-DATE- 19600523 -YEAR- 1960 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- THE PEOPLES RESPOND TO EVENTS CASTRO'S SPEECH IN -PLACE- PINAR DEL RIO -SOURCE- BULLETIN NO. 113 -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19600523 -TEXT- THE PEOPLE'S RESPOND TO EVENTS -- CASTRO'S SPEECH IN PINAR DEL RIO ON 20 MAY 1960 Source: Bulletin No. 113, Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Havana, 23 May 1960, pp 1-10 People of Pinar del Rio: More than a year ago, the first gathering after the revolutionary triumph was held in this city. It was, if I remember rightly, in the month of January of last year. This, then, is the second gathering I have had the opportunity of attending. There was one I missed, in the Province of Oriente, at which I could not be present. However, on this occasion, although it was not announced long ago and despite the fact that we all have great work to do, I did not want to miss this gathering of the people of Pinar del Rio. Not only many months, but many things have transpired in our country since then. On that first occasion the first revolutionary law had not been issued, and the work of the revolution had barely begun. On that occasion, we had only the faith of the people. The people had faith, the people believed. On that occasion we celebrated the hour of liberation, on that occasion our people, after seven long years of terror, began to sense the clam, the safety and the happiness which the revolution had brought us. At that time, our joy was not as it is today. That was a joy which derived from the feeling of those who had freed themselves of a threat hanging over them. For the mothers and the fathers, it was as if the fear of death for their children had been removed. For the peasant, we had taken away the terror of the rural guard, the threat of the machetes, etc. For the students and the workers in the cities, we had removed the threat of the tyrant's police. We, the revolutionaries, that is to say, the people themselves, had freed the country from the hired ruffians, the rascals, that whole band of criminals and evil individuals who had caused us to live in terror, who had made us live in the midst of danger and horror. This was the happiness on that occasion, the happiness of a people who had done away with a heavy threat which hung over them. It is possible that little by little we will forget, and it is natural, it is natural that we should become accustomed to living freely, and that those days should seem increasingly distant. Now we are hardly happy for the same reasons that we were a year ago, because other joys have come to replace the joy of yesterday. Today's joy is that of a people in what they have been creating, the happiness of today is not only because of what no longer hangs over us, but because of what we have done since the triumph of the revolution. The joy of today is also partly because we have done away with many things, because we have done away, for example, with many privileges and abuses. First of all, it was necessary to triumph over the hired ruffians. Then, we had to defeat the interests of the powerful, and we still have powerful adversaries and enemies to overcome. Today we are not happy because of a hope or a promise. Today we are happy because of the reality, and because of the fulfillment of some dreams. Moreover, there is a fact which we must take into account, and it is that today there are more people here than at that first gathering. And there is a reason for this. No one has given the individuals who came here a prize for doing so. The men and the women of the people who are here are not here for the reasons that they attended public ceremonies in the past, because they had been given or offered something. The men and the women who are here have come in an absolutely spontaneous and voluntary manner. In the past, some politicians could rally some people. On many occasions, citizens were forced to attend gatherings. There were workers on public projects who were obliged to attend certain meetings and government employees who ran the risk of losing their jobs if they did not attend. For this reason, what is important to us today is something other than the number of citizens who have gathered, something still more worthy of recognition -- the enthusiasm of the men and women who have gathered here, the faces of the men and women who have gathered here, the happiness and the faith of the men and women, the boys and girls, the young people and the old people, who have gathered here. Because this is worth much more than the number, because this is what says more and this is what inspires us more. And this is the manifestation of fact -- of what the revolution is doing and of the fact that the people recognize the work of the revolution. If there are more Cubans here today than on the earlier occasion, it is because the revolution has been serving the people. If the revolution were not serving its purpose, there would have been fewer citizens at this gathering this year. If the revolution had not fulfilled the hopes of our people, if the revolution had not done its work, if the revolution had not advanced, there would not be more citizens today than yesterday, because today they are not here because of the happiness resulting from that 1 January triumph, but because of the work which is being done. The peoples respond to events, they do not respond to words. they respond to deeds. And our people have suffered many deceptions, our people have been deceived many times, and how many times the people have nurtured