Citas

“The peoples of the Americas freed themselves from Spanish colonialism at the beginning of the last century, but they did not free themselves from exploitation. The feudal landowners assumed the authority of the Spanish rulers, the Indians continued in painful servitude, the Latin American man in one form or another remained a slave and the minimal hopes of the peoples succumbed under the power of the oligarchies and the strap of foreign capital”.

References to the original: Remarks at the Second National Assembly of the People of Cuba held at the Revolution Square, February 4, 1962
“It is essential that we believe in work consciousness.  Because capitalism created the consciousness of the exploitation of work, not in the consciousness of the need to work for the well-being of society.”
References to the original: Speech during the visit made to the Meses Primary School in Las Villas. September 15,1971

"The Revolution has taught us all the idea of human fraternity and solidarity. It has made us all the most profound brothers among whom the blood of one belongs to all and the blood of all belongs to each of the others (Applause). So it is that the sorrow is everyone’s, the mourning is everyone’s, but the invincible strength of millions of people is our strength. And our strength is not only the strength of one people, it is the strength of all the peoples who have now freed themselves from slavery and of all those in the world who struggle to eliminate exploitation, injustice and crime from human society".

References to the original: SPEECH AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE CUBANA AIRLINES PLANE DESTROYED IN FLIGHT ON OCTOBER 6, GIVEN IN REVOLUTION SQUARE, HAVANA, OCTOBER 15, 1976

“If there is something we are sure of, is that never again the predatory eagle symbolizing the empire will perch on these columns which were turned into a monument of what the empire was in our country and what will happen sooner or later, to its desire for enslaving the world.”

References to the original: Speech at the welcome act for the crew of the merchant ship “Hermann”, held at the monument to the “Maine”, in Havana, February 1, 1990

"Let it be the merits, the ability, the creative spirit and what man can contribute to the well-being of humanity that determine their differences and not theft, speculation or the exploitation of the weaker.  A humane spirit should truly be proclaimed, not with hypocritical words but with deeds"

References to the original: Speech given on the 40th Anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, held at Cespedes Park in Santiago de Cuba on January 1st,1999

“Once and for all, they crushed the absurd idea that the suffering endured, and the blood and tears spilled throughout almost a hundred years of struggle for independence and justice against Spanish colonialism and its slavery-based model of exploitation, and later against imperialist domination and the corrupt and bloody governments imposed on Cuba by the United States, were to serve for the rebuilding of a neocolonialist, capitalist and bourgeois society.We did it at the exact and precise moment in history, not a minute before and not a minute later, and we were daring enough to attempt it”.

References to the original:

"From day one of the revolutionary victory our country has never set obstacles to the legal emigration of Cuban citizens to the United States or to any other country. At the time of the triumph of the Revolution many people in Cuba, like in the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America, who endured poverty and underdevelopment, wanted to migrate to seek for better paid jobs and better living conditions than they could find in their countries subjected to centuries of exploitation and plundering. Until 1959, an extremely limited number of visas were issued to Cubans. After that, for obvious reasons, the gates were wide opened and that is how an important number of Cubans began settling in the United States".

References to the original: Key address at a mass rally in the "José Martí" Anti-imperialist Square, November 27, 2001