'El color de nuestro futuro': Assessing the Significance of the Encuentros of 2007

The cultural and political importance of the series of cultural debates that took place in Cuba in early 2007, known as the Encuentros, attracted significant attention both on and off the island, either as continuing proof of the repression of free cultural expression over nearly fifty years, and a further opportunity to reassess the relationship between political and cultural fields in an ever-changing Cuba. By tracing the principal positions established in the electronic interventions (the 'guerrita de los emaiLs') from within and outside Cuba and playing these against the face-to-face interventions of the Encuentros. this article examines the contributions of Cuban intellectuals to the 2007 debate as not only are-articulation of the commitment of the Cuban intellectual community over nearly fifty years of Revolution, but. crucially, as an important marker of the centrality of cultural Life to contemporary Cuba.