the hope, how many times they have created a dream, but they were not long, not very long, in suffering. How many times has a hope arisen, but it was not long in being lost, because often our people were betrayed. Many of you who are gathered here are peasants, many are workers in the city, students, humble men and women of the people, and you will recall how long you have heard talk in Cuba of agrarian reform. There has been talk -- all the demagogues and the politicians talked of agrarian reform. For many years, there was talk of the poor rural people, and they used the phrases "the poor peasant," "the forgotten rural sector," It was said that they were exploited with the sharecropping contracts, that they did not own their land and that they had no land to work. It was said that they had no work, no schools, no credit. It was said that they paid very high interest, or paid double for bonds, or were charged more than the minimum prices established by law. It was said that speculators controlled tobacco, or that the politicians stole stabilization fund money. It was said that goods were high and there was speculation in urgently needed items. It was said that there many abuses in the rural sector, that the rural guard dealt machete blows to the workers and the peasants, or that the ministers stole school and hospital funds. It was said that such and such a gentlemen had purchased a 300 or 400 caballeria estate with the money he had stolen from the people, or that such and such was the owner of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, or that someone else was the owner of half of the Sierra de Los Organos Range, or that there was smuggling through La Coloma, La Esperanza, Mariel, or Cabanas. It was said that so and so had made himself rich, or that there were so many bottlers ... Everyone remembers that past, everyone remembers those days. The politicians came, and what did they do? The politicians came, and what did they offer us? They plastered the walls with posters, they tacked cartoons to the fences and palm trees. They did not come wearing palm sombreros, but fine straw hats. They did not come with men dressed in green, but with men dressed in yellow. They carried much money in their wallets and they had many flatterers in their courts of followers. And for how many years did they make their propositions? For how many years did they promise? For how many years did they beat their breasts? And shamelessly, year after year, election after election, reorganization after reorganization, they presented themselves, and it was always the same thing, always the same deception, always the same lies, always the same swindle. And how could we make the people believe that the evils in the republic could be corrected? And how could we rally the people in meetings? And what real hope could the people of Cuba have of resolving these evils by this path one day? What hope could there be while that institution existed, that institution called the army, armed to the teeth, which would never have been willing to renounce its privileges, and which was always on the side of the enemies of the people and of interests inimical to the fatherland? What hope was there of resolving these problems while there was this inviolate army, this powerful army alone a against which no politician had dared to raise his voice, let alone a weapon? What hope was there that these immoral charlatans would let our people advance? Because it was a question of advancing, of advancing through a wall of rifles aimed at the people, advancing through a wall of rifles aimed at the people, advancing through a wall of interests. Because here the peasant or the worker did not count for anything. Those who counted here were those who dressed well and drove long Cadillacs. Here it was the owners of great estates,,the colonels or the generals, the politicians, who counted. And they were the all-powerful masters of the economy of the country. Here the sweaty peasant with his straw hat or the worker in his blue shirt counted for nothing. No one respected them, no one had any consideration for them. Those who counted were those who went once a week to their estates, greeting those who worked there as if they were doing a favor, as if one should be grateful if one day they deigned to touch the callused hand of their farm workers with their delicate fingers. They visited and collected, and the others lived there, did everything but collected nothing. But if they paid some taxes on these profits, supposedly to go for schools or hospitals, these funds remained in the hands of the politicians of the military. And what happened to the people? What happened to the people during these 50 years, except misery? What happened to the people who labored? What happened to the people who produced? How many sons of peasants and workers went to the universities? How many sons of peasants and workers had a doctor within call, and what was the peasant or the worker to do when his child was ill? What could he do but sell the few chickens he owned. What could the worker do but mortgage his salary or place it in the hands of a moneylender at 100% interest? What did the people receive? What were the people given? The people who produced everything, the people who worked, the people who created, what were the people given? What was left for the people? How many schools were built in our rural sector? How many teachers, how many books were sent out? How many roads were built? How many boats were given to fishermen? What did they do for the people, who