“We, in our country, have a concept: all our young people must be prepared to lead the country, all our young people must be prepared to defend the homeland. All of our young people, as their primary duty, must learn to read and write, all of them must acquire a revolutionary conscience.”
“We are fighting in the defence of the sacred Homeland and the Revolution, against the mercenary attack organized by the imperialist government of the United States.”
“Never have we even played around with a single principle just to receive favours from imperialism! And it has been in that spirit and with that awareness that our people have been brought up; in the spirit that other peoples’ causes cannot be sold, that principles cannot be downtrodden, that principles cannot be reviled.”
“This is highly symbolic because it shows us how crime cannot kill ideas, how crime cannot stop the victorious march of a people; how crime, no matter how monstrous, cannot kill life, and how the life of each one of us does not belong to ourselves, but it belongs to everyone. We are all part of something that is greater than we are, and that is Homeland, the people; our lives are part of the infinite and immortal life of the Cuban nation and of our revolutionary people.”
“The strength of this Revolution, the strength of this revolutionary army was built upon the sacrifice of many comrades, was built upon the lives of those who died defending this cause.
The “Henry Reeve” Brigade has been created, and whatever tasks you undertake in any part of the world or our own homeland, you shall always bear the glorious distinction of having responded to the call to assistance our brothers and sisters in the United States, and that nation’s humblest children especially, with courage and dignity.
Let’s go forward, generous defenders of health and of life, winners over pain and death itself!
“…work, organize and put into action the spirit of creation, the enthusiasm of Cuban women, so that Cuban women, in this stage of the revolutions, will see to the disappearance of the last shred of discrimination; and so that Cuban women, because of their virtues and merits, will take the place corresponding them in the country’s history.”
"In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don’t want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values. An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon Cuba.