Progressives and supporters of the Cuban and Latin American revolutions all over the world were shocked to hear of the death in a car accident of Celia Hart Santamaria and her brother, Abel Hart Santamaria, in Havana on September 7. It is believed that conditions resulting from Hurricane Gustav may have been a cause of the accident.
A physician and writer, Celia Hart built an impressive amount of respect and support from international supporters of the Cuban Revolution, with her impassioned writings and speeches on Cuba, Latin America and the global struggle against capitalist barbarism.
In recent years, many of her articles have been translated into English by the editor of the CubaNews e-group, Walter Lippmann.
Hart was born in 1963 to two legendary Cuban revolutionaries, Armando Hart and Haydee Santamaria, both key figures in the struggle before and after the victory of the revolution in 1959. Santamaria, who passed away in 1980, was a strong opponent of bureaucratisation within the Cuban Revolution, while Armando Hart has written in opposition to Stalinism — positions Celia Hart became strongly identified with.
In the 1980s, Hart studied in the former German Democratic Republic, and became disillusioned with the stifling bureaucratic version of socialism that existed there. Expressing her disillusionment to her father, he gave her a number of books by Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky that provided a material analysis for the degeneration of Soviet Union into a bureaucratic dictatorship — a fate avoided by Cuba.
In a September 8 Rebelion memorial, Nestor Kohan wrote of Hart's death: "It's an enormous loss … Everyone presented her as 'the daughter of' … But Celia was much more … She had, has and will always have her own light and brilliance."
Kohan desribed her as the "living antithesis of the impersonal 'machine' that transforms the politics of revolutionaries into something soulless, cold, administrative, bureaucratic".
"Filled with affection, tenderness, humanity, we could talk about any Latin American issue, of Chavez, of Cuba's future, of the Miami gusanos or whatever, and in the middle, always, invariably, she'd crack a joke …"
Hart "wrote irreverently, breaking the molds and the rules of the road, breathing life into the fossilized, musty, boxed up discourse of the traditional left. She was a whirlwind of ideas. She spoke incredibly fast, sometimes so fast it was difficult to follow. She generated tremendous enthusiasm with young people."
Kohan argued that "Celia played an enormous role in the battle of ideas of recent times, within and outside of Cuba. In my humble opinion, Celia Hart's word was very useful … It served — to 'open heads'."
Hart was an outspoken supporter of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, tirelessly stressing the significance of, and need for solidarity with, the Venezuelan people's struggle for "socialism of the 21st century".
Ironically, her final published article was on the affect of the Hurricane Gustav on Cuba. The article can be read at
In it she wrote that "hurricanes are now growing in size and number as a result of human disdain toward nature's balance. We are condemned by the insatiable greed of the wealthy of the world.
"In one of his latest reflections, Fidel Castro said: 'We are lucky to have a Revolution' and with good reason. Right now I wish that even the New Orleanians would have one, so that they can be spared what they went through three years ago.
"More than 70 people were killed by Gustav in Hispaniola and Jamaica alone when it was still a tropical storm. Not one dead in Cuba, if only because even storms are fought by a Revolution. And it's precisely with a massive and well-timbered revolution that we'll build the bridges, towers and houses destroyed by the rich people's heartlessness."
Hart was an uncompromising supporter of the Cuban Revolution, while expressing the need and willingness to criticise its shortcomings. She chose to leave the Cuban Communist Party in 2006, although there is no evidence this decision represented any hostility towards it.
As the Cuban Revolution enters a new period of debate over how to confront its many challenges, such critical support is more needed than ever. For this reason alone, Hart's death is extremely untimely, as well as a great loss to the global struggle for a better world.