"A revolutionary must be able to fight even when on the horizon you see more than darkness." This phrase, like so many others of our maximum leader Fidel Castro, could today be a manifesto against the discouragement of some. 99 years after his birth, the man who turned resistance into art and utopia into the ideal of a country continues to arouse emotions.
No one can deny that quality that defined it beyond ideologies: the unwavering optimism in which another world is possible. And it was his optimism that always distinguished him, and it was not a naive dreamer, he was a stubborn believer in the human ability to twist his arm to destiny. He demonstrated it in 1953, when the failure to the assault to the Moncada barracks did not defeat him, but led him to write "History will absolve me", a plea that is, above all, an act of faith in the future, but then repeated it in the Sierra Maestra, when with a handful of barefoot men he dared to challenge an army.
And that optimism kept him until the last of his days, while the economic blockade pressed and the world changed around a Cuba that refused and refused to surrender.
For him, pessimism was not in his plans, for him it was a weapon of the enemy. And in that call to not shut up, not to lower your arms, to stand firm under any circumstance, its most universal legacy resided, always with the conviction that social justice was not a chimera, but a pending task.
Fidel always acted as if the promised future was already just around the corner. Under that logic, Cuba eradicated illiteracy in a year, sent doctors to the whole world, and became the country of "yes you can" before each crisis, all about the clear idea that a better world is possible.
Today, when the planet faces fierce inequalities, wars for resources and an economic crisis that demands collective solutions, and our country is debated in difficult situations its optimistic vision seems to whisper since the past.
That is why almost a century of his birth, Fidel Castro does not need tributes, but his faith in humanity deserves to be remembered, that is why his 99 birthday is not just a date: it is a reminder that unity and optimism, when they are shared, cease to be a feeling and become a powerful weapon. Happy birthday, commander. The future you fight for remains ours.
