Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO'S SPEECH ON THE NORTH TERRACE
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
-TEXT-
Castro's Speech on the North Terrace
Mr. President, and Comrades:
We have asked a number of times on this North Terrace of what is
today the true Palace of the people (applause).  We cannot fail to recall
those earlier occasions:  the first was on the day of our arrival in the
capital.  Since there have been various other occasions, and now this
today.

The first was characterized by that happiness created by the
triumph of the people over the tyranny (applause).  This was wild happiness
on the part of the people.  Later we protested energetically, we expressed
our bitter complaints both against the slander being employed against our
revolution and against aggression.  Today there is a different kind of
happiness.  It is not the insane joy of that first day, nor the indignation
of the other occasions.  Today we are experiencing the happiness of another
great triumph, the result of acting properly, the celebration of a triumph
which has been won under circumstances which seemed impossible, more
difficult perhaps than the military victories, because they were not
decided solely by right and morality, but by strength as well.

This has not been a military triumph.  It has been a great moral
victory, determined not by the strength accompanying right and morality,
but a triumph of reason, a victory of truth, a triumph of our people
throughout a vast continent, where the brotherly peoples of Latin America
live (applause).

And this victory has been won exclusively by right, morality and
truth.  It has been won despite all the campaigns, despite all the efforts
to isolate us.  And despite all the efforts to slander and discredit our
revolution among the brotherly peoples of America, in which efforts every
means imaginable have been used to confuse the peoples, all propaganda
vehicles have been used, despite the distance, despite the deceit, despite
the effort to isolate us, the brotherly peoples of America have responded
(applause).  The brotherly peoples of America not only have shown their
solidarity, their sympathy, the warmth with which they feel the struggle of
the Cuban people, but they have also shown something which has
extraordinary significance.  They have shown that the peoples can no longer
be readily deceived (applause)!  The peoples have shown that they are not
the ready victims any longer of the great lies of the oligarchy and the
powerful international interests (applause)!

And this, in our view, is the most important lesson to be drawn
from the triumphant tour our President has made (applause).  And for us it
is a reason for encouragement, a true hope, not only in the future of our
fatherland, but in the future of the brotherly peoples of our continent --
knowing that the peoples will no longer let themselves be deceived
(applause).  It is a source of confidence for our revolution to know that
the peoples will no longer let themselves be deceived (applause)!  Because
we can tell these peoples, after a year and a half of hostile campaigns
against our revolution, these peoples, from whose hearts no one can banish
this profound sympathy for the brotherly people heroically struggling, we
can tell these peoples whom no one can confuse, these peoples whose faith
and hope, quite rightly placed in the Cuban revolution, no one can kill,
these peoples who have learned to say the name of Cuba with respect and
love (applause), these peoples who know that our fatherland is a small
nation but that it has stood up bravely to the powerful forces which have
exploited the wealth of our continent, these peoples who know what Cuba
means, who know what the defeat of our revolution would mean (applause), as
they know what their triumph would mean (shouts of "we will triumph, we
will triumph!"), as they know that it is thanks to the determination and
the heroism of our people that we can say to them that we will triumph
(applause).

These peoples who from Argentina to Mexico shouted "Cuba, yes,
Yankees, no!" (shouts of "Cuba, yes, Yankees, no"), the spontaneous slogan
we heard from the lips of all our suffering brothers, the slogan which lies
and false propaganda cannot take from them, the slogan which means much,
the slogan which is the expression of the rebellion of the millions and
millions of human beings who have lived humiliated and exploited, the
slogan which means (shouts of "Cuba, yes, Yankees, no") much and which
should be a source of discouragement for those who are trying to bury us in
a flood of slander, a flood of lies and a sea of discredit, because they
have been unable to make our brotherly peoples shout "Yankees, yes, Cuba,
no" (applause), despite all their influence, despite all the newspapers in
their service, despite the millions of tons of paper used, despite the
millions and millions of dollars which have been invested in combating and
discrediting us, despite these 18 months of incessant and hostile
campaigning.  It means much, a great deal, this slogan which can no longer
be banished from the hearts of our brotherly peoples, because it has its
roots in all of the injustices which have been committed against them, in
all of the blood and the pain and the tears they have been made to shed, in
the hunger and the misery they have had to suffer, too deeply routed in the
hearts of these human beings like you, such that it can never be banished
(applause).

