Dear students of the Juan Manuel Márquez school;

Dear teachers;

Residents of Boca de Jaruco and MICONS¹ workers who built this beautiful school in just 105 days;

Although the rain has been trying to interrupt us I can see that you are not worried about it. And in fact rain is so necessary for agriculture that it would be good to have showers like this one quite often (APPLAUSE). Besides ... (SLOGANS ARE VOICED) These people have taken over the meeting! Take it easy: let's divide up the time, some for you and some for us. They really are enthusiastic. Those comrades spending their “School in the countryside” period, do they work so enthusiastically? (SHOUTS OF "YES!") Good!

I see too that you have made a communist plot, on the rocks here near the school, and if you have not planted it yet you can start planting it tomorrow. Will you do it (SHOUTS OF "YES!") Have you already planned what you will be planting there? (SHOUTS OF "YES!")

What is it that you are going to plant? (SHOUTS OF: "PIGEON PEAS") You can also plant some citrus trees there, will you do it? (HE’S TOLD: " PIGEON PEAS, TOO!") And how many square meters does the plot have? (A CHILD ANSWERS: "Thousands") Thousands? It has half a hectare: 5000 square meters, and there are 300 of you. If you divide 5000 by 300, how much it is for each of you?

You, over there, I ask you: if the communist plot has 5000 square meters and there will be 300 of you, how many square meters will correspond to each one of you? (A CHILD SAYS: "A QUARTER!") What do you mean “a quarter”? There are five thousand! (ANOTHER CHILD SAYS: "Three hundred!") Three hundred multiplied by 300 is 90,000; that calculation is not correct.

Let’s see: What grade are you in? (THE CHILD ANSWERS: "I’m in fourth grade!") Ah! And you do not know how to divide yet? Let's see: If you divide 5000 by 300 (A CHILD ANSWERS: "Seven!"). No, not seven. If you divide 5 by 3 (A CHILD ANSWERS: "One!"). One plus a little leaves two. Well, each of you gets about 17 square meters.

As this event is being televised, surely there will be many people interested in knowing what school this is (THEY REPLY: "Juan Manuel Márquez!"). It's called "Juan Manuel Márquez." And how many students will it have? (THEY REPLY: "Three hundred!") And how many are now in the old school? (THEY REPLY: "One hundred and fifteen!") One hundred and fifteen only? Weren’t there 120?

How many of you attend classes daily? How many? No, no, I'm asking them: How many attend classes daily? (THEY REPLY: "One hundred and twenty!") And how many do not attend school? (THEY REPLY: "All of us!") No, you are fooling me! (LAUGHTER.) Let me see: the data I have here, at least what the papers say is that the total of school-age children in this village...how many are they? (THEY REPLY: "One hundred and twenty!") And how many do not attend school? There are three that are not attending; three are not attending! Their names are not mentioned; I thought you knew. (A CHILD SAYS: "They come to fetch you at home when you do not attend classes!"). They come to fetch you? Who does? (THEY REPLY: "The School Councils!") The School Councils. Everyone then!

It says here that there are 120 and that 117 attend class, and that there is a 14-year-old and two 15-year-old children who do not attend. Do you go to school every day? (THE CHILD ANSWERS: "Yes!") So 117 attend classes. Of course, all the children aged 5 to 13 years attend school. Three children are not attending, one is 14, and two are 15. One hundred and eleven children attend school regularly. Who are those not attending regularly? Did they get lost? And six do not attend regularly, two of them are 12. How old are you? (THE CHILD ANSWERS: "I’m 12"). And do you attend school regularly? (THE CHILD ANSWERS: "I never miss school!"). Never? There’s a 14-year-old child that does not attend school regularly, and another one who is 15. Ah! and there is also a 9-year-old child who does not attend school regularly.

Now, how many repeated the course at this school? (NO ANSWER) What do you mean none? Let’s see: anyone that has repeated the course, raise your hand. No one? (A LITTLE GIRL SAYS: "Well! Me") Did you repeat the course? Ah!, look, she said it. (ANOTHER CHILD SAYS: "Me too!"). And you too? Now everyone has admitted it. We must tell the truth, we must be honest.

