By Alina Perera Robbio on June 12, 2024 from Havana
Good men and women speak a common language; the humanist language. And as they are always immersed in the essential, they assume the borders that the world has as simple administrative lines, as a trace of a map to which they do not pay attention because the suffering or happiness of the human being is for them a unique matter in any corner of the planet; because they are with the human species, not against it.
It was in this context that a historic meeting took place between the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the U.S. Youth Brigade “Let Cuba Live” of the International Peoples Assembly(IPA). The members of that group had arrived in the archipelago and had already sailed through the popular veins of the country for a week, gathering experiences that they later discussed with the president.
“We had to get to Cuba to meet with ourselves and with our own struggle,” said Manolo de los Santos, director of the People’s Forum and U.S. social leader, who moderated a two-hour exchange in the Portocarrero Hall of the Palace of the Revolution -whose content is part of the next broadcast of the From the Presidency program.
“Down with the blockade, a socialist world is the world we want! With this clamor, the young visitors had welcomed the Head of State, who arrived with his companion Lis Cuesta Peraza and joined a conversation led by very thoughtful questions asked by the students, and which was attended by the first secretary of the National Committee of the Young Communist League (UJC), Meyvis Estévez Echavarría, the President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Fernando González Llort, as well as leaders of the students, the Communist Party and the Government of the Greater Antilles.
Seated in a non-protocol arrangement, only accommodated by the interest of understanding and the possibility of shared truths, the visitors heard the President say: “For us it is a pleasure to share with young Americans” and he went on to express to them before the beginning of the meeting: “We admire you very much”.
He said so because, in his opinion, they have generated a social and political movement in the United States, “very singular”; and because they are an expression of how in such complicated times, good feelings, those of justice, freedom and emancipation can make their way; those feelings that are present in the American society through their young students.
The movement that has been set in motion -reflected the President- has as referents men like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. The Head of State reflected that in such an unjust society, with a government that resorts to war as a solution to major problems, young people like those who arrived in Cuba are “the most important people” a country like Cuba can count on.
Memories
Díaz-Canel commented to his audience that he will never forget “the support that young people like you gave us in New York”, the stage where Cuba has so often denounced the imperial blockade that is holding it back. And he returned to the hours of September 2023, when he went out to the corner of Lexington and 38th – in front of the Cuban mission in New York City – to demand, in the midst of a demonstration of young Americans, the end of the blockade.
“You were in the streets every day,” the president acknowledged, referring to this company of courageous youth. And another moment the president will never forget was that rainy Saturday night, in September 2023, at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, where hundreds of friends gathered in support of a nation that resists.
It was there that the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party -in a beautiful and historic venue- said that Cuba embraces the American people and all the brothers and sisters of the world, who dream of a better world. Being able to share that evening with friends was -as the dignitary said – an “extraordinary experience”.
The beginning of an unforgettable conversation
“Welcome to the Palace of the Revolution, and let’s talk as you young people do”, said the President to his valuable interlocutors in the opening minutes of the meeting. And Manolo de los Santos, who introduced each student who spoke, was emphatic: “We are extremely grateful to the people of Cuba for receiving us in these difficult times, the people of Cuba have not ceased being in solidarity with not only us but also with the whole world.”
“It has been an intense week, where we have recognized the ability of the Cuban people to talk about all issues. About everything. We have stayed late into the night, discussing (about) democracy, human rights, economy, philosophy, culture, everything. And of course, dancing a little with the Cubans too”.
“We do that very well,” President Díaz-Canel commented with a smile. And Manolo shared another thought “What a rare opportunity for young Americans to be able to meet with a President. …. We have been mobilizing for months in the United States, demanding that our President listen to us, and today we woke up to see a White House surrounded, fenced in, impossible to reach; but here we arrive in Cuba and a revolutionary, socialist, honest, humane President receives us openly and wants to listen to our questions”.
“The world cannot remain silent in the face of the evidence of the holocaust suffered by the Palestinian people “, the Cuban leader emphasized in the opening moments.
