“and thanks to the men who undermost adverse conditions, the men who in the republican era waged and unequal struggle against Yankee penetration, men ranging from Juan Gualberto Gómez and Sanguily, who stubbornly opposed this penetration, to the men who in the 20's and 30's sacrificed themselves and fell in the struggle to ensure that the Cuban nationality, the Cuban national spirit, would survive, that the national soul would not be absorbed by the powerful foreigner, thanks to these men, to this work of generations, to this tradition, we have been able to reap this maturity and this revolutionary awareness on the part of our people”.