Revolución o muerte
Self-sacrifice and Revolution in Cuba
Martin Holbraad
(UCL/CAST)
Excerpt from ‘Words to Intellectuals’,
speech by Fidel Castro Ruz,
30 June 1961, José Martí National Library, Havana.
Emphases added.
The revolution […] should act in such a way that these artists and
intellectuals who are not genuine revolutionaries can find a space within
the revolution where they can work and create. Even though they are
not revolutionary artists and writers, they should have the opportunity
and freedom to express their creative spirit within the revolution. In
other words: within the revolution everything; against the
revolution, nothing.
Against the revolution, nothing, because the revolution also has its
rights, and the first right of the revolution is the right to exist, and no one
can oppose the revolution’s right to exist. Inasmuch as the revolution
embodies the interests of the people, inasmuch as the revolution
symbolizes the interests of the whole nation, no one can justly claim a
right to oppose it. […]
This is not some special law or guideline for artists and writers. It
is a general principle for all citizens. It is a fundamental principle of the
revolution. Counterrevolutionaries […] have no rights against the
revolution, because the revolution has one right: the right to exist, the
right to develop, and the right to be victorious. Who can cast doubt on
that right, the right of a people who have said: “Homeland or death!” –
that is, Revolution or death.
‘WHAT IS REVOLUTION?’
speech by FIDEL CASTRO RUZ
1sr May, 2000, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana
Revolution is a sense of historical moment,
It is to change everything that needs changing,
It is total equality and freedom,
It is to be treated and to treat others as human beings,
It is our emancipation by our own efforts,
It is to challenge powerful forces of domination both within and outside the social
and national ambit,
It is to defend values in which one believes, at the price of whatever sacrifice,
It is modesty, disinterestedness, altruism, solidarity and heroism,
It is never to lie nor to violate ethical principles,
It is the deep conviction that there is no power in the world that could quash the
force of truth and that of ideas.
Revolution is unity,
It is independence,
It is the struggle for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world,
It is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.
From TELEREBELDE’s [Cuban national TV channel] spot in homage to the 48th anniversary of the Cuban
Revolution (2006)
‘Revolution’ is…
…a floating signifier…
…like Native-American manitou,
or Polynesian mana,
or West-African ashe,
or Euro-American energy,
or even, arguably, French société:
Its chief semiotic characteristic is that it can
mean just about everything, and therefore
ends up meaning very little.
Excerpt from my interview (2009) with Zoraima Segon Valdes
31 years old, actress, ex-resident of Havana, living in UK for past 3 years.
ZS:: I was sitting by the window in the kitchen doing my nails and, something about the light, it reminded
me of when I was a kid in Cuba, in the escuelas de campo [annual agricultural brigades, mandatory for all
school-children]. How hard it was, how I didn’t like being there and the only point was to steal some
tomatoes or whatever for my mother, and how I still felt I had to stick it out for the full 30 days, otherwise
I’d be weak, and how now all that has lost its meaning. Stick it out for what! It’s all gone to shit…
MH: You mean the revolution?
ZS: Yes, the revolution, nothing’s left…
MH: But your parents wouldn’t agree with that, they still consider themselves revolutionary.
ZS: I don’t know, things have changed so much. Even [my step-father] he used never to permit any
‘wormery’ [gusaneria, i.e. counterrevolutionary talk or activity] inside the house. We always used to tease
him – any problem he had he used to write letters to the delegate, get up at 6am to go to the local
government and complain about this or that. My mother now won’t let him: ‘I’ll split your head open if you
start with all that crap’. He’s understood that no-one lifts a finger anymore – it’s all the same to them [i.e. to
government officials], and it’s hard for my step-father, who really believes in this. But even he now just
stays silent when I start complaining about it, he knows I’m right and that it’s all shit.
MH: But still he and your brother always say they are revolutionaries…
ZS: Yes they do, but listen. He used to say that everything he had, he owed to the Revolution, his job, the
education, the healthcare. But now I’m abroad and with the situation the way it is, he knows that this is all
gone and that without what I can help with they’d be in deep trouble. So he stays silent. But yes, the
Cuban is revolutionary, and it goes a long way back, to the mambises [the independence fighters of the 19th
century]. You know how here [in Europe] if you’re a woman and some man starts messing with you in the
bus no-one does anything… The Cuban doesn’t understand that – he’ll fight, he’s a fighter (luchador). Not
just in the sense of fighting to get food or money, fighting is in our blood. The Cuban is a warrior (guerrero).
MH: And that makes him revolutionary?
ZS: Yes, that’s what’s left of the Revolution – it’s like my brother, you don’t mess with my brother, right?
Revolución o muerte