The year 1953 marked a century since the birth of José Martí, the most extraordinary revolutionary and political strategist of the second half of the 19th century in Latin America and the Caribbean, who, together with the heroic fighters of the Great War, especially Generals Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez, organised and led the last phase of the Cuban people's long struggle for independence, the longest and bloodiest in the Americas, facing one of the most important European powers, the largest and most powerful army the Americas had ever seen, the hidden and perfidious manoeuvres of the American rulers against the Cuban fighters, and the confusing and contradictory social, cultural and economic reality of Cuba only seven years after the abolition of slavery.
The fact that Cuba was the last Spanish colony to liberate itself in America, in such an unequal struggle, allowed the centenary generation and those of us who were already beginning to understand the world around us to nourish ourselves with direct knowledge of many of the actors in that epic and was a decisive element that inspired the triumph of the armed struggle in Cuba and the indissoluble union between the revolutionary leadership and the people, which has allowed us to do many extraordinary things and survive the hostility and permanent aggression of the most powerful imperialist power in history.
Fidel Castro brilliantly synthesised these elements and although the assault on the Moncada Barracks did not achieve the desired success, the audacity and courage of the act, the brutal repression suffered by its protagonists and the events that quickly followed in a political leadership vacuum facing the country, led to a revolutionary situation catalysed by the landing of the Granma yacht, the struggle in the Sierra Maestra and its rapid repercussions that would lead to the victory of 1 January 1959.
But Fidel and the main leaders of the Revolution knew that they had to hurry and avoid any possibility of a US intervention that, as in 1898 or 1933, would frustrate the Revolution, and so they did, under the leadership of a colossus of mass mobilisation and education, with an unsurpassed charisma and capacity for persuasion, courage and audacity, with a team of courageous young men, ready to win or die, committed to the cause and the people.
On a day like today we cannot forget the heroes and heroines of this colossal feat, which seemed impossible: Fidel, Che, Camilo, Almeida, Celia, Haydee, Vilma, Raul and Ramiro who are still with us, and the new revolutionary leadership headed by Miguel Diaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero.
Faced with the difficulties and challenges we face in a complex, contradictory and dangerous world, with enormous economic difficulties, attacked with an economic, commercial and financial blockade, carefully designed so that no inhabitant of our country can escape it; with the most colossal propaganda campaign in the world, facing adversaries who try to take advantage of generational changes and the disappearance or ageing of the historic leadership of the Revolution, who with their enormous resources try to buy anyone who will sell out, to extort anyone who is afraid, to manipulate ignorance and lack of information, to stimulate opportunism, fears, prejudices and of course to use our mistakes and weaknesses, while trying to rewrite history with their Manichean, imperialist and racist version.
Their efforts are aimed at dividing us, to discourage us, to make us give up, to stop fighting them, to highlight everything bad and present it as insurmountable, inevitable, to exacerbate selfishness, individualism, to exaggerate everything negative and make everything positive invisible.
But in the face of all this, the people, the Party and the forces of an extraordinary, popular and invincible Revolution stand up.
Long live the Cuban Revolution!
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
Motherland or Death!
We shall overcome!