And do you think you will repeat this year too? (THE CHILD ANSWERS: "No!") No! Are you sure? There are 32 who repeated the course. (A GIRL SAYS: "Oh, my God!") Oh, my God! (LAUGHTER). And 88 did not repeat the year. We’ll see if the repeat rate can be lowered.

Educational retardation: 6 children are 8 years old, four are 9, one is 11 years, and another one is 12. They are in first grade. These data are unclear.

How many are pioneers? (SHOUTS OF "ALL!"). One hundred percent. Good. Then we have 120 children, 117 of whom attend classes.

Ok, now, how many people in this village are still illiterate? (THEY SAY: "None!") What do you mean none?! There are 10 illiterate men. I will not say their names: there is one who is between 17 and 25 years, another who is between 26 and 35, two are between 36 and 45, three between 46 and 55 and three who are older than 56 years, who did not learn to read and write. But they are not to blame. Probably there were no schools around here in their time. There are 11 women who did not have the opportunity to learn to read and write either.

Ok, now, how many people in the village have studied past the sixth grade? There are 222 adults. Sixty-two have studied past the sixth grade. That is very little, very little, but the rest are like 162. One hundred and sixty-two adults did not reach the sixth grade. The fact is that adults did not have an opportunity to study as you do now.

How many of you are not planning to reach the sixth grade? Are all of you going to reach the sixth grade? (SHOUTS OF "YES!"). But are you going to stop when you reach the sixth grade? (SHOUTS OF "NO!"). Are you going to go as far as you can in your studies? (SHOUTS OF "YES!"). And what if you do not want to? (A CHILD SAYS: "WHO WOULD NOT WANT TO STUDY?").

Besides you, who else will be attending this school? You are 120, minus 3, 117, and this school can hold 300 students. (ANOTHER CHILD SAYS: "MORE WILL COME") Where from? Which schools are closer to here? (THEY REPLY: "THE FARM WORKERS’ CHILDREN!"). The children of the women farmers of Santa Cruz.

All right. Did they already tell you about the school program and schedule? Do you know the school schedule? What time do classes begin? (THEY REPLY: "AT SEVEN!") At 7:00. Breakfast is at what time? At 7:45. That’s for everybody.

Do you know what your activities will be? I think your activities start at 7:55. The pre-school children will make some morning exercises. At what time do you have a recess? (THEY REPLY: "AT TEN!").

And then classes resume? Yes, from 10:20 to 12:00. As for pre-school children. "Simple self-help activities, recreation, music, puppets, storytelling, etc." That's from 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon. But lunchtime is not specified here. At what time do you have lunch? (THEY REPLY: "AT TWELVE!"). And what else do you do later? Resting time. And after that? Recreation time. And at 2:00? From the first to the third grade...They are separated here. "Pre-school children: Simple self-help activities, recreation, music, puppets, storytelling, etc., simple productive work activities. From the first to the third grade: classes, cultural activities, alternating library time, daily physical education, recreational activities, simple productive work activities. Fourth, fifth and sixth grades, from 2:00 to 5:00. Individual study, vocational counseling activities, library activities, physical education and sports."

So you have classes in the morning and I have just read your afternoon activities.

"Students in fourth, fifth and sixth grade will rotate through the specialty classes. So instead of having a single break in the middle of the session, there will be two shorter breaks, which will divide the sessions into three. These recesses will also be used to have children move to a different classroom.

"Fourth, fifth and sixth grades: from 5:00 to 6:00, productive and socially useful work, recreational activities. Brigades will be organized to help at the canteen and in the school maintenance activities; snacks will be served during breaks and dinner will be at 6:45 in the afternoon.” So this school is going to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Enough? (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "YES!").

You will have educational activities and recreational activities. Here they also explain generally how the school is going to function.

Here you are not going to buy "duro-frío"², or "rallado"³ or anything, right? There is also a refrigerator and they are going to serve you snacks, sodas, everything.

