BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - There have been many emotions this Monday. There is no heart that can remain still in the face of so many expressions of gratitude, affection and respect for Cuba. Sometimes we have to close our eyes to open them again with a new look, a look that rediscovers how much we are loved and expected of us, how much we are worth.
Sometimes we deserve a rebirth in our self-respect; and that is exactly what these hours in the southern land have done: Almost at the gates of the VII Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, held meetings with businessmen, intellectuals, Cubans living in Argentina, and solidarity groups. And the common factor was, undoubtedly, the way in which the Island with its tenacious resistance is like a kind of light -a lighthouse as Argentine friends usually say-, in the midst of a world that anesthetizes and crushes the will to feel for the other.
It must be said, for example, that the words that marked President Diaz-Canel's exchange with a representation of Cubans residing in this South American nation were sincere and moving. "We are here as a family", the Head of State had said when welcoming them. And the dialogue was relaxed and diaphanous, marked by sincerity and nostalgia, as always happens in family reunions.
Women and men born in Cuba, who emigrated but who remain anchored from the heart, or from their professions to the fate of an endearing homeland, shared with the Head of State experiences, concerns, suggestions, moved by the common purpose of defending and building the present and the future of the Island.
Topics related to the complex economic situation Cuba is going through were discussed at the meeting, where the Cuban leader commented on the current scenario and on how the AIDS-19 pandemic was successfully dealt with.
We are going to get out with the determination and talent of our people, said the dignitary during the exchange that addressed issues related to the economic situation of the island, and on which the president spoke about the need to solve the current complex situation, which in recent times has been "very difficult".
In that purpose, he considered essential the work carried out by the Cuban community in Argentina to defend the Revolution and support it in different scenarios. In a special way, he emphasized the sending of vital supplies to support the fight against the pandemic within the country and to support the vaccination campaign that was carried out throughout the national territory.
Faced with the manipulation campaign to which the island is subjected in social networks and the concern of Cubans living in Argentina on how to deal with it, both inside and outside the country, President Díaz-Canel reflected that it is not a matter, if we talk about the Internet and social networks, of closing our eyes or refusing new technologies: the important thing, he said, is to put in those spaces our emancipating, humanist, and not at all hateful discourse.
"The function of a Cuban who feels patriotic is to always defend his country against any slander," said Daniel Placencia, a Cuban who has been living in Argentina for five years and defends the homeland to the hilt. Those present at the meeting spoke of that feeling of love for the Island, and above all of gratitude, because as Cuban Enrique Nikita Estrada said at the beginning of the meeting, "even being far from Cuba, we are with each one of you".
"I am very happy to be here with you", said the President, who after being declared honorary associate member of the Union of Cuban Residents in Argentina (URCA), assured those present that in order to move forward "the Homeland also counts on you, on all of you".
On gratitude and hopes
Like bursts of love, of gratitude, of generosity that opens the chest and holds nothing back were the interventions that took place, also on Monday afternoon, during the meeting of President Díaz-Canel with representatives of political forces, social organizations and members of the movement of Solidarity with Cuba.
"A greeting to all of you, an eternal thanks to you for having agreed to this meeting," said the Head of State to the architects of solidarity, whom he called friends, brothers and sisters. And that was the beginning of the President's reflections on Cuba and on what this VII CELAC Summit will mean.
We are eternally grateful to you for your ability to understand Cuba, to understand what we stand for," said Díaz-Canel to his friends, to whom he explained the concept of creative resistance, that philosophy with which Cubans, in the midst of adversity, are able to continue creating and moving forward.
There was a standing ovation when the President spoke about how the Island manufactured its own vaccines against COVID-19, and it was beautiful to hear that friends are part of that creative resistance, because they give us encouragement, security and certainty that we are not alone.
On this Monday afternoon, Díaz-Canel wanted to ratify that the "Cuban Revolution will not let itself be intimidated by threats", it will not let itself be destabilized. To his friends he said: "Cuba will never betray you, Cuba will never give up", because, as he affirmed, it will always be fighting for a better world, to win.
The voices of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo -from that association a huge hug was sent to the Cuban people- were heard. And the moment in which Andrés Dachary, Secretary of International Relations of the Government of Tierra del Fuego, presented the Head of State, on behalf of Governor Gustavo Melella, with a decoration that means a lot to Argentines, which entails resistance and patriotism, was particularly moving.
"We only accept this on behalf of the Cuban people," said the dignitary, who recalled that one of the causes Cuba has always defended has been Argentina's right to self-determination and its legitimate claim to the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.
This Monday afternoon, Argentines who have studied in Cuba also spoke; and heartfelt and beautiful expressions were born, such as that of a friend who remembered a brother in life -who jokingly said he was the cousin of the Cuban President because his last name was Díaz-Canel-. One day, according to what the man told in the exchange, his best friend assured him that "his cousin would shoulder the country when necessary".
Other voices were raised. A woman wanted to thank on behalf of all her people, for the tens of thousands of Argentines who became literate and learned thanks to the "Yes I can" program, for the more than 50 thousand who recovered their sight thanks to Operation Miracle, for having learned from Cuba the difference between solidarity and charity.
President Díaz-Canel was asked to analyze the importance of the VII CELAC Summit, and he shared a reflection on the world we are living in: a world, he said, full of uncertainty, which once again resorts to the language of war, which does not seem to have learned from the experience of the AIDS-19 pandemic, because after that scourge, the rich have become richer and the poor poor have become poorer.
"Now, reasoned the Head of State, what we have to do is to make Latin America an emancipated region". He said this because "imperialism continues to look at us as a backyard, it continues to look at us with contempt".
Hope must be nurtured, it must be built, and in that sense we must work, said the dignitary, who, in a clear reference to the VII CELAC Summit, considered: "I believe that this experience here in Buenos Aires will contribute a lot".
Martí, Fidel, Che Guevara, Hebe de Bonafini, Maradona, were all remembered in the day of collective reflection. Someone said there that Latin America had lived through very long nights -of neoliberalism, of dictatorships-, and that Cuba is a lighthouse that has always been there, it is the cause of all Argentine workers, without distinction.
As long as Cuba resists, we are also going to be there; it is not only the Cuban Revolution: it is a Revolution of humanity; Cuba defends itself, but we have to defend it too... The ideas were going back and forth, intense and crystalline. And towards the end of the meeting, President Díaz-Canel thanked the brothers and sisters of Argentina; he spoke, for their support, of feeling emotions that do not fit in words or simple phrases; and he extended a conviction of hope: "Together we are going to make that better world that is possible", which was, he affirmed, the aspiration of the Latin American heroes, which was also the aspiration of great men such as Fidel and Chávez.
"We are all going to be together, fighting for this great homeland", emphasized the President and then followed the dialogues among all, the close greetings and the portraits of this beautiful family that we can call América Nuestra.