“Máximo Gómez. Humble son of this people, knew how to transform himself into the outstanding and cherished son of the Cuban people by the right earned through his struggle for the independence of Cuba, to which he contributed his might and his machete, his military genius and his valour, a remarkable political talent and profound revolutionary philosophy.”
Quotes
"I am very aware, and I have been aware throughout my life, that Bolívar was the man whom José Martí admired the most. Bolívar, Venezuela and their people were always what Cubans admired the most. Bolívar, Venezuela, their people and their feats always inspired my dreams as a Latin American and Cuban revolutionary.’’
"All languages should survive! Out of 6000 or 7000 languages in the world, some 2000 have been lost in recent years and it has been estimated that in the next 20 years, another 2000 will be lost. When a dialect is lost it is human spiritual wealth that loses and history, our history as human beings, the history of how we evolved from animals into humans. Sometimes, however, I think that there are many animals that have never known slavery, capitalism nor the exploitation of animals by animals, which often behave better than humans do".
“To begin with, I will say that neither in the first or the second half of this century nor at any other time in history has a country done or achieved as much in sports as Cuba in an extremely short period of time. And it is a small Third World country, one that is additionally subjected to an economic blockade by the wealthiest and mightiest nation on Earth as well as to a thousand different forms of harassment and aggression”.
“I am firmly convinced that the current economic order imposed by the wealthy countries is not only cruel, unjust, inhuman and contrary to the inevitable course of history but also inherently racist. It reflects racist conceptions like those that once inspired the Nazi holocaust and concentration camps of Europe, mirrored today in the so-called refugee camps of the Third World, which actually serve to concentrate the effects of poverty, hunger and violence. These are the same racist conceptions that inspired the monstrous system of apartheid in Africa.”
“Revolution is the sense of the historical moment; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and freedom; it is being treated and treating others like human beings; it is emancipating ourselves, by ourselves and with our very own efforts; it is challenging the dominant powerful forces within and outside of the social and national arena; it is defending the values one believes in at the cost of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is fighting with audacity, intelligence and realism; it is never telling a lie or violating ethical principles; it is the profound conviction that there is no force on earth that can crush truth and ideas. Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and the world that is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism."
"In my view, it is remarkable about the history of our Revolution that it has resisted all attempts to destroy it, and in this sense, that day in which the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were founded was truly historical".
“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”.
Speech delivered by Fidel Castro, on the 40th Anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution
"History has shown that it is only from deep crisis that great solutions have emerged. The peoples’ right to life and justice will definitely impose itself under a thousand different shapes".
“The dark clouds on the horizon of the world today, will not prevent the Cubans from continuing to work restlessly on our wonderful social and cultural programs as we are persuaded that it is a human endeavor unparalleled in history”.
“All throughout history, almost every action intended to attain national independence, including that of the American people, was carried out with the use of weapons and nobody ever questioned, or would question, that right. But, the deliberate use of weapons to kill innocent people must be definitely condemned and eradicated for it is as unworthy and inhuman as it is repulsive, the same as the historic terrorism perpetrated by the oppressing states”.
“For the first time in human history, our species is facing a real threat of extinction. It is endangered not only by the destruction of its natural habitat, but also by grave political threats, increasingly sophisticated weapons of mass destruction and extermination, and extremist doctrines backed by lethal and annihilating force.”