"There are green areas surrounding the buildings. In the front left area there is the pre-school age classroom decorated with animated figures appropriate for children this age, with internal toilets, the tables and shelves, and a place where children can rest. There are also educational toys to develop our children’s skills while they learn playing. To the rear end there is the playground for the school children.

"The school canteen is in front of the students’ recreational area; there is a cement covered area in the central courtyard, located between the classrooms blocks and the school library. The library, in the front area next to the Principal’s office, already has copies of recreational, informational and text books, slides, record players and tables where children will begin to acquire reading habits through the frequent use of books that will spark their interest in seeking information on whatever they want to know.

"The block behind includes six spacious classrooms, very well iluminated and ventilated, with large blackboards on both walls, bulletin boards, shelves and closets.

"A characteristic of the classrooms of higher grades is that they are organized by class subject; the students will rotate from one to the other which facilitates a better use of the audiovisual aids available in them according to the specialty in each classroom: Spanish language and social studies; mathematics and science.

"A side building includes the dining area with a kitchen, storage room, refrigerated rooms, and everything needed to provide lunch and dinner to the students. The spacious dining room accommodates over 300 students, and the facilities look like those of a top-level internship.

"In the background are the sports areas for baseball, basketball, football and other sports, which will contribute to the physical development of the students.

"There’s also the land for the communist hectare where students will cultivate various crops and will thus build their agricultural awareness and the love for work that must be developed in our younger generations.

"Facing the school are the new housing facilities for the school teachers who will thus be closer to their students."

These are the characteristics of the school, and the program was already explained here. Classes begin, or rather you enter school in the morning, have breakfast, lunch and dinner here and go home afterwards.

We really should congratulate the workers who built this school in a record time of only 105 days; and we must also congratulate the engineers who designed this school.

We think that this school is indeed a model school. The day we came here for a visit when they were about to finish the school, we thought that it is very difficult that a school better than this could be built. It has all modern facilities, all study facilities, an extraordinary level of education can be achieved here. It has all the sports areas, and you will be provided with all meals; but, of course, we only regret really that we still have very few schools like this across the country.

We were figuring we would need 4,000 such schools; that is 4,000 schools for the primary education students that we will have in 1975. The effort that was necessary at this school is proof of all the needs that we still have in the country, because we would have to take into consideration not only the schools needed for primary education, but also several thousand schools for the secondary and pre-university levels, as well as technological institutes, all of which give us an idea of the enormous effort that our country has to make in the years ahead.

Actually, the day that we have 4000 schools like this one, so well equipped, for the primary education, we could say without a doubt that our country is at the top in terms of education in the world.

We really can say that the first hectare of communism in the province of Havana was made here ... Some may wonder what the hectare of communism is. A hectare of communism is simply a hectare of rock transformed into farmland. You know that, but there are others who hear the term and say: How can a hectare be communist? It was given the name “hectare of communism” because we said that it shows that man can transform everything, even nature, so that in a place where nothing could be produced before there are already two cultivated hectares. That hectare will also produce for you, because it already has some crops, and a herd of sheep will be raised there, and whatever is produced there will be brought to this school, too. The fact is that the hectare is practically in production, the rock was destroyed, and soil was brought in by trucks.

This shows that with the help of machines and technology nature can be transformed completely. You may have seen how nature around the capital is changing, and how mountains are rapidly being transformed through the work of man helped by machines; with the help of the machines human labor is multiplied many times, and everything is possible.

In order to build thousands of schools like this one we need thousands of highly skilled workers; we need thousands of workers that are trained to use the machines and who master the technology. However, a school of this nature, thousands of schools of this kind, not only require cement in large quantities, wood in large quantities; they also require a large number of cooking equipment, refrigeration equipment, electrical equipment and a large electrical installations, which means there will be a high electricity consumption. They also require a large number of cadres mainly; they require a great number of books because the educational development of a country needs a material base. Already the number of children studying in Cuba and the rate of books per student require an enormous consumption of paper. Each of these issues that we analyze always show the need to study, the need to work, the need for this generation to be devoted entirely to work.

