Havana - Intelligentsia in Cuba is celebrating today the 55th anniversary of the National Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) founded by a group of important figures.

Artists such as Jose Baragaño, Lisandro Otero, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Jose Lezama Lima, Argeliers Leon, Juan Blanco, Pablo Armando Fernandez, Alejo Carpentier, Harold Gramatges, Fayad Jamis and Luis Martinez Pedro, gave life to this institution.

Its first president, since the founding for 25 years, was Nicolas Guillen, one of the most prominent poets of the Cuban 20th century. He said in 1975 that the entity represented 'the most intimate, the most faithful, and the most honorable way to serve for always to our culture.'

According to the words by playwright Omar Valine, the UNEAC has an institutional structure throughout the country with spaces and structure that promotes creation.

The association has developed a comprehensive plan of events in different cultural expressions, in galleries, cinemas, contests, publishing houses and magazines, and community projects in Cuba.

The UNEAC seeks in its constitutive document to encourage, protect and defend the intellectual and artistic creation; recognize the full freedom of creation; promote study, critical assessment and dissemination, not only national but also international, of the representative works of the Cuban culture.

The organization is currently composed of the Associations of Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Writers, and Musicians. It also brings together directors of cinema, radio and television.