Once again they want to divide us, to confuse us, to subdue us. The Cuban intelligentsia is heir to a solid patriotic and cultural tradition committed to social justice, educated in study, but also in the incomparable experiences of an authentic and victorious Revolution, harassed by U.S. imperialism.
Cuban culture was forged in the manigua, in the anti-Machadist struggle, in the Sierra and in the Llano, in the Girón and in literacy, in military and civil internationalism, in the heroic construction of a new world. Difficult times define peoples, and mark the character of people.
To be brave, when sailing in turbulent waters, is not to cling to the “impossible,” to shout that the ship may sink; it is to face the storm, to hold the rudder tightly while the wind and the water hit the face, and the ground leaves the feet.
To be brave, when the nation is in danger, is to face the enemy, to fight, and simultaneously, to build, to repair, to unite, to create. “Others will propagate vices,” wrote José Martí, “or dissimulate them: we like to propagate virtues.” Cowards claim the right to be tired, to think about themselves (not for themselves), to “freedom of speech,” to repeat what the enemy, apparently stronger, whispers. They invoke supposed constitutional rights to betray. They have been colonized, and enthusiastically defend the opinions and interests of their colonizers.
Their attitude is more abject if they know history and know that their main line has been, since the 19th century, the relationship between imperialism and a Homeland born of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist Revolution; it is more vile if they have ever read Martí, Maceo, Mella, Guiteras, Martínez Villena, Roig de Leuchsenring, Fernando Ortiz, Che Guevara, Fidel.
What do they pretend, what do they expect, are not these small-minded people so ignorant to believe that freedom is in submission to the imperial master; the ephemeral applause of their mentors will fade away, there is no possible glory nor work that lasts, in apostasy.
The individual freedom we enjoy to create, to express our opinions, to think -which was possible thanks to the Revolution-, cannot be exercised to restrict the freedom of the people, and reduce or tie up national independence.
The legitimate diversity of styles, of perspectives, of looks; the doubts and certainties of our creators, the committed and critical thinking, spring from a common source: the Revolution. “The proud man believes that the earth was made to serve him as a pedestal -Martí also wrote- because he has an easy pen or a colorful word, and he accuses his native republic of being incapable and irremediable.”
We will not allow the arrogant and cowards to recode the symbols and steal our words, to disguise themselves as revolutionaries, to surrender the country, their dreams, to cancel our brief and brave history of struggles. Freedom in Cuba is the path of all: it is not achieved by those who pursue it only for themselves.
José Martí’s Centennial Generation bequeathed us a free, more just Homeland; Fidel’s Centennial Generation will defend that freedom, will extend it; it will leap over the false impossibilities to open new paths to justice. Cuban writers and artists will not allow ourselves to be confused and divided, we will never accept submission.
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