Besides the children, here also are the teachers, the village residents and the workers. I should note that whenever we see a work like this one we understand what means to be a worker, and we understand why society must have the workers in such a high esteem. The workers have built this wonderful school in 105 days after endless hours of work. For whom did they build this school? For them? No. They did not build it for them. Did they build it for their children? Most of the workers who built this school have their children elsewhere and live elsewhere, they come from the city, from elsewhere, so many of them, most of them, do not live around here.

How much have these workers earned? They have been earning what our country can pay the workers according to the level of development of our country. When I addressed the rally at the university a few days ago, I said that there are people who are making 200 pesos and even 300 pesos daily selling alcoholic beverages, bribing people, corrupting people, and now here in front of all of you we have an example: the difference between the people who earn 300 pesos, 200 pesos every day, doing what?: living off the vices, promoting the drinking habit, promoting laziness. So in these 100 days there are those who have earned 2000, or 3000, or 10,000, or say up to 20,000 pesos, while 300 workers were here building a school (APPLAUSE). Additionally, those who earned 300 pesos or 200 pesos a day did nothing for society; however, they drank the milk that was milked by a worker at 5:00 in the morning; traveled on a bus – if they traveled by bus or by any other means – driven by a worker who also got up at 6:00 am; and all that they consumed every day like bread, sugar, electricity, everything, was produced by human labor.

In addition, those who did not produce anything, how much did they earn compared to the workers? Well, they earned twenty times, thirty times, forty times more every day. That's the face of injustice and the face of inequality! And it was really painful that such circumstances still prevailed in our country. We had done away with the great exploiters, but there were still many medium-sized exploiters, and no matter if they are large, medium-sized, small-sized exploiters, the fact is that exploitation should cease; under no circumstance should exploitation persist in our society! (APPLAUSE).

This is a village of fishermen mainly; of people who in the early morning and at night defy the sea and go fishing in small boats; of people who work the sisal fields – which is a hard work– or work collecting bat guano, or in construction, or in a dairy, or in any of the types of work done in this area.

So this is really a village of workers. I do not know if there were many business owners here although I reckon there were very few. And according to information I have here, the standard income of the families here was modest.

In fact, when children attend a school like this one and the school provides for all their expenses free of charge, that is paid by the work of the people. Likewise, your fish production will be consumed by children elsewhere, and elsewhere there are people producing shoes, producing clothes, or working in construction, or building sports fields. That is to say, everyone is working for everyone.

That is the ideal to which we aspire. That is the only way by which a country can go far: working, distributing fairly the wealth, the product of labor; distributing it among those in need.

Naturally, we cannot rest while there is a child in our country who does not have a school like this one. We cannot rest while there is still a family that does not have a decent home to live in. That means that during all these years we must work, above everything else. And that means that we need to end now whatever form of exploitation remains in our country.

That is why we are nationalization, or closing – whatever the name you want to give it – all the private commercial businesses that remained in the country (APPLAUSE). There will not be anyone earning 300, 200 pesos anymore: not one. There will not be anyone selling liquor, doing any kind of business.

It should be noted that all the bars and small groceries have been closed, as well as many types of workshops, of garages that were trafficking with spare parts. And the police forces are fighting against theft; the people who used to steal anything – like a car tire on the road or whatever –could always go to all these places to sell it. All this was a source of immorality, corruption and crime. As money was plentiful, the people who did not work stole anything and sold it for 50 pesos in any of those places where they resold it later for 100 pesos. It was high time for the Revolution to put an end to all that.

We have said that the Revolution is based on the alliance between workers and farmers. This means that only the farmers can be considered to be true allies of the working class. It is true that the farmer is an owner too, but one that used to be very exploited always, a person who works and strives, who sweats his shirt and contributes also to the development of the country, and is an ally of the workers.

This is why the Revolution has always said that in every circumstance it will respect its allies, which are the farmers, and the rights of the farmers will always be respected.

