File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9801, message 437


Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:28:41 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-TH: Opening paragraphs of Castro's remarks


Holy Father, the land you have just kissed is honored by your presence. You
will not find here the peaceful and generous native people who inhabited
this island when the first Europeans arrived. Most of the men were
annihilated by the exploitation and the enslaved work they could not resist
and the women turned into pleasure objects or domestic slaves. There were
also those who died by the homicidal swords or victims of unknown diseases
brought by the conquerors. Some priests have left tearing testimonies of
their protests against such crimes. 

In the course of centuries, over a million Africans ruthlessly uprooted
from their distant lands took the place of the enslaved natives already
exterminated. They made a remarkable contribution to the ethnic composition
and the origins of our country's present population, where the cultures,
the beliefs and the blood of all participants in the dramatic history have
been mixed.... 

Under extremely difficult conditions, Cuba was able to constitute a nation.
It had to fight alone for its independence with insurmountable heroism and,
exactly 100 years ago, it suffered a real holocaust in the concentration
camps where a large part of its population perished, mostly old men, women
and children; a crime whose monstrosity is not diminished by the fact that
it has been forgotten by humanity's conscience. As a son of Poland and a
witness of Auschwitz, you can understand this better than anyone. 

Today, Holy Father, genocide is attempted again when by hunger, illness and
total economic suffocation some try to subdue this people that refuses to
accept the dictates and the rule of the mightiest economic, political and
military power in history; much more powerful than the old Rome that for
centuries had the beasts devour those who refused to abdicate their faith.
Like those Christians horribly slandered to justify the crime, we who are
as slandered as they were, we choose a thousand times death rather than
abdicate our convictions. The revolution, like the Church, also has many
martyrs. 

Holy Father, we feel the same way you do about many important issues of
today's world and we are pleased it is so; in other matters our views are
different but we are most respectful of your strong convictions about the
ideas you defend. 




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