The double character of family as a group and institution helps to visualize it as an important part of the civil society and it is closely related to the government and some other elements of the Cuban political system. Family is very important for the positive or negative conformation of the new generations" subjectivity (Plain 1991). However, the high level of socialization that is produced as a result of the priority given by the government to the prenatal period, public education and the formation of occupational, sport, and artistic interests makes family to cede on its level of influence upon the new generations" social reproduction.
Besides that, family, as a collective space characterized by the dialectic interaction between social and individual structure (where the ideology is present), can be a space for the reproduction of healthy and disorienting patterns of the processes of learning for life. Family may also be a place for interaction and change which is never separated from the economic, politic and social context according to the interests of development of the social project.
It means that family reproduces standards and values that correspond to the society where it is placed. However, these standards can not correspond to the purposes of the prevailing system and turn family into a rupture element. This failure expresses processes whose essence must be found in the material reality of society. However, it does not mean that it is not important to study this failure"s manifestations in family since it may be a source of tools that enhances capability of identification and solution of the contradictions which are expressed in those processes.
The family functions that emerge from its nature of social institution and the diverse roles that are derived from its social status and interact within it, depend on the needs of reproduction of the system from which these functions and roles have emerged. This makes family a unit of economic, biological, political and ideological reproduction serving these needs and implementing the processes which allow family to articulate its main purposes.
It means that family is a place for recreation and concretion of the subjects that are ideologically intended. Therefore, it will form and mould a model of man, woman, relationships, links and selection of a vital project according to this subject"s status in society.
These can be processes of segregation and dependency, or just the other way around, processes of enhancement of authenticity, conscience, coherence and intelligence of the human being toward the autonomy, activism and social leadership. This will highly depend on the existence and reproduction at family level of the patterns of parenting that have been already established which usually go far beyond the family area.
It is also very important to take into account the historical role of the Cuban family at present in order to design the adequate policies and to prevent its behavior and disposition while facing the difficult challenges of the current circumstances in Cuba.
The recognition of family and its role in the formation of youth and children have had a positive evolution during the last years in Cuba. However, the almost two decades when a different practice prevailed influenced negatively in the process of socialization leaded by family. This did not propitiate the parents´ conscience of their real functions and the social relevance of these functions.
This, of course, constitutes a limitation to the family"s social integration. The level participation of the Cuban citizen in the social life of the country is considered high, however, the spring mechanisms that impulse such activism could not come from family but mainly from some other institutes of socialization of the personality. In that way, it would be necessary to carry out some actions that would help to change this situation since family, as a primary space of genesis and transformation of the personality has a lot of potentiality to achieve the cohesion of new generations to the essential values of our revolutionary project. This aspect, and the spread of social justice promoted by this project, would make easier the social integration which is so important at present for the viability of our Revolution.
The way to materialize this contribution which is supposed to be given by the Cuban family is precisely the adequate accomplishment of family functions, especially parents" functions. That is the reason why the Cuban government and political institutions in general, pay special attention to the design and development of policies that make possible the popular conscience of the parents" role and functions to family and society.
In our society at present, there are some phenomena which have been expressed in the latest scientific researches such as social and domestic violence, criminal innovation and problems in the intergenerational communication, some new ways for the materialization of youngsters" aspirations (crime, prostitution, and black market), machismo, paternalism, indisposition to assume social responsibility and so forth. They express failures in the process of socialization of the new generations and evidence the reproduction of extremely individualist aspirations which do not correspond to the solidarity patterns of society and do not find the appropriate opposition by the family ideology. Even more, sometimes it is easy to notice that these aspirations are closely related to the family style of life and some standards that have been internalized and projected by the heads of the family. Some of those standards are considered as petit bourgeois race standards and are specifically related to the individualism that is expressed through competition, consumerism, lucre, ostentation, and moral meanness.
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