Some wondered, for example, whether private trucks – the trucks of self-employed workers – are going to be nationalized too. Really, we are not in the least interested in nationalizing or seizing those trucks. Why? What we are most concerned about regarding trade is not that some business owners that already existed here continued to operate. I mean, we expected that the number of business owners could gradually drop, either because they sold their property for whatever reason, or because they retired, and private business could gradually disappear. However, what was really happening? Private business was not disappearing but growing and more than half of private business had been started after the Revolution. That was a serious problem. So that evil would not be disappearing gradually, as we would have perhaps wished. We did not like to have to approach the people who had spent a lifetime in a small grocery, in business or trade and was already accustomed to all that, and tell them, "Well, this activity that you are doing will cease." But the fact was that it is not possible to do away with that kind of activity unless you eliminate it completely. What was happening was that many people, instead of planning to study, instead of planning to work, instead of planning to engage in a really productive activity that would benefit the entire country, they were devising ways to earn ten times more than the rest, to elude work and still earn ten times, twenty times more than any worker, and live ten or twenty times better than any worker. That was happening and we could not in any way compromise with that situation.

It is true that anyone who owns a truck and works his truck, if he works in a construction site of MICONS, or in any of the plans, carrying materials or carrying peat, and he earns twice or three times more than other people who do not own a truck, indisputably that implies a privilege. But, while he is earning more than the others, at least he is doing something that is productive. With his work he is helping to erect a building or develop agriculture, or is contributing in any similar activity. And, of course, although it's really a privilege, it is a privilege that will not increase. Why? Because the trucks that are being imported into the country now are not sold or delivered to anyone. Every truck that is imported into the country is to be operated by a worker and is simply a truck that belongs to all the people. Besides, those trucks will gradually fall into disuse and will one day disappear. It’s not the same to manufacture a truck than to erect a “timbiriche” at some place where 100 workers gather, and the owner sells cod-free fritters (LAUGHTER), or buys eggs at one price and sells omelets for a price five times higher, or engages in black market smuggling, or visits farmers and corrupts them because many of these people go to the farmers and offer them all kinds of things, offer them money, and what they do is corrupt the farmers.

If a black market existed in Cuba it was due to all such activities. It was really shameful that there was a black market in this country. There were even cases like a 10-member family that sold part of its cooking fat quota. Then there were people who were engaged in staying in queues and made a living out of that. And while women were working in the Havana Agricultural Belt, while workers worked in construction, there were parasites that did absolutely nothing but had all provided for. And often times they enjoyed privileges and were favored by others.

Many times the best meat, the best fish, the best products were put away to be sold to those who had a lot of money. Then, when the worker came to buy the products he was told "We don’t have any left." They did not have any left because the other guy had already purchased it all. There were guys that made a living from a new craft: they are the “coleros”⁴ who make money by staying in lines.

Well, we will find out who are all those that made money staying in lines so that they now make a living working and producing (APPLAUSE).

The Revolutionary Government is set to act more strongly against all forms of speculation, all forms of corruption, all forms of parasitism (APPLAUSE). So let it be known that nobody, nobody can live the life of a scoundrel here. The scoundrels can be sustained by the imperialists over there with the proceeds of the exploitation of other peoples; the scoundrels, vagabonds, all kinds of parasites, can be sustained by the imperialists, because those are their kind of people. But our working people will not support parasites of any kind! (APPLAUSE).

In the name of whom are we doing this? On behalf of the people. On behalf of the most sacred of all rights, which is the right of the people, of the working people, of the people who sweat, who work, who are transforming this country, who are creating wealth for the future! And it is not fair that it is just a percentage of the people that is doing all that while others do not work although they are able to.

Whoever is sick is given everything; the old people that cannot work are provided everything; there should not be a single citizen who is left unprotected, man or woman, child or old; no one will be left unprotected in our country! That's a principle. And whoever cannot be provided a job will be given whatever is needed, will be given whatever is needed! This means that we will meet all the needs of the people who cannot work, who are sick, who are old; we will provide everything they might need. The principle should be to provide for those who need it more than for the rest if necessary!

What is not fair and what we cannot allow by any concept is that we let such privilege and that kind of parasitism prevail, and if we did not understand that would not be revolutionaries.

