-DATE-
19910324
-YEAR-
1991
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Addresses Students; Speaks of Childhood
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Tele Rebelde and Cubavision Television
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-91-057
-REPORT_DATE-
19910325
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000004542
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     PA2403034991
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-91-057          Report Date:    25 Mar 91
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     5
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       5
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       24 Mar 91
Report Volume:       Monday Vol VI No 057

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Tele Rebelde and Cubavision Television
Networks

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro Addresses Students; Speaks of Childhood

Source Line:   PA2403034991 Havana Tele Rebelde and Cubavision Television
Networks in Spanish 0124 GMT 24 Mar 91

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [Text] The following are excerpts of the speech delivered by Commander in
Chief Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Cuba and president of the Councils of State and Ministers, at a
meeting to convoke the 8th Congress of the Federation of Intermediate Level
Students, FEEM.

2.  [Begin Castro recording] You have appointed me as your delegate at the
congress by giving me a bicycle. If I have to ride that bicycle, I am in
trouble because I have always been a poor cyclist. Imagine a peasant from Biran
in Havana. The worst part is that when I came I did not know how to ride a
bicycle. We did not have bicycles in Biran. I did not know [words indistinct].
It was a miracle that I was able to make it to the streetcar with that bicycle
and that I was able to return to the place from where I had rented it. I do not
remember that place well.  I think it was not too far from the school.

3.  In addition, [words indistinct] a narrow door, and I crashed badly. This
happened in the midst of a big basketball championship. I had been very excited
because I had been accepted as a regular team player but I spoiled this with
the bicycle crash. That season they had to scratch me out of the championship.
The accident had been rather serious and in those days medical attention was
not as good as it is now. But, fate is fate.  [end recording]

4.  Before concluding, the commander in chief discussed the international
situation as well as the role that young Cubans are playing in this period.

5.  [Begin Castro recording] There is no doubt that it is a privilege to have
been born in this century, in the second half of this century, at a
transcendental period in the history of mankind, in this period in which you
have been born, and not in in the fifteenth, the sixteenth, the seventeenth, or
the eighteenth centuries, not even in the nineteenth century or in the first
half of the twentieth century. [applause]

6.  This is why in addition to congratulating you on what you have done and in
addition to wishing you success in preparing your congress and to urging you to
work for FEEM, at whose congress we will see each other again to analyze
problems more in depth, I hereby state and vow with stronger-than-ever
justified conviction: Socialism or death!  Fatherland or death!  We will win!
[end recording]
-END-