The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, recalled in Havana the intense and historical cultural ties between her nation and Cuba, and how the island's artistic manifestations reached that people in the hard years of military dictatorship.

Michelle Bachelet Jeria held a pleasant exchange behind closed doors with a group of intellectuals and artists on Sunday afternoon at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), where she was received by the president of the organization, the poet, narrator, essayist and ethnologist, Miguel Barnet.

According to her Twitter account, Pedro Pablo Prada, director of South America of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, she recalled the years in which Cuban art reached that nation in the tragic years of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship.

In exclusive statements to the Cuban News Agency, Miguel Barnet said it was an extraordinary meeting where the President demonstrated her affinity with Cubans and being a connoisseur of the culture of the Caribbean island.

He stressed that she founded the institution that governs as Ministry of Culture in the South American country and knows that Cuba defends the arts, its diversity and safeguards the heritage and historical memory that lies precisely in Culture.

The intellectuals and artists who participated are very satisfied with the dialogue with Michelle Bachelet, who listened to the different opinions on the issues of interest to the president, said the President of Uneac.

It transpired that the outstanding actor Jorge Perugorría exposed to the President the transforming experience of the film festival of Gibara in the life and development of that town and his experiences in Tierra del Fuego, a film where he was directed by the Chilean Miguel Littín.


The well-known names of Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Violeta Parra, Roberto Matta, Littín and their imprint in Cuba were evoked by Cuban intellectuals.

Maestro Guido López Gavilán also recalled important musicians from that land that influenced his education, while Bachelet thanked the Cuban composers and singer-songwriters who have marked the love and political life of their compatriots.

In the Villena hall of the Uneac the amusing dialogue took place in which the young composer Aldo López Gavilán interpreted a theme of his authorship to the satisfaction and delight of the President.

With Nicolás Guillen's songs dedicated to Chile, the meeting of Michelle Bachelet with artists and intellectuals from the island concluded, on the first day of her stay in Cuba, which will continue tomorrow with a visit to the Salvador Allende pedagogical school and other State activities.