The name of Cuba will go down in history for ever because of what it has done and is still doing for humanity in the fields of education, culture and health in the most difficult period that our species has known.
I believe in the unity of all the countries in the world, in the unity of all the peoples in the world and in a free unity, a truly free unity. I am not thinking of a fusion but of a free unity of all cultures in a truly just world, in a truly democratic world.
“The merits of the Cuban Revolution can be measured by the fact that such a small nation has for so long been capable of putting up a resistance against the hostile policy and criminal actions carried out against our people by the most powerful empire ever in the history of mankind, the same that was in the habit of handling the countries of the hemisphere in its own way thus it underestimated a small, dependent and poor nation located a few miles off its coasts.
"In the mind of the Olympic founder, the idea of salaried sports or the buying and selling of athletes never occurred. That was also the noble objective of the Cuban Revolution, involving the duty of promoting sports just as health, education, science, culture and the arts, always the undeniable principles of the Revolution".
“But I insist that truly a people shall be stronger, they will have a much more secure future, related to how much culture, how much training they have in all aspects; but especially how much more political culture, revolutionary culture, that people have.”
"Art and oratory, culture and the revolutionary message have merged almost inseparably in our historical process. The knowledge, general culture and political consciousness of the Cuban people are growing swiftly."
“They left to us the example which has inspired our people --day after day, piece by piece, and idea upon idea-- to turn Cuba from a Spanish colony first and a humiliating imperialist domain later into the most independent and free nation on Earth; from a slavery society, full of injustices and inequalities, into the most fraternal and just country that the world has known.”
Many citizens in the richest nation of the world do not receive the same treatment, and a considerable number of them do not even vote. However, that right is exercised quite often by more than 90 per cent of our population, which knows how to read and write and has acquired a not inconsiderable culture and political knowledge.
“A world like the one he dreams of to fight diseases, a world like the one we dream of, a world like the one you all dream of is possible, yes, very possible when men have the knowledge, the education and the awareness necessary to live and act with the true spirit of brotherhood, to live and act with the true spirit of justice.”
“It seems to me that one of the best things that is being done in our country is the revolution we are carrying out in education, which includes a general comprehensive education, that includes not just the professional knowledge a person must possess but the minimum of cultural knowledge in order to possess an artistic culture, a general culture and a political culture.[…].”