The young Yarien Santiesteban Velázquez still keeps in his memory the moments in which he was very close to Fidel, and one of those sacred occasions was precisely on November 17, 2005 when the maximum leader of the Revolution gave his masterful speech in the auditorium of the University of Havana.
And it was not at all a coincidence that he had chosen the Aula Magna of the University of Havana to deliver such a memorable speech, it was there, in the same place where since he was a student he learned to love Cuba, it was there surrounded by young people in the who always trusted where he should transmit his wise lessons.
With that natural magic, and that ability to mobilize, Fidel offered a masterful reflection, and outlined the present and future challenges of the Revolution and Humanity, which to a large extent continue today.
Fidel's words that day set a tone in the Cuban Revolution, a new stage in which his words became the main task for reflections that have served as a guide in the fight for a better world.
In his speech there was no pessimism or defeat, on the contrary, it was a show of confidence that it is possible to win if the greatest strength that the Revolution has always had is mobilized: the people.
In today's light, the validity of Fidel's words on November 17, 2005 gain strength, much more so when Cuba is going through one of the most difficult tests that the Revolution has gone through in more than 60 years. With a strict blockade that brings with it shortages and limitations of all kinds and that aims to destroy our people.
“We must be determined,” Fidel pointed out, “either we defeat all these deviations and make the Revolution stronger by destroying any illusions that may remain in the empire, or we could say: either we radically overcome these problems or we will die.” It would be necessary to reiterate in this field the slogan: Homeland or Death!
But that battle to which Fidel called us, and which even 18 years after it was raised, is still alive, we must continue to embrace it no matter how difficult the circumstances may be because we have the moral force of his ideas, and the confidence that he always had in his people and especially in the new generations.
That Fidel that we Cuban revolutionaries carry within us, as does the young Yanier who does not forget this meeting with Fidel, will make us victorious, with optimism and confidence that we can advance much further, facing the problems as he made clear in his words that November 17, 2005, in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana, always fighting and winning.
