Fidel, the Hero of ideas

It is so because until the last second of his existence he remained consistent with the ideas that inspired his thinking and actions.

Some press sources unaware of a full and total Fidel; of a Fidel that transcends himself, they do not go further than projecting him as the guerrilla who dedicated his youthful energies to the overthrow of an abhorrent tyranny implanted in Cuba from March of 1952.

In my opinion they lack long vision, since the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution is not limited to that simple coordinate. While it is true that what some say, Fidel Castro is much more than the brave guerrilla; that the young man was discontent with that reality and who, at the risk of his own life, fought in the front line to free his country from the tyrant in power.

Fidel is, in the first place, the summary of a national historical consciousness: he is a synthesis of a national-liberating thought crystallized from 1868, continued in the war of 1895 and suffered another frustration in the 1930s when that anti- Machadista and anti-imperialist was frustrated once again by foreign interference and the servile approval of seven-monthers placed under the imperial orders.

Fidel is also a man who synthesized the bitter experiences of the civic struggles of Chibas, realizing that the electoral path under the canons of bourgeois democracy would not be enough to bring the national reality into order, beginning with the reach for full sovereignty, its consolidation and the beginning of a project of wide popular scope.

With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, under the inspiration of Fidel we began to build a new reality by living it in the day to day of the revolutionary task. Reasons abounded when he stated on January 8 of that year that everything would be more difficult from then on. After the euphoric joy of the triumph, began a national order without equal in our history.

From the triumph the humanist thought of Fidel began to manifest itself fully. There were tasks such as Agrarian Reform, Urban Reform, Literacy Campaign, Battle for the Sixth Grade, as well as a comprehensive education project for all people, including the right to free university education. With Fidel at the head of our homeland, health services for all Cubans were universalized: both therapeutic and preventive health care.

As never before, every citizen of working age was able to count on a decent and safe job, without fear of dismissal. Women began to receive equal pay as men for equal work, as well as all rights to enjoy a decent maternity; rights that from the womb the babies begin to enjoy.

Sport, since then, has been and is the right of the people. Even the most humble have access to it and all the possibilities to develop fully, both for their physical health and to represent the country in cases of maximum performance. As never in our history the reading of great literary works and the possibility of writing and creating art in any manifestation has reached the farthest end of this territory. Cuba is the only country where a book – unattainable for many in other places – is an item that can be accessed at low prices, and free of charge when enjoying our network of public libraries.

Fidel, yes, was the revolutionary strategist. He was the first in our war of liberation, and was the first to think of a Cuba with room for all its children, without exclusive criteria and endowed with possibilities for the development of each and every one, even though the country has had to devote much of its resources to national defence, precisely to safeguard its social achievements.

Now it is up to us to study Fidel’s thinking: remember and bear in mind his combativeness and courage in each campaign; also his thinking and the inspiring ideology that he put into practice consistently at all times. It is up to us all, from our work, student or social reality, simple and humble that seems to make it present and current. To imagine how he would act in each particular situation that is presented to us; something that makes it necessary, above all, to study him, to know him more and more in the whole revolutionary, personal and humanistic dimension that continues to characterize him.

Translated by ESTI