Cargando...Raúl Torres’s song summed it up for all of us. And that truth can be told by each person from the moment they met him—the word that shook them, the courage in the face of every enemy, the kindness toward friends, the real and positive reasoning in every challenge, the contagious and knowing smile, the hand placed on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement and trust.
Fidel is the Commander in Chief of the Cuban people because he earned it through his example and his deeds. No one else could ask the people for the hardest sacrifices in the most turbulent times, just as no one else inspired more heroism and effort than his own olive-green legacy—from the Sierra Maestra to that speech at the University of Havana, where he warned us of all the dangers of destroying a Revolution.
Many of us are rebellious children of Fidel. We were even there at his speech on September 28, 2010, in front of the old Presidential Palace, where photojournalist and documentarian Roberto Chile captured the image of the cap with the star—a symbol and guide, light and hope, justice and peace. We share it as a gift for his 99th birthday.
Today, we need his earth-shaking strength to overcome the toughest obstacles; his sincerity to reflect each step we take and inject optimism; his will to break molds and make possible what many call impossible; and that leadership not based on political positions, but on his way of communicating, of doing politics, and of living alongside the breath of his people.
Raúl Torres’s song summed it up for all of us. We are children of a father whom, just hours before his birthday, we remember simply as the greatest, the most loyal—who, like us, made mistakes, but never betrayed his principles and never accepted undeserved praise. That’s why we join him once again in this celebration. The grateful ones—his grateful ones.
