Every oath is, at the same time, a moral commitment. Whoever swears, whatever the context, pledges word and attitude, knowing the obstacles, the sometimes immense challenges. That is why what is truly difficult, and at the same time honorable, is not the act of swearing in itself, but to fulfill, fully, what has been sworn by free and spontaneous will.
Today is one of those days in which we remember an exceptional oath, which did not start from one, but from millions of individual decisions that, combined in our sacred conscience as a people, marked the collective will to follow without deviations the chosen path of justice, and to choose ideas, as the main battlefield.
A barbaric action like few others had unleashed the indignation of this people. The kidnapping of a Cuban child, held against his will, separated from his father and family, crudely used as an object of exchange by the anti-Cuban mafia, by the enemies of the Revolution, put the Island on a fighting position.
The squares in every corner of the country were built for demonstrations, and the collective demand to Free Elian! was, at the same time, a denunciation against the Cuban Adjustment Act, a stimulus for the illegal departure of people, and against all the maneuvers, always latent, to destabilize the nation.
In that context, and under Fidel's leadership, the Cuban people arrived on February 19, 2000, at the Mangos de Baraguá grove. The symbolism of the place, where Maceo's revolutionary intransigence saved the honor of the Liberation Army, served as a source of inspiration and wise nourishment for a similar irreconcilable stance; this time before a different enemy, but with the same principle that peace without freedom did not admit negotiations, and that the offenses to the dignity of this people would never go unnoticed.
COMMON CAUSE
With the firmness of that heroic mambí leader, and knowing that he was the heir and continuator of his life in another time, Fidel raised his voice on that glorious day. Many truths became clear then. "The struggle for the return of the kidnapped Cuban child became the first episode of a much longer struggle (...) it marks the point at which the great battle ahead of us is unleashed to put an end to the causes that have given rise to such a cruel and painful event. What would the simple return of this child be worth if tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, any day of any week, any month or any year, another Elián, dozens of Eliáns, hundreds of Eliáns, thousands of Eliáns, may disappear in the turbulent waters?
We will never forget the cause that united us. Alive in our memory -even for those of us who, even as children, understood the reason for that struggle, and for the first time felt part of something that surpassed us-, are the images of massive rallies, of a firm Fidel under in the pouring rain, with the people beside him. Elián's was the empty desk in every Cuban classroom, and his companions were all the children of this land.
That tireless battle bore the best of fruits. That little village boy was able to grow up with his father, he was able to embrace the major architect of each day of wakefulness for his absence. But as we had sworn, his return was not an end, it was another beginning, and after the months in which we never rested, we understood once again that in unity lay the foundation of our strength.
OATH FOR TODAY
Twenty-five years later, each letter subscribed by the people of Cuba in the Oath of Baraguá is still in force, just as the blockade, the campaign to discredit the social work we defend, the harassment of our younger generations so that they renounce their identity, and with it, the feeling of Cuban citizenship, are still in force.
The context is adverse, not only because of the way in which "the good neighbors" have intensified their hostilities against Cuba, but also because of the enormous differences that are looming in our world, because of the instability of powers, because of the extreme fragility of peace.
Reality is convulsive, and therefore, the determination that accompanies us is greater. To overcome, to rebuild, to refound with a shared effort, without losing essence or roots, is a conviction that summons us, occupies us and strengthens us.
Returning to that memorable day, we understand that the words spoken there could well have been written today, because they are, more than lines on paper, a translation of what we are, of the values that distinguish us, of our way of being and living. It is not necessary an excessive abstraction to feel the voice of the Commander saying, once again:
"Cuba discovers itself, its geography, its history, its cultivated intelligences, its children, its young people, its teachers, its doctors, its professionals, its enormous human work (...); it trusts more than ever in itself; it understands its modest but fruitful and promising role in today's world. Its invincible weapons are its revolutionary, humanist and universal ideas".
The Oath of Baraguá was, and still is, the confirmation that Cuba has never conceived sovereignty and progress if, as Martí once warned us, it does not contribute in that endeavor also to the sovereignty and progress of others. We have even become the voice of those who have no voice, and that shows that our oath was also an attitude taken towards others, the humble, the unprotected.
We are still on trial, and we know it, but resignation is not written in our genes. As they once did in the most complex days of the claim for the return of Elián, they are once again betting on fatigue, suffocation, and increasingly inhuman pressures, "How badly they know our people!
An oath like that one, which we signed out of love and conviction, which we embraced out of patriotic heritage and sense of justice, which we keep intact, out of duty and commitment to history, will never be a dead letter that can be trampled by an invader.
That immense man knew it well: "our struggle will adopt a thousand different forms and styles. The masses will always be ready; the transmission of the message will be permanent, the forces and energies will continue to be accumulated and saved for every necessary or decisive minute".
If by now they have not understood this, if they still insist on the lost cause, it is out of sheer arrogance and wounded pride. Our oath was yet another proof of their failure, and we took it from Baraguá, because with those who threaten the freedom of the Homeland, rest assured: "We do not understand each other!"
