“From that day of that embrace, my humble life was forever sealed alongside the giant that is Fidel,” reads the caption at the top of an imposing painting, like the two men embracing in the image.
Those who observe it can let their imagination travel back in time and recreate in their minds a thousand stories about what those photographed might have been thinking at that moment. What no visitor to the newest room at the Cuartel de la Montaña in Venezuela—where the painting is on display—has doubted is the boost that Fidel and Chávez, together, would give to Our America after that first embrace.
Years later, the singer from Sabaneta recounted that after the Commander-in-Chief had welcomed him on the steps of the plane, they talked for much of the early morning. “I felt the eagle's gaze, asking questions, taking notes, and what was really happening was that he was evaluating me, weighing me up,” he recalled.
He had undoubtedly recognized in him the complete human being, the “son” of El Libertador, who would accompany him in his transformative projects aimed at vindicating our peoples.
A REVOLUTIONARY LATIN AMERICAN PROJECT
As a visionary, he was right. So much so that at the ceremony honoring then-Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez in December 1994, the Bolivarian leader himself said: “Someday we hope to come to Cuba in a position to extend our arms and mutually nourish each other in a revolutionary Latin American project, imbued, as we have been for centuries, with the idea of a Hispanic American, Latin American, and Caribbean continent, integrated as the single nation that we are.”
In turn, Fidel assured: “It is clear that if the ideas of Bolívar and Martí are consistently carried out, it will always lead to the end of injustice, to the end of exploitation; it will always lead to the desperate need for social justice that our peoples have; it will always lead to the conclusion that only the revolution (...) will solve the social problems of our peoples.”
From that moment on, both defended, through words and actions, the tarnished rights of many men in these lands. They built new realities, in which the dignity of nations was not trampled on by the common enemy of the north, nor by the iron capitalism that crushed roots, cultures, and decency: “We must build a new way of thinking that articulates our deep cultures, a ‘Nuestroamericano’ socialism, Martí and Bolivar follower,” urged the leader born in Barinas.
Thus, after the signing of the Sandino Pact, the Milagro Mission would restore sight to millions of people who never thought they would see the smiles of their loved ones again. The Barrio Adentro Mission, Cultura Corazón Adentro, education, sports, and many other projects in numerous areas of social life have, for more than 20 years, made a reality what seemed like a pipe dream for the Latin American region.
Fidel and Chávez, two irreverent rebels unlike any others of their time, brought to life the dreams of two great figures from other centuries: Bolívar and Martí. Their aspiration: to unite America, “from the Río Grande to Patagonia.”
Together, the Comandantes achieved, through ALBA—another of their enduring feats—the declaration of three Latin American countries as illiteracy-free territories: Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. They also founded the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM, for its Spanish acronym) in Cuba, which unhesitatingly graduates professionals who are more humane and committed to the needs of their homelands.
At the graduation ceremony for ELAM's first class, Chávez insisted that the binational relationship was “just” beginning. “The Bolivarian Revolution came from the people of Simón Bolívar to unite with the people of José Martí and the Cuban Revolution, and to unite with the peoples of Our America,” he said. By then, it was impossible to talk about one country without thinking about the other, especially when it came to advances in everyday life and the joint resolution of the needs of their people. Like the two leaders, their nations also merged and, above all, recognized each other after that embrace.
Since its creation, ALBA-TCP has been an alternative to the imperialist offensive to divide and make Latin American nations, and the so-called Global South in general, give up.
CELAC, for its part, is also a regional mechanism for integration and progress, in which the key thinking of the two giants has been sown as a foundation for forging the search for a more united and stronger Latin American and Caribbean left.
LIVE FOR JUSTICE
The vicissitudes of history have demonstrated Fidel's clarity when he said, in the Aula Magna of the Central University of Venezuela: “The time has come for the peoples to know how to defend themselves and to know how to assert their rights. Enough of submission!” It seems like a call to fight against injustice and mediocrity. Since then, our peoples have been freer in their thinking, which also means living with dignity.
And to that tireless battle for sovereignty and unity, to which Bolívar and Martí devoted their energies, these two courageous men also dedicated theirs. Regarding their destinies, Fidel would say in a letter to Chávez: “We will always live fighting for justice among human beings without fear of the years, months, days, or hours.”
Now, in the midst of the crises the world is experiencing, it is imperative that we return to the ideas of those who warned us of the destinies we face today. Let us then forge our American struggles in the necessary construction of a multipolar reality, in which justice and sovereignty are non-negotiable.
Magazines, gazettes, newspapers, seminars... No one dared to ignore the news of the moment. And there it can be read, in the room of the Cuartel de la Montaña, dedicated to the first embrace of the Commanders. The walls were decorated with copies of the media explosion that this event caused in 1994.
Printed publications from all over the world, and from all political perspectives, reported on the event, unable to hide their amazement or fail to mention the “danger” or good fortune that this meeting between giants could represent.
Both, in their moral greatness, knew that it was not just about them. To move the threads of regional history, nations willing to make the sacrifice that “everyone who carries light” must bear are needed. And Fidel and Chávez became the people, they are the people in these turbulent days, in which to silence the sorrows of centuries of slavery is to become an accomplice to pain.