produced everything and created everything? If a tobacco grower was lent money, he was charged 8 or 10 or 15 or 20% on it. Also, he was sold fertilizer mixed with earth. His tobacco was bought at a price lower than that established by law. He was cheated when the tobacco was weighed and on top of this they took a third of it from him. But also they sold the goods at a high price. Also, they subjected him to fear and terror. Also, they threatened him, and the peasants knew what to expect if they tried to organize to demand some rights. The peasants knew what would happen to them if they protested against all this. And thus, thus they plundered the people for 50 years, they stole from them, they robbed your fathers and your grandfathers. Thus, calmly, as if it were a proper thing, as if it were a just thing, as if it were a good thing. And meanwhile, your children could not attend schools, your children could not go to the universities, in many cases your children could not even learn to write their names. They were preparing for something. Do you know what? To continue robbing. Why should they be interested in building schools? Why should they be interested in having the peasants learn? Why should they be concerned that the peasants acquire an education? Why should they want the peasants to understand? What was it that suited those who took away a third of all the crops and charged 20% interest and paid prices below the minimum and sold fertilizer mixed with earth? How could it benefit them if you had education? That the people remained ignorant, yes, this is what they wanted, because it was the only way, the only way to continue that exploitations from the great-great-grandfathers to the great-great-grandsons and thus, in all honesty, could the people have accepted all this, if they had been aware of the abuses being perpetuated against them? There were instances in which peasants almost believed they should thank the landlord who gave them a morsel of ground, who took away a third of the crop, who charged them 20%, who cheated on weighing their crops, who paid them less than the law required, who sold their crops at the highest price, double what they were paying for them, and on top of all this, sold them fertilizer mixed with earth. There were peasants who felt they should feel gratitude to these landlords. Why? Because they were not aware of the exploitation of which they were the victims. The people were not aware of their strength. The citizens met in the streets and complained and grumbled to each other, saying: "That one is a thief," "this one is an embezzler," "that fellow is an exploiter, he paid me so much for my crop," "they took so much from me," but the peasant, the worker, the student, the intellectual worker, the people who were indignant about these things talked, everyone talked, but nonetheless things continued to be the same. The people were not aware of their own strength. The people did not know what these militias of organized workers, these militias of organized peasants, these militias of organized students, these militias of organized women, these militias of organized children, were. The people did not know what they themselves were capable of. The people did not know that they they themselves could produce braver soldiers and better combatants than those who kept our people in terror. The people were not aware of their own strength, and it was for this reason that a few, handful of the military, plus a handful of citizens representing these interests, could maintain the vast majority of the people in this situation, because the people were not aware of their own strength. If the people had been aware of their own strength, if the people had been aware of what they could do in revolutionary fashion, if the people had been aware of what they could do by rebelling, that abuse and that exploitation would not have endured from the time of our grandfathers, our great-grandfathers, our great-great-grandfathers, until today, as it did. If the people had known what they are capable of, if the people had seen themselves with guns as they have marched today, if these peasants had seen themselves with these rifles, if these workers and students had seen themselves with these rifles, if these women and these young people had seen themselves with these rifles, if they had imagined themselves parading one day as they did today, they would have understood what their strength was, instead of dividing themselves as the people did divide, forming groups backing each demagogue, each politician, each little band. If only they had understood the strength which lay in unity of the people, rather than in the absurd division whereby with their registers they enrolled some peasants in the Liberal Party, others in the Conservative Party, and still others in the Nationalist Party, dividing the peasantry, which was a single unit and which had the same problems and which had the same problem, the same suffering, the same pain and misery, which was exploited by the same estate, innumerable groups, and the political lieutenants when forth making friends everywhere, saying to the noble and good peasants: "Join us, comrade;" "join here, I will send your boy to school;" or "I will send your child to another school;" "sign up here and I will find you a little job in public works;" or "I will find a nice government job for you;" "join us, and I can help you;" and also "sign up with us, because you are my friend and friends must help each other." And thus they divided what was the same thing, they divided