No one can be surprised by this hurricane of love

Amidst this very difficult situation that our Homeland is facing, Hurricane Oscar struck and left great wounds in the eastern region, especially in Guantánamo, being Baracoa area one of the most affected. As always, the pain is multiplied by every decent person in our country. And these are not mere words.

Solidarity during the phenomenon and later in the logical actions of the Party, the state, a government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior that, in essence, being the people themselves prevent the cruelty of abandonment. It is shocking, although it is already a beautiful custom, the work of the electrical workers, with their reconstruction brigades in the front line. There is no delay in the shipments of clothing, food, medicine, money from all the provinces, many gestures by people far from abundance.

It praises the creation of brigades of citizens to work in the most affected areas, driven by mass organizations and the Youth Communist League. There is no shortage of artists and communicators in this passionate hurricane. There is material support from state and cooperative centers. A sort of solidarity radically different from the so-called charity, which reminds me of many of the girls, among them some of my classmates, who went out with a can with a sign about the fight against cancer asking for donations, and even had their photos posted in publications. Meanwhile, many of their families kept those below exploited, and robbed them of the enjoyment of full health; beyond, of living as a human being deserves.

Solidarity is love for others without asking for anything in return, except the happiness of the beneficiary, not only for the material, and of the benefactor; in this case, for the duty fulfilled. Leaders and heroes of our nation did it as something natural in different times, without demagogy or politicking or limiting themselves to their own territory. We have inherited that attitude. It is the vocation of a true Cuban.

Solidarity converted into internationalism. It is the payment of our debts for the solidarity received in our struggles for freedom. Since that October 10th, we have counted on the combative presence of those who had been enslaved, never imposed by Céspedes, starting with those freed by him. It is in Máximo Gómez, in Henry Reeve, that very humane North American, in Che and many more from a long list of human beings with such passion concretized against the Spanish empire and Yankee imperialism.

We must manage to behave this way every day, without waiting for a great mission or a cataclysm to occur. Is it not a fundamental mission to fight with courage and wisdom for Cuba and a better world within a planet strongly battered by evil?

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff