Citas

“To correct matters in their country, Cubans had been fighting for a long time. But there was a greater force which prevented us from correcting things in our country. This force was the imperialist penetration of the United States in our homeland. It was this force which frustrated our full independence. It was this force which prevented Calixto García and his brave soldiers in Santiago de Cuba from succeeding. It was this force which prevented the liberation army from undertaking revolution in the early days of the republic. It was this force which determined the destiny of our homeland from the very first. It was this force which permitted the seizure of the natural resources and the best lands of our homeland by foreign interests. It was this force which appropriated the right to intervene in our country's affairs. It was this force which crushed so many revolutionary efforts. It was this force which was always associated with everything negative, everything reactionary, and everything abusive in our country. It was this force which prevented an earlier revolution in our homeland, and it is this force which is trying to prevent us from correcting things in our country now.”

References to the original: SPEECH DELIVERED BY COMMANDER IN CHIEF FIDEL CASTRO RUZ AT THE GREAT POPULAR RALLY STAGED BY THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AT THE CIVIC SQUARE OF THE REPUBLIC, 2 SEPTEMBER 1960.
"Forty-five years have passed since the assault on the Moncada. Our country had been struggling for its independence and its rights for more than a century. Maceo, Gómez and other fighters struggled from 1868 until 1898. They suffered the humiliation of not being able to hoist their flag in this heroic city, of not even being able to enter it after 30 years of a self-sacrificing, admirable and heroic struggle. But the day came when those flags were hoisted and their ideas triumphed, ideas which were ever-changing and which never stopped evolving into something better. Every new idea can be a step towards the pinnacle of human progress.”
References to the original: Speeches and Interventions: Speech given at the main ceremony for the 45th anniversary of the attacks on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks, in Santiago de Cuba, on July 26, 1998.

“On July 17 - look how close we are to the date - negotiations took place between the U.S. and Spanish troops, without the participation of any representative of the Cuban forces; an armistice was called and the city surrendered that day. U.S. troops penetrated the city and did not allow Cuban patriots to enter. This is one of the saddest episodes in our history, since those soldiers who had fought for 30 years, beginning on October 10, 1868, were not permitted to enter the city. The U.S. flag was raised over the Government Palace and the Morro Fortress. Totally indignant and faced with that insufferable humiliation, General Calixto García, who had cooperated so loyally with the troops who were supposedly his allies, wrote to Máximo Gómez and renounced his post as head of the Cuban troops in Oriente. What day? July 17.”

References to the original: SPEECH GIVEN AT THE MAIN CEREMONY FOR THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACKS ON THE MONCADA AND CARLOS MANUEL DE CÉSPEDES GARRISONS, July 26, 1998

“Ideas are and always will be the most important weapon of all. Our experience has taught us that if one day our country were to be attacked and even occupied by powerful forces, each and every man or woman, wherever they may be, can be an army. When a combatant or group of combatants are left cut off or isolated, they can and should assume responsibility for their own actions and continue fighting”.

References to the original: Speech by Fidel Castro Ruz, at the ceremony commemorating the 45th anniversary of the landing of the Granma expedition, December 2, 2001