the peasants of one sector or those of another, and they provided rum, and they killed steers, and they danced the conga, in order to make the peasant forget his misery, his pain, to remove from his mind the spirit of struggle, and to keep the peasants divided, so that this divided people, these divided workers, who were a single people and who had the same interests, could be kept divided into a thousand factions so that these people would be impotent. In brief, they employed the tactics of turning the workers against each other, the peasants against each other, and the people had been aware of the strength which unity could provide, if the people had been aware of the tremendous strength they would have when all this disappeared, exploitation and abuse would not have endured for half a century in our land. But in the end they abused, exploited, and maltreated the people to such an extent, they overstepped themselves so far, that what had to happen happened. The day had to come when the people were fed up with it! The day had to come when the people were disgusted! The day had to come when the people rebelled! The day had to come when the people would take up guns and machetes! The day had to come when the people would decide to demand an accounting! The day had to come when the people would have had enough of so many thieves and would take back from them what they had stolen! The day had to come when the people would do away with the politicians! The day had to come when the people would do away with the estate owners! The day had to come when the people would do away with the privileges! The day had to come when the people would say: "Enough! Out! Guns for the workers and the peasants! Machetes for the peasants! Guns for the students! Guns for the men! Guns for the women! Guns for the old people! Guns for the children! Guns for everyone!" The day had to come when the people would say: "I will join this militia, because it is a militia of my trade union, of my cooperative, of my peasant association! And I am a peasant -- those here, as in Oriente -- and I am a worker -- those here, as in Oriente -- and I am a student -- those here, as in Oriente, and I am like the student in Oriente, I belong to this vast force which is called the people! I am a part of this extraordinary and powerful force called the people, more powerful than all the privileges of the past, more powerful than the military who 9oppressed us yesterday! I am a part of this people which has fought, I am a part of this people which closed ranks, I am a part of this victorious people! I am a single thing, I am the people, and I am the united people, the strong people, and now I am not alone, now no one can come to attack me, because to attack me they would have to attack the entire people! "Now no one can come to murder my child, because to murder my child, they would have to murder the children of all the mothers, all the mothers and all the fathers. Now no one can come to rob me, no one can come to exploit me, because to exploit me, to rob me, they would have to rob the entire people. "Now they cannot come to take my little piece of land from me, now they cannot come to pull down my hut with a team of oxen, now they cannot come to leave my children without a roof, because to tear down my house, to leave my children homeless, they would have to destroy the houses of all the hundreds of thousands of brothers I have, because now I am not alone to defend myself. In the past, there was no one to whom to turn, in the past we were divided, in the past we could count on no one, in the past I was alone. Now I am not alone, now I am millions of human beings, now it is not my strength alone, now it is not the strength of my arms alone, but the strength of millions of arms. Now it is not I alone who am indignant. Now all are indignant at the injustice committed against me, an entire people is indignant. And now I shall no longer be someone who does not count. Today I count, today everyone counts, today I am not ashamed of my sweat shirt, of my straw hat, of my workers' clothing in the city streets. Because today it is no shame to be a peasant or a worker. Today those who feel shame are those who in the past traveled in their Cadillacs through the misery of our people. Today to be a worker, or a peasant, or a student, or an intellectual worker, or to be useful in one way or the other to the fatherland, is an honor and a sign of honor. In the past there was only misery for me, never honor. I did everything but I did not even receive recognition for my efforts. Yesterday I was poor and ignored and unknown. Today I am the leading citizen of the republic. Today I am the most beloved and respected citizen of the republic -- a peasant, a worker, a student." And there will be no more exploitation, no longer will they take one-third from those who produce the fruits of the land with their labor. No longer will they snatch away the products of their harvests, steal them, as they robbed in every way. This will never be again, never again will it be as it was, and never again will anyone abuse the people, or rob the people again, or divide the people in factions again, or destroy the strength of the people, or confuse the minds of the people, or keep the people in ignorance so that people will continue to be a useful tool of the privileged. Their children will not grow up ignorant, or without schools. These valleys, these beautiful valleys in this province, which were the "Cinderella," will never again be the "Cinderella" of Cuba. These valleys will not