I was explaining ... (SOMEONE ASKS HIM: "WHAT ABOUT TAXI DRIVERS?"). Not them either. Why? For the same reason: many of the taxi drivers are already organized in taxi agencies, they perform their work, they know how to deal with their old cars like no one else can. (LAUGHTER). That activity is more or less under control and is also bound to disappear because cars get old and stop working; and the number of cars is not increasing.

We will import buses mainly and whenever we are able to buy cars to be used as taxis they will join State-owned entities and their drivers will have the same income. This means that there is not the slightest intention, nor is there any need to expropriated taxis or the trucks that are driven and used by their owners, and I believe that this is well understood.

Of course, there are other people out there: the "yiperos⁵" in many places ... The "yiperos" must be knocked out, knocked out! They are not controlled by anyone. Workers come and build a new road in just a few months using machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then there comes the "yipero" and makes 50 pesos, 100 pesos, 150 pesos driving on that road.

Of course, all these means must be under control, they must be controlled! You know that when transportation means are scarce – as it happens here – and you need to travel you have to pay them whatever they ask you to; and people are often exploited this way.

These activities will be controlled and should be subject to tariffs, but of course, for the reasons that I have explained and since this is an activity that will eventually disappear, we have no intention to expropriate such movable assets like trucks, taxis, mules (LAUGHTER), horses or dogs.

I think our people fully understands these measures. According to news we have, people are truly happy in the grassroots. Now we need to be attentive, vigilant, ready to act; and I should tell you that naturally not everyone engaged in these activities were counterrevolutionary people.

We must say in all fairness that many people have approached us, revolutionary people who have come and said, "Look, I’ve come to hand this out; they have not told me that I should, though; but, anyway, I have this." And they have acted cooperatively and in a favorable manner.

And, of course, whoever has a useful knowledge, whoever can cooperate anywhere, whoever is willing to cooperate should be employed and his/her ability put to good use. There were people who were full of initiatives and it is a pity that such a spirit was not channeled to serve the whole of society.

And there have been people – not a majority at all –, there is a minority – I will not say that it was the case of the bar owner who earned 300 pesos or 200 pesos because it is not likely – but there is a minority among those engaged in these activities that has reacted in a positive way. However, we should not fool ourselves, for they are a minority. The rest – the majority – was showing a negative attitude, they were among the fiercest in their attacks and campaigns; them and their cronies and their amanuenses, and people who were paid for staying in queues and the like, they were people who tried to sow defeatism and discontent. Mind you, that people will try to play hard and do harm.

Of course, it has not been necessary to make any arrest. Our intention is not to mistreat anyone, or leave anyone unprotected: the Revolution would not be humane, the Revolution would not be fair if a single person was left unprotected; that is not our intention at all. However, the Revolution will be firm, and it will be tough if necessary.

What I mean is that the intention, the purpose of the Revolution is one thing, and another thing is what they force the Revolution to do. And whenever the Revolution is forced to be tough, the Revolution will be tough. We think that there should not be any doubt whatsoever about that.

So we are cleansing up the environment, we are creating a people of workers really. We must understand that a lot of time has been lost, we must realize that this country was colonized for centuries. This year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the start of the struggle for our independence. We were subjected to imperialism for almost 60 years of this century.

What did all this bring us? It brought us economic backwardness, technological retardation, widespread ignorance. Is it not painful to see that in a village like this one only 62 people out of more than 200 have reached the sixth grade? And I am sure that many of them reached the sixth grade only after the triumph of the Revolution; and they include some that are now in high school; many people continued their studies.

Is it not painful that nearly 10% of the people in this town are illiterate? In today’s world, is it possible to live without any kind of training? Is it possible to create all the wealth and develop all the means of production that this country needs in order to build 4000 schools like this one, and meet all the needs of every person and every family? It's impossible to do all that without a technical training!

Today, an illiterate is a person who cannot read or write, but in the future society... not in the future society, today even, almost every time that we have to open a new entity, a new factory, we find that people cannot work in the factory unless they have the proper technical training.

And we encounter the results of our past situation constantly, in the shortage of professors, in the shortage of teachers, in the shortage of cadres, in the shortage of technicians, in the shortage of everything.