“Ask anything, you can also criticize something you think is wrong.” This was the invitation made by the Head of State to the students, to whom he also said that “for the Cuban people it will be very good to know how young people like you think”.
“This is a small but very resilient nation,” said student Celine Qussiny. She sees the imperial blockade, “is a siege that causes Cuba many problems as they attack Palestine.
The next step was a first question presented by the friendly group was, How has this Revolution, which did not begin in 1959 but much earlier, been evolving, especially in the stage since the revolution?
Understanding the scope of the question, President Díaz-Canel said that the answer could be either very long or very short, but that he would do his best to give it from an intermediate point. He began talking about the journey to the beginnings of the Cuban nationality, even to previous stages, when Columbus arrived in America and opened the doors to identity clashes, to later exterminations of the native populations, to the shameful chapter of the slave trade, to the emergence of the Creole who begins to feel Cuban and not Spanish, to the birth of a desire for independence that has always been closely linked to the emergence of the national identity itself.
The President went through stages such as the Mambi wars; like everything done by the Caribbean country -already in the 20th century- for the sake of the independence causes in Africa, because that commitment with the mother continent has to do with the vindication of the slaves who arrived on Cuban soil moored on ships and whose blood flows through the veins of today’s Cubans.
Díaz-Canel spoke of our Martí; of Antonio Maceo and his protest in Mangos de Baraguá; of the Centennial Generation led by Fidel; of the assault on the Moncada Barracks; of the prison and exile in Mexico; of the incorporation of Che Guevara to the group of those who would later disembark on the Granma Yacht; of Fidel saying, at Cinco Palmas, with only seven rifles in hand, that then they would indeed win the war against an army armed to the teeth.
On that last episode, the president recalled that Cuba, in a line with a taste of destiny, has usually gone from adversity to adversity, and from triumph to triumph, always without losing a Fidelista conviction from its horizon, inherited from all previous struggles: “What there can never be is surrender,” Diaz-Canel conceptualized.
When that Revolution triumphed, he said, that was a cause of great concern for the United States. And as for that event – blocked by the empire for so long – the President stressed that revolutions can set an example but cannot be exported, because “revolutions are made by the people”. Hence, he emphasized to the students, no one can influence them, no one can guide them in the convictions they choose.
“We are not perfect nor do we want you to idealize us,” Díaz-Canel told the young people, adding that Cuban revolutionaries do have an enormous vocation for perfection.
Regarding the youth of the Caribbean country, the dignitary said that they are present in all important events and processes of society. He listed several examples in this regard; and affirmed that the Revolution is a history of continuity of generations that are united in principles; that may be distant from each other, due to the work of time, but that are mutually sustained by a unity of essences.
“Let’s make that world better!”
How does Cuba see the Palestinian liberation process, the students asked. The President affirmed that the world has awakened at this moment in history, starting from the Palestinian cause.
It is as if, he reflected, the market had spread a blanket of idiocy over societies. And spoke about how the world marked by uncertainty, by the adverse climatic situation, by the inequalities that have increased since COVID-19, by wars.
And more than one question served as an invitation of reflection for everyone: Why do they not talk about Palestine, which has been at war for more than 70 years, and why are they only concerned about Ukraine? Why do the mainstream media not look at the root causes of the conflict in Europe? Who caused this conflict in Ukraine? Who manufactured this war? Who benefits from it?
On what is happening with the Palestinian people, the President reflected on how so many human beings have died in such a short time. He paid special attention to the martyrdom of women and children; and wondered aloud: What can there be in the conscience of those who have waged that war?
Palestine hurts, it has to hurt us, he said, to assert that in that land their children are defending human dignity. “I believe that everything we do for Palestine is too little,” he stressed; and he imagined the moment when that nation must be rebuilt, and spoke about the pain of broken families, of mothers and fathers who have lived the terrible experience of seeing their children die.
Palestine opened an important space of conscience; and in this respect, the protests of the American students have been very important. Díaz-Canel did not overlook the fact that such intense demonstrations had not taken place in the United States since the days of the protests against the war in Vietnam.
