at noted Venezuelan writer and editor of almost all of Sarduy`s collected works, Gustavo Guerrero, who co-curated the show along with Latin American literature expert Catalina Quesada from Paris and S.P. Ganguly from the Centre of Spanish Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The exhibition comprises rare photographs by Sarduy, who was inspired by the sights and sounds of Varanasi, Indian textiles and Mahayana Buddhism practised in the Himalayas in his art works. "Mr. Ambassador, the time for such games is over. The text for the catalogue was written by a Mexican professor and we cannot censor the text," Gustavo Guerrero told the Cuban envoy. Sarduy was inspired to visit India after a meeting with Mexican writer Octavio Paz in 1968, who served in India as an ambassador. The Cuban origin artist-writer was so much in love with Indian culture that at a point in time he contemplated making India his home. IANS