In the future society we will call an illiterate someone who has a sixth grade education, because a person with only a sixth grade will not be able to do anything and will be a useless person. In the future we will need that there are not just 62 out of a 200 persons in a village but in the future will need that one hundred percent of the people have studied to and past the sixth grade.

In this sense, I want to say that so far education is compulsory up to the sixth grade, but the Revolutionary Government intends to pass a law making secondary education compulsory also for all children in the corresponding age (APPLAUSE). And not only secondary education; the intention of the Revolutionary Government is to establish compulsory education up to the university level.

This means that by law the secondary and pre-university education will be compulsory in our country for all the people in the corresponding ages. We will not force any person who is not in school age to study, of course not! It will be for all the children.

With the cooperation of all parents, we have to take steps to ensure that not a single child is absent from school so that all can continue to study after they finish primary school and later at the senior high level or at a technological institute once they finish high school.

There is another issue: the Military Service is being transformed. We will progressively establish military-type institutions in senior high schools and technological institutes, so that men and women do their military service (APPLAUSE) during their senior high school studies or while at a technological institute. It is the duty of every citizen to be able to handle a weapon, it is the duty of every citizen to be able to defend the homeland (APPLAUSE) so that if the time comes to defend the country there are not just a few also who are trained to do it or just a few who are willing to make sacrifices, to give their life and their blood for their country, because the homeland belongs to all (APPLAUSE).

When the homeland was for just a privileged few, the word “homeland “ had no meaning; when the land was in the hands of speculators or latifundia owners, the land on which we lived had no meaning; the only thing we owned was the air that we could breathe, and that was only because they could not register it as their property nor lock the air inside a warehouse.

But of course, today the concept of homeland is different. When the land belongs to all, when the wealth belongs to all, when opportunities are open to everyone, when the country can really be said to belong to everyone, only those who don’t have the most elementary notion of the term homeland, only the privileged or those who aspire to be privileged abandon their homeland and leave. Therefore, we don’t lose anything at all when these people leave; that is why we have not done anything to prevent them from going there to enjoy the crumbs that their imperialist master gives them. We will develop this homeland, we'll make it great with the efforts of those who really feel for their homeland today and really have a sense of patriotism (APPLAUSE).

It is necessary that you, it is necessary that the workers, especially the workers in the capital, raise your awareness. It should be noted that despite all the data that I explained, almost 50% of the country's resources were being consumed in the capital; however, all the privileged, all the rich had come to live in the capital. So it means that they were not workers only, not workers only. So of the people who requested a permit to leave for the United States, most of them, more than 50%, a 62.22% who have requested to leave the country are residents of the capital of the Republic and of the province of Havana.

That is why it is necessary that the workers, the revolutionaries, the CDRs, are on the alert, because there are tens of thousands of those people who cannot be in the mood to help in any way, to cooperate at all, quite the contrary, they will do all they can to be justified morally, will do everything in their power to sow distrust, defeatism, pessimism among revolutionaries. It is necessary that the population of Havana knows that; that the activists, workers, women and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution know that there are tens of thousands of those who very quietly – because they don’t carry a sign – have requested to leave and are anxiously waiting for the little boat to arrive. And we will not prevent that their boat or their plane arrives and that they leave, but we have no obligation to tolerate that those who are leaving try to hurt those who stay here or try to undermine the work of those who are staying here (APPLAUSE). Don’t expect any sign of appreciation from those people, although many of them have been living doing nothing, or off small businesses like those. As a matter of fact, the more they hate the people, the better the reception they will be given there, the more “gusanos⁶” they are, the better the reception they will be given there; the more vagrant, the more parasites, the more lumpen, the more counterrevolutionary they are, the better the reception they will be given there. And that's a business for them now.