The president confessed to the young people that he was among the idealists who imagined a better world after the rupture that COVID-19 caused, because the systems “were so broken…”. But sadly, he said, the world went to war, the blockades intensified, and governments like the Israeli government have been even more brutal against the Palestinian people.
We want a better world, where there is more equality, a fairer world; such a world is possible, what we have to do is to defend it. Thus reflected the Head of State, who added that the world can be defended as the Cubans do day by day, despite the blockade; and as the Palestinian people also do.
“Let’s make the world a better place, together!” the head of state called with firmness and optimism.
“Here we fight every day”
How do you face pessimism; how do you remain optimistic in such difficult challenges, asked Manolo de los Santos to President Diaz-Canel. And that allowed the dignitary to enumerate many of the problems that plague life in Cuba; among them, the lack of medicines and food, blackouts, shortages of all kinds…
“And one says: you have to show your face, you have to be in the streets”, said the Head of State, to then explain why “in the history of our country are the answers to all our problems”.
The essence of his comment was that it is necessary to “believe in history”, because Cuban history has been and is the struggle against all adversity and in the midst of permanent attacks.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel
The imperialist logic that is based on economic and media asphyxiation was also explained; “here we fight every day”, and that the logic of socialist construction, which consists of jumping over the blockade with our own effort and talent, with the philosophy of creative resistance, which consists of going beyond resistance to aspire to growth, is put in front of the adversary’s plan.
The priorities of the Party and the Government for the current times; the unforgettable story of how Cuban scientists saved an entire populatione from COVID-19 -and they did it with their own vaccines-; the regulatory processes of society inside. The President talked about such experiences with the young people; and when Manolo de los Santos asked him how he explains to the people about the complicated at this time, he was emphatic:
“With the truth, Manolo, with the truth”. And at that point of the exchange he explained that the Government does not intend to bother the people with all the difficulties that affect their daily life, and that there is no more effective formula than the “face to face” exchange, as Fidel and Army General Raul Castro Ruz taught us.
Questions about hope
How to make the future part of the hope of young people in Cuba? What are the main issues being debated today in the spheres of the Communist Party and the Government?
Based on these questions posed by the students, the Head of State continued sharing reflections alluding to the value of ideas, and all the effort deployed by the Revolution in social projects; and among the essential issues being discussed, he said, is that of generational continuity.
On the latter, Diaz-Canel referred to the challenge of maintaining continuity despite the fact that the current generations are already far away, from the timeline, that began on the First of January 1959. And he spoke of other pivotal challenges: “How can we ensure that Fidel will always remain among us?”; how can we ensure that all of the revolutionary epic, all the greatness, will not be lost?
At another moment he said, “We can win, but we have to believe it”, and he also warned that it is a long struggle, and that there will even be generations that will not see the fruits of the effort, but that they will have created the conditions for the triumph of the generations to come.
The afternoon at the Portocarrero Hall -the same space where so many times Fidel took his long steps-, was full of emotions and very useful truths. Among many other certainties, Díaz-Canel expressed that “what the people defend is what triumphs”.
Manolo de los Santos -who had already called the blockade suffered by Cuba “silent genocide”- told the hosts at the Palace of the Revolution about their week full of emotions, about dialogues with young Cubans who “are not robots”, who have a very critical discourse. And he told about the experience of having walked the streets and having been able to savor the feeling of freedom.
“Cuba for us is also what Palestine means. It is the flag of our generation,” said the director of the People’s Forum, who did not let the day pass without first giving heartfelt thanks. The social leader assured that Cuba, the Revolution and its leaders can count on them -the young people who have made headlines around the world for their protests and for the way they have been mistreated. And that this will be the case today, tomorrow and always.
photos: Presidencia
Alina Perera Robbio is a Cuban journalist, columnist for Juventud Rebelde and contributor to Cubadebate. She has won multiple journalism awards in the country’s annual contests and is the author of several books.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English