only be beautiful valleys, not only beautiful because of the landscape, but they will also be beautiful because of the happiness which will prevail there, and these lovely mountains will be more beautiful still because the people there are happier. And this will be one of the richest provinces of Cuba. It suffices to compare the total money, that is to say, the total value of the tobacco harvest last year and the total value of the tobacco harvest this year in the countryside, excluding the tobacco already stripped, assorted and processed, the gross value of the tobacco in the countryside. In 1958-59, the value was $23,368,892, while that this year is $41,377,600. This means that, according to conservative estimates, the total value of this product, the main product of this province, has almost doubled in value from last year to this. This means that in tobacco alone, the money earned by this province has virtually doubled. The loans granted to 18,000 peasants totals 17 million pesos. The buildings, the tobacco barns, constructed, exceed 500. More than a thousand have been rebuilt. Thirty thousand tons of pure fertilizer have been used. And the value, the value which was never paid for in earlier years, that established by law, which was never paid for on the basis of fair weight, and which for the first time last year had to be paid for, was paid for this year, thanks to the efforts of the revolutionary government, because when the revolutionary government takes a step, it takes that which it can, not that which it would like to, and when there is a price measure, it cannot be the price we would want. Would that we could establish a high price for all products and that all could have absolutely everything they need to satisfy all their requirements! But government leaders have their limitations, which are very strict, and the fact is a government official cannot alter the price of a product on the world market. We cannot alter this price of sugar on the world market by decree, and that price depends on the quantity of sugar produced in the world. We have to sell at the price prevailing on the world market. We would like to be able to sell sugar at a much higher price, so that the sugar worker could earn twice what he does, or three times as much, but we cannot raise the price of sugar on the world market by decree, and we have to accept the price we are paid for this product, in accordance with the existing [Unreadable text] and the supplies of sugar in the world. Government leaders have very strict limitations. We cannot alter the price of tobacco on the world market by decree, just as we cannot alter the price of coffee, and these limitations stand above our desires. But despite this fact, we study the advantages which may be offered to the peasants, trying, naturally, to avoid any threat to another sector of the people, because there are many workers, thousands of humble workers who make a living from rolling tobacco. There are thousands of small tobacco processors, there is a people consuming tobacco, and the sugar worker who cannot be paid more because there is a certain price for sugar on the world market, and if we raise the price of something used every day such as cigarettes and tobacco, we would be seeking a solution which would benefit some at the cost of making others suffer. And for this reason, we as government leaders have our limitations, these limitations which the people understand, because today being in the government means only watching over the interests of the people, fighting for the people, trying to benefit all of them, and in particular, to benefit those who have nothing, those who earn the least, those whose situation is the worst. And for this reason, within these limitations, despite these limitations, the revolutionary government has been able to increase the price of tobacco classified as third category, which was established at 20 pesos in the past, but which was often not paid. It has raised this price 25%, so that it is now worth 25 pesos. Second category tobacco has been raised from 22.50 to 28 pesos, and first category tobacco from 25 to 28 pesos. This means that in addition to the credit, the machinery, the rent which no longer needs to be paid, the improvement in the prices of fertilizers and seed, we have, after analyzing all the possibilities, all within our reach, raised the price of tobacco by more than 20%. And thus this province will receive almost the double in millions of pesos of what it received last year for this product. But it is not a matter of tobacco alone. In the San Cristobal zone, for example, more than 5,000 persons have been working in the cooperatives which have been organized. In the Nantua zone, 30 million eucalyptus seedlings are being planted. And you know that the land lying to the north and the south of the Organos Range had a rich pine forest in the past, from which fabulous quantities of wood were taken out. Now this wealth has disappeared and we must reestablish it so that within 10 or 12 or 15 years, this province will be one of the richest provinces in wood, which will provide a living for thousands and thousands of citizens of the province. And we are promoting the planting of potatoes, peanuts and onions. We are establishing a number of herds of purebred swine for the production of items which we are still importing. We are sowing vast areas of rice. We are establishing great livestock breeding centers and also we are establishing villages, like the Hermanos Saiz village, like the village of the El Rosario cooperative, like