Because the young people were, overwhelmingly, the Patriots who decided to take up arms in the unforgiving swamp, for the independence of Cuba from the Spanish colonial yoke; the brave compatriots who raised the flags of anti-imperialism against the pro-Yankee governments during the pseudo-republic.
During that time the young Ruben Martinez Villena, one of the most prominent figures of the participants of the Thirteen Protest (March 1923) against the prevailing corruption in the current government, and which began in the political work. Next to him were Juan Marinello and José Zachariah Tellet, among others.
That same year Ruben got to know Pablo de la Torriente Brau (April) and Julio Antonio Mella (November) with the latter he was closely involved in the José Martí Popular University and the founding of the Anti-Imperialist League of Cuba.
Antonio Guiteras Holmes was one of the most important figures of the thirties revolution. His liberating and anti-imperialist national ideology of declared Socialist projections are implicitly stated in the documents he wrote, and especially in its brief but intense life of a revolutionary fighter.
He founded La Joven Cuba to fight the ruling regime through armed struggle. When posting the program of the organization, Guiteras said his aim, once he seized power, was structuring the Cuban State in accordance with the principles of socialism.
Comandante Che Guevara described Guiteras as “the purest anti-imperialist fighter”. Decision and hopes were present in the group of young Cubans, led by Fidel Castro, who decided on the assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Cuartel in Bayamo, on July 26, 1953, the centenary of the birth of the Apostle Jose Martí.
The assault was the Cuban people’s response to the situation created by Fulgencio Batista with the coup on March 10, 1952 and finding a way through a revolution that would eradicate the economic and social ills, the product of US control.
Those young avant-garde, (135) among whom were Abel Santamaria, Raul Castro, Raul Gomez Garcia revived their patriotic and anti-imperialist teachings, to start with the assault on the Moncada, the new emancipation of the Cuban people.
Despite the display of courage and dignity of the assailants, less in number and strength, they could not take the fortresses, and the soldiers of Fulgencio Batista, even fearful, they massacred them at the end of the battle. The survivors were arrested and later tried and sentenced to prison by the Batista tyranny. In his historic defense “History Will Absolve Me” Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz said:
“It seemed that the Apostle would die in the year of his centennial, his memory would be extinguished forever, such was the shame … But he is alive, his people are rebellious, his people are worthy …there are young people in with great belief who came to die beside his tomb, to give their blood and their lives for him to continue living in the soul of the country “.
Because young people were also the intrepid explorers who landed on the Granma; those who fought in the ranks of embattled rebel army, followed by their contemporaries that they fought underground, until the triumph of the first of January 1959.
Those who wore the uniform of the nascent National Revolutionary Militias and that fell heroically in Girón; fighters who annihilated the bands of counter revolutionaries in the Escambray and other areas of the country; who formed the noble army of over one hundred thousand in the literacy campaign that also brought young blood to the list of martyrs of the homeland.
Young were those who mobilized on the warpath and braved the nuclear danger during the October Crisis; the more than three hundred thousand internationalist combatants who, voluntarily, far from their homeland and their loved ones, wrote glorious pages, crowned the victory and made reality the altruistic example of Che.
Followers of the best traditions have strongly supported these difficult years, of deprivation and survival of the Revolution against the voracity and unsuccessful attempts of theEmpire to destroy the Revolution by all possible means; those who work and excel in all spheres: economic, political, social and defence, participating in all the fighting for the construction of a new society in Cuba and other parts of the world, along with the generations that have preceded and guided far.
Young people have learned that they are a prioritized enemy target that persists and they will not give up on trying to inculcate imperialist patterns of behaviour, culture and ideology by the media and more subtle forms, and are aware that the adversary always tries to confront the generations of Cubans, promote discouragement in the future and distrust of the leadership of the Revolution, and insecurity in the destiny of the Cuban Nation.
Although President Barack Obama has said that his government has no intention of subverting the internal order in Cuba, the US government budget has allocated around 30 million dollars to finance subversive projects against our nation through the Agency for International Development, USAID and NED, with the aim of influencing negatively on Cuban youth, create situations of destabilization to cause changes in Cuba‘s political system.
We recall the Cuban Twitter project, known as ZunZuneo, the Piramideo, the recent conference on Internet use in Cuba, funded with American taxpayers money through the Office of Broadcasting to Cuba (OCB,), which manages Radio and TV Marti, which brought together “independent” journalists of the island with digital innovators and activists who aspire to regime change in the Caribbean nation by using new technologies.
In recent days there has been much talk of the World Learning Scholarships, especially the denunciation by the Cuban student organizations of a program that is repeated for a second consecutive summer and is presented in a subtle and underhanded way directed towards the Cuban youth but they hide their true nature to forge agents of change on the island.
What a hornet’s nest, the youth, star of its time, also raised its voice against the US blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 54 years, against the interventionist nature of President Barack Obama’s directive last October 14.
The new generation of Cubans is aware of the tasks and challenges of today and the effort it must undertake to be better, more educated, more disciplined, secure in the conduct to follow in these times. A generation that will not fail to protect the gains achieved.
Because the Revolution, as Raul said, “is the work of the sacrifice of Cuban youth …; from all young people in all ages who have to live and fight …
This Revolution will lead the young forward full of optimism and the unshakable faith in victory Fidel has also always expressed his confidence in young people, almost half a century ago, in the founding act of the UJC he said: “Believing in young people is to see in them (…) as well as youth, purity, heroism, character, willpower, love of country, faith in the Homeland love of the Revolution, faith in the Revolution, self-confidence, deep conviction that the youth can, that the youth is able, profound conviction that on the shoulders of youth can be deposited large tasks!. “
Believing in youth and to become deserving of that trust also means a commitment and being consistent with the wise and prophetic words of Fidel pronounced the July 26, 1998: “A tree can fall because it has loose roots, but no tree with deep roots can ever be overturned, and we have millions of citizens with deep roots and a people with very deep roots.
They know how to capture them, our educated and cultured young know how to understand them;they know how to learn from history; know how to feed on the glory of our country, its traditions, values, like children breast feeding. “Do not be confused by anything; do not be fooled by anyone. That is our hope and this country will never back off, that this revolution never recedes, all the dignity and glory we have acquired can never be destroyed.”
