“You are still an incorrigible dreamer,” Ignacio Ramonet commented to him inquisitively, almost at the end of that exceptional book that is One Hundred Hours with Fidel, and the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution responded with a serenity and wisdom that make one think he was forewarned.

“Dreamers do not exist. This from a dreamer who has had the privilege of seeing realities that he was not even capable of dreaming,” he told him in proof that he did not see himself as a some type of Quixote, although in reality his life shows that dreams lived inside him and he was a permanent defender of the revolutionary utopia.

In another moment of the long conversations held between the Spanish professor and journalist and the Commander in Chief, in early 2003 and mid-2005, Ramonet invites him to confront his possible dissatisfaction, as a revolutionary after all.  

-Do you see your dreams fulfilled when you left for the assault on Moncada?

-I can say now, 46 years after the triumph and more than 50 years after the Moncada, that what we achieved is far beyond the dreams we could have conceived then, and we were dreamers at the beginning… Although dreams were not his main source of creation, his life was a perennial struggle to achieve the impossible and nothing made him as happy as seeing projects of social benefit materialize.

Even the very act of having decided to take by force the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, on July 26, 1953, was a great sign of optimism and then a demonstration of how to turn adversity into victory, something that would later define the future path of the revolutionary process.

As he did so many times afterwards, Fidel fulfilled his commitment to the people contained in La Historia me absolverá (History will absolve me), “that deep-rooted document… a programmatic manifesto, an act of accusation and denunciation, a plea of legal, moral, philosophical and political justification of the revolutionary struggle against tyranny.”

His chimerical dream was to sow health and education, in a small sovereign country, with very few resources, that moved by humanitarian force and solidarity has always bet on noble aspirations, and ideals of social justice and equity.

This is the spirit that has characterized the Cuban Revolution for more than six decades, of which Fidel was the inspiration and charismatic leader, according to his closest compatriots and friends from other latitudes.

This is evidenced by the fact that from its very origins, the Revolution set goals even greater than its capabilities, knowing that when fighting for a more humane and just Homeland, all obstacles are overcome and difficulties are removed.

To cite just a few examples, and as part of the great cultural work initiated with the triumph of January 1st, the victory against illiteracy, in which some 100,000 volunteers taught more than 700,000 Cubans to read and write, as well as the training of thousands of doctors after the emigration of half of Cuba’s health professionals in 1959.

Or the unusual impulse to sports as a right of the people, which in a short time produced the first Olympic and world champions that put Cuba at the forefront of the area in that aspect; or the construction of schools in the countryside and the creation of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Pedagogical Brigade, to promote the training of teachers in order to ensure the continuity of studies.

The nation, despite the incessant harassment from the United States and its hostile blockade, soon achieved unquestionable progress in human development: it outlawed racism, fought early for the emancipation of women, eradicated illiteracy, drastically reduced infant mortality, raised the general cultural level, as recognized by politicians and international organizations.

And one day, when the socialist bloc collapsed and the Soviet Union fell, when the situation could not have been more difficult, aggravated by the omnipresent blockade, the country gave greater impetus to medical research and promoted greater development for the scientific community.

More recently, in the midst of an economic panorama fraught with difficulties, the country continues to defend a national project in which social justice and the inclusion of citizens in its development are paramount.

And in this, undoubtedly, we are inspired by the anti-imperialist legacy of the National Hero José Martí and the extraordinary example of Fidel.

Placing science at the forefront was also what the current leadership of the country did in the face of the scourge of COVID-19 and in spite of the intensification of the criminal blockade.

The decision was to produce vaccines against the disease, not for money, but to make the difference between life and death. Cuba developed and produced the first anti-COVID vaccine in Latin America, and was the first country to immunize its pediatric population between two and 18 years of age.

The anti COVDI-19 vaccines Abdala, Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Mambisa are the fruit of the intelligence, dedication and spirit of solidarity of Cubans, and illustrate the inexhaustible capacity of a people to dream, sometimes in the harshest conditions, amid great economic difficulties, food shortages, harshness of daily life, galloping inflation and even under the effects of bureaucracy and our own shortcomings and mistakes.

It also explains to some extent why Cuba, despite all that, continues to be an important reference for millions of excluded people on the planet, and helps to better understand Fidel’s answer when Ignacio Ramonet asked him, “Do you see the future of Cuban society with optimism?”

“We are optimistic, we know what destiny we can have, a very hard destiny, but very heroic and very glorious. This people will never be defeated… Every time I talk about what we have done, I express shame for not having done more.”

When asked by Nicaraguan Comandante Tomás Borges if it was worth continuing to dream of a better world, he replied, “We have no alternative but to dream, to continue dreaming, and to dream, moreover, with the hope that that better world has to be a reality, and it will be a reality if we fight for it.”

Translated by ESTI