the village of San Vincente. And so it is that we will build villages throughout the province. With the resources of these first years, with what we earn in these first years, because we must wage the battle against poverty, we cannot rest until our efforts have removed from our rural sector the last crude hut, until each peasant and each worker, each village family has a house, like the houses which exist in each of the cooperatives. We cannot rest, and we cannot relax in our work of establishing schools. You know that the squadron headquarters has been converted into a home for children. You know that the regiment has already moved out of its quarters and that we are going to establish a great school city there. You know that the army has converted 16 barracks into schools. You know that one no longer sees barracks along thee highways. You know that in all these places where the visitor once found barracks, there are today schools which no longer show any evidence of having been barracks. Thus, the visitors who come to this province, a province which is receiving more visitors than ever before, because thousands and thousands of persons come every week and the number of persons who come to Vinales, or Soroa, or Cabanas, or to any one of the many villages such as San Diego, such as the old Cortina Estate, and other tourist centers, or to the beaches, these visitors no longer find barracks here. They find schools. And we will continue along this path of education and training the people. We will continue to carry out this work, because this is the work the people wanted and the revolution is doing what the people wanted. Pinar del Rio will no longer be the Cinderella of Cuba. Pinar del Rio will be one of the provinces where the most work is done, which has the highest standard of living and general welfare. Pinar del Rio will be one of the leading provinces, and it will have an increasingly prosperous economy. It will have greater income every year, and the day will come when not one person will be unemployed. Even this year there were some zones, for example San Cristobal and Mantua, where, when the harvest began, there were no workers to be found, because they were engaged in harvesting tomatoes or working planting eucalyptus, and no one could be found to work, manpower for the sugar cane harvest was lacking. This means that for the first time in our history, manpower was needed, and this after only one year of revolutionary government. In the tobacco sector, for example, or in the education sector, if you like, to limit it to that, the revolutionary government has appointed 600 new teachers, converted 16 barracks into schools, established 8 secondary schools, 19 urban school centers and more than 200 rural schools. This has been the work of one year, and for this reason there are more people here today than the first time, because that happiness, the happiness of triumph, was a happiness which was to pass, because these emotions die away. On the other hand, there is a feeling which never dies away, a happiness and a feeling which never ceases, and this is the people's sense of progress, the creative zeal of the people, the work that the people are doing. This feeling never passes, and this is the feeling of today and will be the feeling of tomorrow. This is what we are doing, and this is what the fatherland means. the fatherland is what we are creating and it is being done with rice, with dignity. And we are crating a fatherland. We all dream of a future, a future which will be different from the past, a future which will be much better than the present. We dream of this fatherland we are creating. We dream of these children who are growing up. We dream of what this fatherland will be when all our fields are cultivated, when thousands and thousands of schools have been established throughout the country, when hundreds of thousands of children are studying in our school cities, when each Cuban knows how to read and write, when each family has a proper house, when each peasant has his future and his happiness and that of his children and his grandchildren assured, when these conquests we have made today are definitive conquests for the coming generations. We dream of this fatherland of the morrow of which we have a right to think and dream, because we are building it, because we are establishing it, because we are creating it. To take this dream from us, they will have to take life from us! To destroy this fatherland of ours, they will have to destroy us, and for this reason we advance, and for this reason, we have organized militias, each Cuban who loves his fatherland will have a gun and will know how to handle this gun, because when a people is building its future, when a people has emerged from the past and broken its chains, and has made a breach in a wall of interests, that people does not and never will resign itself to abandoning the path it has taken! Nothing and no one can triumph over such a people! This people is too firmly rooted in its land, in its hope, in its dreams, to resign itself to return to the past. This people can never be dominated! This people can be conquered! And if foreign powers try to subjugate us, if foreign powers come to destroy this work, let them know that they will find a gun in each hand, that in each breast lies a hero, that in each Cuban they will encounter a soldier, and that no one an separate us from our land, no one can separate us from our dreams. No one can destroy this fatherland we are creating, because our slogan is fatherland or death! -END-