The writers traveled to Cuba to participate in and cover the celebration of Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
A spectacular military parade in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, the first in 20 years, took place this past Dec. 2. The
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Dec. 2, 1956 marks the FAR’s founding because it is the day that the small yacht Granma landed on the southeast shores of Cuba with a group of 82 men led by Fidel Castro to resume the armed struggle that would lead to dictator Fulgencio Batista’s downfall on Jan. 1, 1959.
Castro’s 80th birthday was this past Aug. 13, but the celebration was postponed to Dec. 2 because of the major surgery he underwent in late July. Although he has always discouraged any official marking of his anniversary, he relented to the urging of the Guayasamín Foundation that it host a weeklong series of events to honor his life and the Cuban revolution. The Ecuadoran painter Oswaldo Guayasamín, one of Latin America’s most revered artists, was a great admirer of Fidel Castro. Guayasamín painted several portraits of him. Guayasamín died in 2001.
“Memory and Future: Cuba and Fidel” was the headlining event, a two-day colloquium at Havana’s Convention Center featuring international and Cuban leaders. More than 1,600 people from 80 countries attended the activities.
There was a featured exposition of Guayasamín’s paintings at the Bellas Artes museum, a concert of Cuban and Latin American musicians with thousands of attendees, the colloquium, and a gala cultural performance for 5,000 international and Cuban guests at the Karl Marx theatre. The closing ceremony featured Bolivia’s president Evo Morales, Haiti’s president René Preval, Cuban first vice-president Carlos Lage and Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. Acting Cuban president and minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Raúl Castro also attended
Even though he is still recuperating and could not attend the week’s celebrations, Fidel Castro was present in every aspect of the celebration: in the honoring of his revolutionary deeds, in Cuba’s internationalism towards the struggling peoples of the world, and in the determination and courage to fight for a better world on display.
‘Faith in the Revolution, confidence in Fidel’
At the colloquium’s closing ceremony, Carlos Lage spoke to the thousands present in the Karl Marx theatre about Fidel and the Revolution. “
“The Cuban revolution lived the most difficult moments of its history in the past decade when the shortages of electricity, food and medicine brought our lives to levels of subsistence. Whatever shortages we faced, we faced together. That is why, among many other reasons, we were able to resist.
“We are far from completely overcoming those shortages, we are well aware of the austere life of our compatriots, the
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“Fidel has forged this together with our people; it is not by chance nor a miracle. It is the fruit of the stoicism of the Cubans; it is that which we never lacked in the most critical moments: faith in the Revolution and confidence in Fidel.
“I believe that socialism in Cuba is irreversible not by definition, but because with our efforts yesterday and today we are making it irreversible: because we struggle for a just and humane society that before was only a dream, before Fidel dared to make it a reality.
“When Fidel is not here his work will remain, his ideas, his example. We know that commitment is the best birthday present that we who admire and love him can give him.
“In Cuba there will not be succession, there will be continuity. Another Fidel is not possible. Nobody will be able to imitate him, many will follow him. There will not be division among revolutionary Cubans. We already had that in our struggles for independence and we learned our lesson. There will not be ambitions, individualism, vanity, we will not permit it, we have a Party.
“But I am not talking about today, I speak about the future. Fidel is recuperating; we will have him with us. He will continue to lead us, we ask that of him for more years to come.”
Lage’s words reflected many of the sentiments expressed not only by invited guests and Cuban leaders but by many people whom we met in their daily lives—cab drivers, waiters, office workers, students, the average person in the street. They expressed a great admiration and love for Fidel, saddened that he has suffered a major medical situation, hopeful for his recovery and confident in Cuba’s future.
Early Saturday, Dec. 2, excitement filled the air at Plaza de la Revolución in anticipation of the military parade and march of the Cuban people. Since the residents of only four municipalities of Havana were officially called on for the event, to represent all the Cuban population and assure enough time for the troops and military hardware parade, it was estimated by Cuban organizers that 300,000 Cubans would march at the conclusion of the military display. Carrying an immense banner that said, “Imperialism will never be able to defeat Cuba,” the march signified that Cuba’s greatest weapon lies in its 11 million citizens.
Huge displays of Marx, Engels, Lenin, as well as Cuban revolutionaries lined the route across from the José Martí monument. The parade and march were another demonstration of the strength and determination of the Cuban people to deepen Cuba’s socialist revolution.
Click here to read Raúl Castro’s speech at the Dec. 2 military parade.
