"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".
Quotes
“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.”
“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.”
“Honor is not negotiable; the homeland is not negotiable; dignity is not negotiable; independence, sovereignty, history and glory are not negotiable!”In the closing ceremony of the first International Congress on Culture and Development
“The homeland, brothers and sisters, is the task of all those who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for it. It is an altar and not a pedestal, as Marti used to say: an altar where each and everyone will lay down their best, without any noise or alarm, for the benefit of a collective work that cannot be postponed, and not a platform or pedestal to raise up a futile pretence of accumulating dubious and belated merits based on intrigue or treason.”
“Thank you for coming to bolster us in this difficult struggle we are involved in today to save the ideas for which you fought so valiantly, to save the Revolution, the homeland and the conquests of socialism, which is a part that has been carried out of the great dreams you harboured!”
“Don’t let yourselves be confused by anything, don’t ever let anyone deceive you. This is our hope, that our country never goes backwards, that this Revolution never goes backwards and that all the dignity and glory which we have acquired can never be destroyed. This is our commitment and our pledge to our glorious and heroic comrades who have given their lives for this cause.”
“Today there are higher ideals. Before we were fighting for our country; today we’re fighting for the world and we’re doing so for two reasons. Firstly, we have acquired an awareness of humanity, so beautifully expressed in Martí’s phrase, "The homeland is humanity". Secondly, because we have acquired these concepts through Martí’s teachings and our political, revolutionary, Marxist, Leninist, socialist education.”
"(...) asking for, and should definitely fight for, is for the inevitable globalization taking place today according to the laws of history to be the globalization of fraternity and cooperation among all peoples, of sustainable development and a fair distribution and rational use of the abundant material and spiritual riches that man can create with his hands and mind, as an indispensable premise for the inescapably common homeland of a humanity that can, and should, endure".
"Building awareness, shaping the character, educating in the tough school of life in our times, instilling solid ideas, using irrefutable arguments, preaching by the example and trusting man's honor can create a situation where, out of every ten, nine will remain at their combat position alongside the flag, alongside the Revolution and alongside the Motherlan."
"Today more than ever we must be followers of Bolívar. Now more than ever we must raise the banner with the concept that humanity is our motherland, aware that we can only be saved if humanity is saved. We can only be free --and we are very far from being free-- if and when humanity is free. If and when we achieve a really fair world, which is possible and probable, although from so much observing, meditating and reading, I have reached the conclusion that humanity has very little time left to achieve this".
“Today more than ever we must be followers of Bolívar. Now more than ever we must raise the banner with the concept that humanity is our motherland, aware that we can only be saved if humanity is saved. We can only be free --and we are very far from being free-- if and when humanity is free. If and when we achieve a really fair world, which is possible and probable”.