Fidel Castro, a Man Who Never Dies

Elio Delgado Legon

They say you have passed away, but I can’t conceive imagining you lifeless in a cemetery.
The person who did so much will never die, you will forever remain alive.

HAVANA TIMES – I wrote these verses on November 26th 2016, when I found out about the Cuban Revolution’s historic leader’s death the day before.

Fidel Castro is a man who has been defamed and hated by the Revolution’s and socialism’s enemies, but admired and loved by every revolutionary in the world, and respected by those who, even though they aren’t revolutionaries, want well-being and happiness for their fellow men and women, who he fought for his entire life.

Being a brilliant lawyer, with enough attributes to live a comfortable life under a capitalist regime, he didn’t dedicate his life to earning a living as a lawyer, but to defend the just cause of the poor who were being trampled on by the rich and exploited during the so-called representative democracies that our country suffered after the frustrated Independence movement. Then, on March 10th 1952, Fulgencio Batista sunk our people into a bloody dictatorship with a military coup, which cost more than 20,000 lives of the best of our youth.

An altruist through and through, he dedicated all of his efforts to give the Cuban people the happiness and well-being that they had always been denied, even putting his own life at risk on many occasions. Of course as Cuba was a small archipelago just 90 miles away from the most powerful imperialist nation in the world, which never hid its hunger to have Cuba under its belt, this was a titanic task, but Fidel was a titan, there’s no doubt about that.

When he decided to attack the country’s second most important military fortress, to kick off a war against the dictatorship, he was at the front of his men. When he came from Mexico on a tiny yacht loaded with 82 men, he made a dangerous and titanic trip and he was at the head of his men. When he managed to organize the rebel army in the Sierra Maestra to fight against the dictatorship, he was at the head of his soldiers in the main battles. When the US government organized a contingent of mercenaries to invade Cuba and to create the conditions necessary for a US military invasion, he was at the head of the men who defeated the invasion in less than 72 hours.

When Hurricane Flora showed no mercy in the Oriente province and converted it into a sea, which took approximately 2000 human lives, Fidel was at the head of the rescue operations to save the lives of whoever they could, risking his own. Every time Cuba has been in danger of being hit by a hurricane, he was the first person to reach the affected place so as to take whatever action necessary.

The enemies of the Revolution and socialism, headed by US Imperialism, didn’t stop hatching their assassination plans during the nearly 50 years that Fidel was at the head of the Cuban government. They didn’t stop unjustly accusing him of being a dictator throughout this entire time. However, his austere life, his morale, principals, love for the people, with whom he was always in contact, prove these false accusations to be lies.

A year after his death, on November 25th, his glory continues to grow every day. His ideas crossed borders and reached every corner of this world where there is injustice that needs to be fought against just like he did. That’s why every revolutionary that adopts his ideas as our own claims that Fidel hasn’t died because his ideas live and will continue to live on in every honest human being worldwide.