Eighth day of January 1959. Never before had the streets and squares of Havana supported so much human weight (physical, sentimental and patriotic). Fidel himself could not stand the temptation or the need to say it, almost at the conclusion of his speech at the Columbia Military Camp, later converted into Libertad School City, when he affirmed:
 
"...I believe that the acts of the people of Havana today, the multitudinous concentrations of today, that kilometers-long crowd -because this has been amazing, you saw it; it will be in the movies, in the photographs-, I sincerely believe that it has been an exaggeration of the people, because it is much more than what we deserve".
 
And, of course, a resounding Nooo flooded the ether, from the chest, in chorus, of the crowd gathered there.
 
I don't think that never before -and much less in that place- was it spoken with so much transparency. Lies had prevailed so much since the beginning of the century; therefore, with that enviable and accurate vision he always had, Fidel transmitted a very great truth, more than corroborated by time:
 
"I believe that this is a decisive moment in our history: tyranny has been overthrown. The joy is immense. And yet, there is still much to be done. Let us not delude ourselves into believing that from now on everything will be easy; perhaps from now on everything will be more difficult".
 
Perhaps many imagined that he was referring only - or, above all - to the successive reaction on the part of a neighbor too arrogant and overbearing to accept, just like that, a Revolution under his own nose... These 65 years have proved it.
 
Without underestimating this danger, the Commander-in-Chief was also thinking clearly about the internal context. And he warned how enemies of the Revolution could be brewing within the country itself, even in the ranks of the revolutionaries.
 
Not by chance -and with the wealth inherited as a pupil in a book, from Martí- he always gave supreme value to that unity that for six and a half decades has been making black smoke the intentions of those who direct and articulate the United States policy against Cuba.
 
Eighth day of January 2024. That is the result of that Caravan of Freedom and of that phrase that President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez recalled once again on December 22, before the National Assembly and the Cuban people, when he recalled how right Fidel was when he said that everything could be more difficult in the future.
 
It has been. It is. Only that, like 1959, there is no fear.
 
TODAY AS YESTERDAY, THE SAME VICTORIOUS CARAVAN
 
Last Saturday morning, the central park Serafin Sanchez was taken by the protagonists of that historical event and current generations to wait, in true expression of jubilation, for the bearded men of these times.
 
There, Abraham Sanchez, first secretary of the Young Communist League (UJC) of Sancti Spiritus, called for 2024 to be "a year of dedication to work, of growth in the face of difficulties and of taking care of unity more than the apple of our eye".
 
The people of Santa Clara, in the Leoncio Vidal Park -the same place where Fidel spoke to his compatriots on January 6, 1959- received the new pines that reedited the glorious deed.
 
The top youth leader of the territory, Hermes Germán Aguilera Pérez, evoked the heroes who bequeathed us sovereignty, with whom there is a commitment to never fail them.
 
In the afternoon, in the municipality of Cruces, the people of Santa Clara gave the Cuban flag and the flag of the Movimiento Juvenil Martiano, to which the Caravan is dedicated, to the people of Cienfuegos.
 
The seafaring city, gathered in the Martí Park, was the scene of cheers, songs, dances and fiery acts of oratory in favor of the Cuban Revolution; in addition, they showed their willingness not to give in, on any front, to the siege of imperialism.
 
The Caravan's Sunday itinerary began on Arabian soil, in Matanzas, where Raúl Escalona, Juan A. Olivera, José Braulio Pozo, Rider Luis Pérez, and Eduardo Pérez, combatants who made the journey 65 years ago, watched with emotion as the young people who continued the epic.
 
As it is tradition, during the evening, in La Libertad Park -located in the provincial capital- a group of workers were recognized for their work performance, and young people were given the card that accredits them as militants of the UJC.