Images: Santiago Romero Chang
Fidel Castro- Self-defense plea in his trial for the attack on the Moncada Garrison, October 16th, 1953:
«Convict me, it doesn’t matter, history will absolve me.»
Words pronounced in Cespedes Park, Santiago de Cuba, January 1, 1959:
«The Revolution begins now, the Revolution will not be an easy task, the Revolution will be a hard enterprise full of dangers.»
Words pronounced upon his arrival in Havana, in Ciudad Libertad, January 8th, 1959:
«I believe that this is a decisive moment in our history: tyranny has been overthrown. The joy is immense. And yet, there is still much to be done. Let us not delude ourselves into believing that from now on everything will be easy; perhaps from now on everything will be more difficult.»
Words pronounced during the funeral honors for the victims of the explosion of the Belgian ship La Coubre, March 5th, 1960:
«Only now freedom means something else still: freedom means homeland. And our dilemma would be Country or Death – Country or Death!»
Remarks delivered before the United Nations, September 1960:
«Cease the philosophy of dispossession and the philosophy of war will cease.»
Words pronounced during the funeral honors for the victims of the pre-invasion bombing of Playa Larga and the Bay of Pigs and the proclamation of the socialist character of the Revolution, April 16th, 1961:
«This is the socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble. And for this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, we are ready to give our lives.»
Celia, o el regazo materno de la Patria libre
Words pronounced at the solemn evening in memory of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, October 18th, 1967:
«If we want to express how we hope our revolutionary fighters, our militants, our men to be, we must say without hesitation of any kind: may they be like Che! If we want to express how we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: may they be like Che! If we want to say how we wish our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: we want them to be educated in the spirit of Che! If we want a model of man, a model of man that does not belong to this time, a model of man that belongs to FUTURE TIMES, I heartily say that that model without a single stain in his conduct, without a single stain in his attitude, without a single stain in his performance, that model is Che! If we want to express how we wish our children to be, we must say with all the heart of vehement revolutionaries: We want them to be like Che!»
Strategic Operation: the Siege of Santiago at the End of 1958
Words pronounced during the funeral honors to the victims of the Cubana airline plane sabotage in Barbados, October 15th, 1976:
«We cannot say that the pain is shared. Pain is multiplied. Millions of Cubans weep today together with the loved ones of the victims of the abominable crime. And when an energetic and virile people weeps, injustice trembles!»
It was a Resounding Victory of our Guerrilla Forces
Remarks delivered at the Opening Session of the 6th Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, September 3, 1979:
«In international relations we practice our solidarity with deeds, not with fine words.»
Last operations of the Rebel Army
Words spoken during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, June 12, 1992:
«An important biological species is at risk of disappearing because of the rapid and progressive liquidation of its natural conditions of life: man. (…) Pay the ecological debt and not the external debt. Let hunger disappear and not man. (…) Let selfishness cease, let hegemony cease, let insensitivity, irresponsibility and deceit cease. Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we should have done long ago.»
Words pronounced in the Aula Magna of the Central University of Venezuela, during the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, February 3rd, 1999:
«A revolution can only be the offspring of culture and ideas.»
Message to the People of Cuba, February 18th, 2008:
«I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas. I will continue writing under the title ‘Reflections of comrade Fidel’. It will be one more weapon in the arsenal that can be counted on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I will be careful.»
Speech delivered at the closing of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Havana, April 19th, 2016:
«Soon I must be 90 years old, such an idea would never have occurred to me and it was never the fruit of an effort; it was the whim of chance. Soon I will be like everyone else. Our turn will come to all of us, but the ideas of Cuban communists will remain.»
On May 1, 2000 at the José Marti Revolution Square, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro exposed the Concept of Revolution. From that moment on, this definition became the compass of the Cuban revolution.
«Revolution is a sense of the historical moment; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and freedom; it is being treated and treating others as human beings; it is emancipating ourselves by ourselves and with our own efforts; it is challenging powerful dominant forces within and outside the social and national sphere; is to defend values in which we believe at the price of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is to fight with audacity, intelligence and realism; it is to never lie or violate ethical principles; it is a deep conviction that there is no force in the world capable of crushing the force of truth and ideas. Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.»
