Havana - President Raul Castro congratulated the members of the National Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) on occasion of the 55th anniversary of the organization, main media stress here today.

Through a message of congratulation released in Granma newspaper, with the largest distribution in the island, and cited in many other headlines, the Cuban president celebrated the work of the UNEAC and its members since its emergence in 1961.

Born in a decisive stage of the Cuban Revolution, the UNEAC has been working for more than five decades at the service of culture. The historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, described it as a 'shield and sword of the nation.'

Amid the attention and resources it then required to defend our country, we do not neglect the strategic tasks of education and culture, while stressing the notorious events of the Cuban revolutionary process at that time such as the Literacy Campaign, which he defined as 'the most important cultural event in our history,' Raul Castro recalled.

Raul Castro said that 1961 was also the year that, after the victory over the mercenaries prepared by the United States that invaded the island in Bay of Pigs, in the western province of Matanzas, Fidel (Castro) spoke with the writers and artists and gave the speech known as 'Words to the intellectuals.'

Then, the UNEAC emerged, headed by great poet Nicolas Guillen, considered the National Poet of Cuba, he said.

From him, Raul Castro stressed that he convened with unitary spirit to the artistic avant-garde and joined to the construction of Marti 'trenches of ideas,' alluding to a saying by the Cuban National Hero, Jose Marti.

At the end of his message, the Cuban president said the country is 'doubly threatened in terms of culture' and placed threats in subversive projects that seek to divide the people and its artistic avant-garde, and in the 'global wave of colonization.'