Also, just as these privileges are eliminated...Many of those people have lived a very comfortable life here and have been sending letters to the United States and receiving packages. Even some Cuban workers were injured by a bomb that was sent inside one of those packages. In the United States itself, bombing attacks have also been perpetrated by the people who have engaged in terrorist activities which might claim the lives of Cuban workers. They say they do it because those packages are a help to the Revolution; that’s a help to the “gusanera”⁷ who usually receives these packages! If they don’t want to they don’t have to plant bombs and they will not need to plant bombs because the Revolutionary Government also intends to permanently suspend the dispatch of packages from the United States to Cuba (APPLAUSE). For reasons of transportation and airlines agreements we will not suspend that activity when it originates in Mexico, even in other countries, from where very few are sent; but we will totally suspend the dispatch of packages and things from the United States; and there were many who offensively showed off the goodies they were sent from the United States, showing them to the revolutionaries in a provocative way trying to humiliate the revolutionary people. Whoever wants to go is free to go! But that mess is over and of those goodies from the United States there will be none in this country! (APPLAUSE).

I wish to note that in the framework of the revolutionary offensive we have expropriated not only the private bars but have closed all state bars, all the bars. This does not mean that we are forbidding people to have a beer, of course not!, but they should buy it where it should be bought and drink it at home or wherever they wish, because there is no reason for us to promote drunkenness. What should be promoted is the spirit of work! (APPLAUSE). So the state bars have been closed; such "timbiricheo⁸" is not beneficial and is not in the interest of our working people.

We are also planning to meet with comrade Pastorita and the comrades working in INAV⁹ to discuss the total abolishment of the lottery (APPLAUSE). For a time, the Institute for Savings and Housing played the role of tax collector, of collector of funds, at a time when there were still lots of people with lots of money. As there will no longer be lots of people with lots of money there is no reason for it to remain. It makes no sense to raise funds from the working people, funds from the workers. Additionally, it fosters the deification of money, the mystique of money, the idea to try to solve the problems through luck and not through work. And what we must teach the people is that their work, their sweat, their effort is the only thing that can make them have the goods they need, it's the only thing that can make the people rich. It is selfish for a person to want to become rich as an individual; to try to solve problems through luck is not a virtue.

Many people in the past were used to that. There may even be many people who play the lottery to enjoy the excitement of hearing the winning number: many people in the countryside and everywhere. Well, we may need to change the sources of excitement; we may need to listen to the radio to know which baseball team is the winner, whether Industriales, or Habaneros, or Azucareros or Orientales. We have no choice but to change the emotions. Of course, many people got used to that many years ago, many humble people. However, we believe that at present that institution plays no role, and that institution makes more damage than good. In addition, the gusanera in Miami use the Cuban lottery; they know that there is no cheating here so they blindly trust the drum that drops the numbers, and almost all gambling houses in the United States relied on the Cuban lottery. But there were some lumpens out there, some parasites making a profit out of that too here in Cuba, living off illegal gambling and the like. So in the revolutionary offensive campaign we must eliminate all the conditions that could contribute in one way or another to parasitism.

And we are very happy that it is here, in this village of fishermen, of workers, in the presence of the workers who built this wonderful school, in the presence of the children of outstanding workers, in the presence of revolutionary teachers, in the presence of students in the “School in the countryside” program, in this rally, that we have had the opportunity to complement the ideas that were expressed at the University stairway on March 13 (APPLAUSE).

To all the children – who were already very good students when they were at a very humble school and now have the best, most modern and best equipped school in the country – and to all their families I say that we wish that you will remain at the forefront, and that you will study hard in order to be able to take part in the work that will allow us one day to have a school like this one for all the children of our country.

Homeland or Death!
We shall overcome!
(OVATION)

1 Translator’s Note: Ministry of Construction.

2 Translator’s Note: Sweet-flavoured drink frozen in glass-shaped or similar sized containers.

3 Translator’s Note: Sweet-flavoured drink served on crushed ice (snow cones).

4 Translator’s Note: People who stayed in the long queus that were made at stores, shops, restaurants, etc, and sold their place in the line.

5 Translator’s Note: Illegal taxi drivers.

6 Translator’s Note: Counterrevolutionaries.

7 Translator’s Note: Referring to the counterrevolutionaries as a group

8 Translator’s Note: Commercial, sometimes ilegal, activity for easy money.

9 Translator’s Note: Institute for Savings and Housing.