Reflections by the Commander
in Chief
Do you think that you merely enjoy
the Pan American Games? Think again, and you will realize
that no matter your age, you run, jump, put the shots, throw
javelins, discuses and hammers; soar above hurdles and
tracks, relay batons, spike balls, score a basket, row,
execute ippons, turn your rival over, follow strategies,
splash water over yourself after running for two hours and
even stop taking in the oxygen that your lungs are
demanding. What a wonderful show the athletes put on for
us!
But you do not just
enjoy; you participate, especially when athletes
from your country are competing. In our case,
there is hardly any event where there is not a
Cuban team or athlete present.
Besides, July and August are months
filled with commemorative activities. This is also the
warmest and most humid period of the year. Added to this
there is a magic word: holidays! Your homes see millions of
children, teenagers and young people getting together.
People from all ages feel the obsessive need to relax in
this stressful time in which we live.
This is the time of
mothers, especially of grandmothers. With great
love and determination they look after their
children’s children and even after their
grandchildren’s children. They are the heroines
of the marathon that goes on year after year.
Commemorations would lack every
sense if it were not for the advances achieved by our
Revolution; these are the sum total of examples set forth
and efforts carried out for a long time. Cuba is almost the
only country offering free education, health and sports
services.
A special tribute should go to a
comrade who exactly 50 years ago gave up his life fighting
the tyranny: the young 22-year-old hero Frank País.
Those who fought for these ideals
made it possible for us to enjoy today’s levels of social
justice, which includes full employment for all men and
women in our country.
The most important achievement of
the Revolution has been the capacity to resist a blockade
for almost half century as well as privations of every
sort. Restrictions in the variety and quality of foodstuffs
and future threats of unaffordable prices that may result
from the imperialist constraint of using much of this
scarce and vital raw material to produce fuel are not ruled
out.
We have come to the end of the Pan
American Games; I am going to miss them.
Cuba won the first place in track
and field, with 12 gold medals. As a country, it ranked
second at the XV Pan American Games with a total of 59 gold
medals, preceded only by the United States which won 97; in
other words, they won 1.64 gold medals for each one that was
won by our country. But the United States has 26 times more
inhabitants than Cuba. According to conservative figures,
they won one medal per every 3.09 million inhabitants; we
won one per every 195 thousand.
On 59 occasions we heard the
spirited notes of the Cuban National Anthem playing. In
spite of everything!
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 30, 2007.
5:48 p.m.