This means that Cuba will not be alone.  This means that the
effort made has not been in vain, the blood shed has not been in vain, the
sacrifice of our people was not wasted, the magnificent example of Cuba has
borne fruit.  And this is what the triumphal tour of our President has
shown (applause and shouts of Dorticos, Dorticos) -- the profound sympathy
toward Cuba, our Cuba, yes, ours for the first time and ours forever
(applause).

Infinite pride for those of us who fight for it, for those of us
who work for it, for those of us who are ready to die for it (applause and
shouts of "we will triumph, we will triumph"), and eternal shame to those
who are battling against it (shouts of "to the firing wall, to the firing
wall"), those who want to destroy it, those who want to take from it the
place of honor it has won, those who yesterday were not ashamed to see it
humiliated, those who yesterday were not indignant at seeing it oppressed,
those who yesterday were not prepared to shed a single drop of blood to
save it, and who suffer today, seeing it victorious, triumphant, strong,
admired and taken as an example, yes, because our country is an example
today (applause) for the peoples who have suffered and who suffer from the
same evils as we did.

But there can be no worse penalty for the traitors (shouts of "to
the firing wall!") -- no, a punishment worse still than the firing wall --
the penalty of being unable ever to feel this pride and dignity (applause),
this feeling of generosity and unselfishness, this feeling of infinite love
and hope with which the fatherland rewards those who know how to be its
true sons (applause)!  And being deprived of this happiness, of this
satisfaction and this pride, being deprived of this feeling, having to live
in envy and ruin, having to weep when the people laugh, having to laugh
when the people weep, this is a worse punishment than the firing wall
(applause)!  Having to live with the eternal shame of having no fatherland,
having to live in the dreadful coldness of those who do not have the warmth
of the people and their land is a worse penalty, because it is the moral
firing wall for traitors (applause)!

Thus this day of happiness is the joy of the peoples, it is the
holiday of the true patriots, the emotion of the true revolutionaries, the
happiness of the vast majority of our people, this people which despite the
rain -- because rain is a petty thing for a people like this (applause) --
this delirious crowd which threw flowers and whose faces reflected
indescribable happiness, this joy is the most moving joy of the peoples,
which, during our travels, has made us reflect that proper work bears its
extraordinary fruits, just actions bear their extraordinary fruits,
fighting for a great ideal bears its extraordinary fruits, creating
awareness, creating dignity, creating justice bears its extraordinary
fruits (applause)!

And after 18 months of constant and hard struggle, the fruits are
these:  a strong people, a determined people (shouts of "we will
triumph!"), a people ready for the greatest sacrifices, a people prepared
to die rather than abandon their happiness and their smiles.  This is the
fruit of effort, this is the fruit of dignity and the formidable awareness
of the Cubans (applause)!  And not only we, but many generations of Cubans
have created them, those who fought and these who felt created them.

For them, for all those who have struggled and fallen over more
than a century to achieve what this generation has achieved, for all of
those who made a sacrifice, our feeling and our gratitude, too, goes out on
a day such as this (applause), with the certainty that what we have won we
will not lose, that what remains to be won we will not fail to win, and
that whatever the sacrifices required, however great the effort asked of
all of us, the result can only be victory!  (Shouts of "we will triumph, we
will triumph!" and "Cuba, yes, Yankees, no!").

And I must also add that this trip by our President (applause and
shouts of "Dorticos, Dorticos!") has demonstrated what his closer
associates already knew, what the people knew, and what America now knows:
that Cuba has a great President, to whom I now yield the floor!  (Ovation.)
-END-


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