Saturday, August 13, 2016

Maduro writes Fidel

The Venezuelan President sends Fidel congratulations and celebrates the 62nd anniversary of the revolutionary assaults on the Batista dictatorship’s Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons, July 26, 1953

July 28, 2015 10:07:46
Miraflores, July 26, 2015
Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz
Our father and teacher:
From the heart of the people of Bolívar and Chávez, I would like to send you testimony of our respect, admiration and affection, 62 years since the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons. On this glorious anniversary, we celebrate your dear presence and the indispensable reference you represent. We celebrate the father and teacher of revolutionary men and women of Our America and the world – the father and teacher of our beloved son, our Eternal Comandante.
We celebrate the great leader who at the head of a handful of the brave, a group of women and men motivated by what Martí called patriotic shame, headed what would become a real, true assault on the future.
That July 26 of 1953, heroism and sacrifice shone at their highest level to vindicate the brilliant, lasting legacy of José Martí. Not in vain, in that memorable defense which is your ‘History will resolve me,’ you indicated that the intellectual author and maximum leader of the assault was none other than Martí.
Sixty-two years have now passed since the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes assaults, yet, Comandante Fidel, today we feel more than ever the living flame of liberation which burns this day throughout Our America, and beyond, lighting a path which several generations have already followed, a path which continues and will continue.
Since 1953, until our days, the spirit of many Moncadas has kindled and kindles the struggles of the Greater Homeland’s peoples for our definitive independence. It can well be said that July 26 has reached a long life. And as the great Cuban singer-songwriter Noel Nicola said, there is a calendar full of 26ths.
Haydée Santamaría, Melba Hernández, Raúl Gómez García, Boris Santa Coloma, Abel Santamaría, Giraldo Córdova Cardín, Juan Almeida, there are so many dear names of those who have physically departed, but who continue to illuminate from the place so beautifully named by the immense Cuban voice which is Fina García Marruz, ... there where the light does not forget its warriors.
Every July 26, when the past again assaults us, Comandante, the memory shines bright once more to remind those of us who have made the banner of Revolution our own, that only the sacrifices raise and make possible a future more our own.
Believe me, Comandante, the unforgettable memory of Moncada is projected in us, men and women, as our most irrefutable revolutionary commitment. We are sons and daughters of Bolívar, as we are of José Martí, Fidel and Che. Certainly, true revolutions are not carbon copies, as Mariátegui said, but rather heroic creations of each people. But we are conscious that the Cuban Revolution is the fundamental cornerstone within the Greater Homeland’s historic development.
The homeland is an altar, not a pedestal, Martí said. That combatative consummation that was the Moncada assault, seen from a distance, is the historical incarnation of the sacrificial stone envisioned by Martí, before which the best of human souls are left, to then await revelations. And just look what a collective revelation that July 26 generated: a victorious Revolution.
I imagine that when the decisive hour in 1953 arrived, in you, Comandante, that impressive certainty resonated, based on Martí’s belief that the true man does not look to the side where one lives better, but to the side of duty, and this is the same practical man whose dream of today will be the rule of tomorrow.
On dates such as this of dignity and victory, the presence of our giant can be felt with greater intensity. More intimately today, Fidel, I recall his words for you because I identify with them, and fully subscribe to them: I would like to render tribute to Fidel and to his long walk among our peoples, awakening us. Fidel is a soldier, a dreamer, undoubtedly an example for us and for entire generations of Latin Americans, Caribbeans and fighters around the world.
With great revolutionary fervor, accept the strongest and most infinite of embraces from one who feels himself a Moncadista of these times of Latin American and Caribbean Revolution.
Chávez lives, the homeland advances!
Forever onward to victory!
Independence and a socialist homeland!
We will live and win!
Long live the sisterhood of Cuba and Venezuela!
Long live Chávez!

Long live Fidel!

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