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• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
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• 07 / 22 / 2008

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Professor Katia Briceño, Coordinator of the Bolívar-Martí Office at the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela (UBV), told Prensa Latina news agency that the event’s program includes parallel activities in the Venezuelan States of Caracas, Mérida, Falcón, Zulia, Carabobo, Bolívar and Anzoátegui.

The 1st International Conference on the Validity of the Ideals of Bolívar and Martí in Building Socialism in the 21st century is organized by the UBV and the Caracas-based José Martí Casa de Nuestra América Institution.

“The event’s opening is set for July 21st,” said Briceño, and added that participating experts will include Cuban Armando Hart, Director of the José Martí National Program, Mexican Antonio Aparicio and Argentinean Liliana Giorgis.

Also on hand will be Costa Rican Miguel Alvarado and Venezuelans Sergio Briceño, Maribel Prieto and Olga Quiroz.

The event’s program will include the presentation of the first issue of the magazine Cielo de América.

Participants will debate papers on the anti-imperialist, pro-independence ideas of Bolívar and Martí by scholars from Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain, among others.

José Martí’s literary work, Latin American integration and Socialism in the 21st century are also issues to be discussed during the event.

Briceño described the meeting as a new space for in-depth analysis of the thought of the two Latin American independence heroes. The academic event will run parallel to a cultural program that includes poetry readings.

The José Martí Casa de Nuestra América Institution was created in 2000 under an agreement signed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro. The aim is to disseminate the thought and principles of José Martí and Simón Bolívar and their validity in today’s world. The institution is located in the old Caracas building that formerly housed the Santa María School, where Cuban National Hero José Martí worked as a professor in 1881.

The Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela (UBV) was created in 2003 and students are mainly young people from low-income families with very limited access to other higher education centers that have long been criticized for their discriminatory policies, facilitating only the enrollment of graduates from private schools.

(Cubarte)