Good men and women speak a common language: the humanist language. And as they are always immersed in the essential, they assume the borders of the world as simple administrative lines. From that vision, a historic meeting took place between the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the U.S. Youth Brigade Let Cuba Live, of the International Assembly of the Peoples.
"We had to come to Cuba to meet ourselves and our own struggle," said young Manolo de los Santos, director of The People's Forum and U.S. social leader, who moderated a two-hour exchange in the Portocarrero Hall of the Palace of the Revolution with beautiful ideas.
In the meeting - in which also participated the first secretary of the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists, Meyvis Estévez Echavarría; and the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Fernando González Llort - the Cuban Head of State affirmed that the American students have generated a "very singular" social and political movement in his country.
They, he said, are an expression of how, in such complicated issues, good feelings, those of justice, freedom and emancipation can make their way through.
AN INACCESSIBLE WHITE HOUSE; A CUBA THAT WELCOMES US
"We are extremely grateful to the people of Cuba for receiving us in these times", assured Manolo de los Santos, when opening the debate.
The young man stressed that, despite the problems, the people of Cuba have not ceased to be in solidarity, not only with them, but also with the whole world.
"How rare this opportunity, for young Americans, to be able to meet with a President... We have been mobilizing for months in the United States, demanding that our President listen to us, and today we woke up to see a White House surrounded, fenced in, impossible to reach. But here we arrive in Cuba and a revolutionary, socialist, honest, humane President receives us openly and wants to listen to our questions", reflected the moderator.
Díaz-Canel invited those present to ask questions and criticize "something they consider wrong". For the Cuban people, he added, "it is going to be very good to know how young people like you think."
"This is a small but very resilient nation," said student Celine Qussiny. For her, the imperial blockade causes Cuba to face many problems. It is a siege, she denounced, set up by the same government that attacks Palestine.
The next step was a first question presented by the friendly group: How has this Revolution -which did not begin in 1959, but much earlier- been evolving? The students wanted to know about it, particularly about the stage of the last 60 years.
Understanding the magnitude of the issue, President Díaz-Canel said that the answer could be either very long or very short, but that he would do his best to give it from an intermediate point. There he began a journey through various stages of the Island's history, and summarized that Cuba has gone from adversity to adversity, and from triumph to triumph, without losing a fidelist conviction from his horizon, inherited from all previous struggles: "What there can never be is surrender".
"LET'S MAKE THAT WORLD BETTER, BOYS!"
How Cuba sees the Palestinian liberation process, the students asked. And that was the starting point for the President to affirm that the world has awakened at this moment in history, starting from the Palestinian cause.
It is as if - Díaz-Canel reflected - the market had spread a blanket of idiocy over societies. Thus, he spoke about a world marked by uncertainty, by the adverse climate situation, by the inequalities that have increased after COVID-19, by wars....
The President meditated on how so many human beings have died in such a short time. He paid special attention to the martyrdom of women and children, and wondered aloud: "What can there be in the conscience of those who have waged this war?
Palestine hurts, it has to hurt us, he mentioned, to assert that in that land their children are defending human dignity. "I believe that everything we do for Palestine is not enough".
We want a better world, where there is more equality, a fairer world; that world is possible, what we have to do is to defend it. Thus reflected the Head of State, who added that the world is defended as the Cubans do day by day, despite the blockade; and as the Palestinian people also do.
"We are going to make the world a better place, guys!" the President called with firmness and optimism.
"HERE WE FIGHT EVERY DAY"
How do you face pessimism; how do you invent optimism in such difficult issues, asked Manolo de los Santos to President Diaz-Canel. That was the launching pad for the dignitary to enumerate many of the problems that plague life in Cuba; among them, the lack of medicines and food, blackouts, shortages of all kinds....
"And one says: you have to show your face, you have to be in the streets," said the head of state. To respond to the current challenges, Diaz-Canel ratified the confidence in history; the other path he spoke about was ethics: "we must explain the truth", he said; and the third element -he stressed- is what is fair, the Law.
The imperialist logic, which is based on economic and media asphyxiation, was also explained in detail by the dignitary, who expressed that "here we fight every day", and that the logic of socialist construction is put before the adversary's plan.
QUESTIONS ON HOPE
How to make the future part of the hope of young people in Cuba? What are the main issues being debated today in the spheres of the Communist Party and the Government?
Based on these questions posed by the students, the Head of State continued sharing reflections alluding to the value of ideas, and all the effort deployed by the Revolution in social projects; and among the essential issues being discussed, he said, is that of generational continuity.
On the latter, Diaz-Canel referred to the challenge of maintaining continuity despite the fact that the current generations are already far away, in the timeline, from the First of January 1959. And he spoke of other cardinal challenges: How to ensure that Fidel will always remain among us? How to ensure that all the revolutionary epic, all the greatness, will not be lost?
"We can win, but we have to believe it", said the Cuban President at another moment of the meeting, and he also warned that it is a long struggle, and that there will be generations that will not see the fruits of the effort, but that they will have created the conditions for the triumph of future generations.
The afternoon at the Portocarrero Hall -the same space where so many times Fidel took his long steps- was full of emotions and very useful truths. Among many other certainties, Díaz-Canel expressed that "what the peoples defend is what triumphs".
Manolo de los Santos -who had already called the blockade suffered by Cuba "silent genocide"- told the hosts at the Palace of the Revolution about a week full of emotions, about dialogues with young Cubans who "are not robots", who have a very critical discourse.
"Cuba for us is also what Palestine means. It is the flag of our generation," said the director of The People's Forum, who did not let the day pass without first giving heartfelt thanks. The social leader assured that Cuba, the Revolution and its leaders can count on them -the young people who have made headlines in the world for their protests and for the way they have been mistreated. And that this will be the case today, tomorrow and always.
