“Cuba´s ethnic and cultural roots are very different and such roots took hold for centuries”.
Quotes
“"Their society" of privileged minorities over exploited majorities, "their class order" which they maintain with blood and fire over the dispossessed, "the homeland" which they alone enjoy, depriving the rest of the people of that enjoyment, to repress the revolutionaries who aspire to a new society, a just order, a true homeland for all”.
"The tyranny of an order that imposes blind, anarchic and chaotic principles leading the human species toward an abyss must be stopped. Nature must be saved. National identities must be preserved. The culture of every country must be protected. Equality, fraternity and true liberty must prevail. The unfathomable gap between the rich and the poor countries, and within each country, must not continue to widen it must rather diminish until one day it ceases to exist. 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."
"A revolution can only be born from culture and ideas".
"Namely, that there can be no culture without sovereignty".
"Let’s speak of justice, freedom and human rights where there is equality, respect for everyone, culture for everyone because without culture there cannot be freedom, without culture you cannot even be a democrat."
"We dream of a world not ruled by a false single universal culture but rather where all cultures survive and develop; a world where all languages survive and develop".
"We will fight against this vicious law, this heinous and criminal law. We will keep fighting until it has been repealed. Only then can we be certain that thousands of innocent children will not be illegally uprooted from their homeland, from their schools, from their identities, and subjected to extreme dangers, or even death. No matter how much it hurts, the Revolution will continue to respect as something sacred the parental rights of our citizens and their right to leave with their children, by legal and safe means, for other countries, to opt for another identity, another kind of education, another culture, another flag".
“I believe that the only conception that can open the way to a rational idea of how the world of the future should be is the one that perceives the sum total of the material wealth necessary for a decent life –and we all know what that means-- with the unlimited creation of cultural and spiritual riches as the source of human wellbeing”.
“There is still much that our increasingly united, better-educated and stronger people can do. We will not rest in our heroic and worthy struggle. We will honor every objective we sworn in Baraguá. We will win the epic battle of ideas.”
“I wonder if any other country in the world has been so devoted to humankind, to educating its people. And now we have reached a higher stage, we are moving towards a comprehensive, multifaceted education which encompasses, among others, some things that many developed countries lack; because being rich does not mean being educated, as being developed does not mean being educated.”
“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”.