The 50th anniversary parade

Today I had the privilege of appreciating the impressive parade with which our people commemorated the 50th anniversary of the socialist nature of the Revolution and the Bay of Pigs victory.

Also, on this same day, the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba began.

I very much enjoyed the detailed commentary, the music, gestures, faces, intelligence, and our people’s martial and combative expressions; Mabelita in her wheelchair with a happy face and children and adolescents from La Colmenita multiplied various times.

It is worthwhile having lived for today’s spectacle and it is worthwhile to always remember those who died to make it possible.

This afternoon, at the beginning of the 6th Congress, the same sentiment of pride could be appreciated in the words of Raúl and on the faces of the delegates to the maximum event of our Party.

I could have been in the Plaza for an hour under the sun and prevailing heat, perhaps, but not for three hours. Drawn by the human warmth present there, it would have created a dilemma for me.

Believe me, I felt profoundly sad when I saw some of you looking for me on the platform. I thought that everyone understood that I can no longer do what I did on so many occasions.

I promised you that I would be a soldier of ideas, and I can still fulfill that duty.

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Fidel Castro Ruz

April 16, 2011

7:14 p.m.