By Alejandra Garcia on January 2, 2025 from Havana
Cienfuegos chess match, photo: Bill Hackwell
Twenty-one artillery blasts marked the beginning of the new year in Havana, Cuba, a tradition that for exactly two decades has also heralded the arrival of a new anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. Twenty-one cannon shots could be heard in almost every corner of the capital, in a solemn ceremony, as required by military regulations, and as a reminder that, no matter how difficult the circumstances may be, year after year, the country stands firm.
This 2025 was received in peace. There were no great luxuries or delicacies to celebrate the end of a year full of challenges for Cuban families, and of great efforts by the government to keep the country in relative stability. But families looked for ways to get together, to play games, to wait for the 12 o’clock and the 21 blasts, amidst dances and music.
The new year was also celebrated with sessions of simultaneous chess games throughout the country on the occasion of the new anniversary of the Revolution. The national commissioner of the Game Science announced the start of the games from the 13 de Marzo Park in Havana on December 31, and they became ideal spaces for all fans to share with the main Cuban chess masters.
Social networks had a flood of publications, mostly from young Cubans, sharing their main highlights of the year. In all of them there were messages of encouragement, of hope, of gratitude. They all show youths enjoying small pleasures, thanking life for their friends, for the people who love them. The good moments stand out from the pains experienced during the year.
There is no denying that 2024 was a difficult one, marked by the collapse of the national energy network on several occasions, caused mainly by its obsolete technology and the impact of the U.S. blockade, which hinders Cuba’s access to raw materials and spare parts to renew the old frames of thermoelectric power plants. This year, the island also suffered the passage of two powerful hurricanes, which destroyed crops, caused floods and left large portions of the country without electricity due to the thousands of electric poles that fell.
When it seemed that nothing else could happen to Cubans, at the beginning of November, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale and its more than 400 aftershocks were felt in the central and eastern regions of the country, with considerable damage to homes and government institutions. Families in the municipality of Guama, in Santiago de Cuba, very close to the epicenter of the earthquake, had to remain evacuated for hours in places where their lives were not at risk, in case of possible building collapses.
In the face of all these situations, aggravated also by inflation, lack of medicines and indispensable products, Cuba remained at peace, resilient. Solidarity prevailed. During the long hours of blackout, there was always support among neighbors. It was common for those whose electricity service was being restored to offer help to those who needed to recharge their telephones because their battery died. There was discontent, but also understanding, and the leadership did not leave their people alone.
Circumstances are different from that January 1, 1959, but, 66 years later, Cuba’s persistence in defending its right to self-determination, its dignity and its conviction of service to the peoples of the world endures. The island remains willing to fight day by day against a difficult but surmountable daily reality, showing that, for us, it is possible to achieve the impossible. We do this despite an unchanged foreign policy from the large country to our North that has been designed to crush us for all of those 66 years.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English