In 1953 Fidel Castro, a lawyer by trade, led an assault on the Moncada
Barracks in Santiago, Cuba. His unit consisted of slightly over one
hundred men. There was not one heavy weapon among them, in fact Castro’s
personal weapon, can you believe it, was a WW One vintage Luger pistol.
Moncada was more than a barracks, it was a fortress and on top of that
it was a Regular Army Regimental Headquarters.
I don’t know about you, but that tells me something.
As luck would have it, ha,ha, he failed.
At his trial he said a few things I thought you might like to hear.
He said, “I bring in my heart the doctrines of Marti and in my mind
the noble ideas of all men who have defended the freedom of the people”.
He said, “we have incited a rebellion against a single illegitimate
power which has usurped and concentrated in its hands the legislative
and executive powers of the nation”. He said, “I know that I shall be
silenced for many years. I know they will try to conceal the truth by
every possible means. I know that there will be a conspiracy to force
me into oblivion. But my voice will never be drowned; for it gathers
strength within my breast when I feel most alone, and it will give
my heart all the warmth that cowardly souls deny me”.
He said, “the six hundred thousand Cubans who are out of work who
want to earn their daily bread honestly—the five hundred thousand
farm workers who live in miserable huts, who work four months and go
hungry the rest of the year—the four hundred thousand industrial
workers and laborers whose retirement funds have been stolen—
the one hundred thousand small farmers who live and die working land
that is not theirs, contemplating it as Moses did the promised land,
only to die before owning it—the thirty thousand self-sacrificing
and devoted teachers and professors who are so badly treated and
poorly paid—the twenty thousand debt-ridden small merchants, ruined
by economic crises—the ten thousand young professionals[who]
leave the schools with their degrees, only to find themselves in
a dead alley—To these people, whose road of anguish is paved with
deceit and false promises, we are going to say, ‘Here you are,
now fight with all your might so that you may be free and happy,'”
“As for me, I know that jail will be as hard as it has ever been
for anyone, filled with threats, with vileness, and cowardly brutality;
but I do not fear this, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable
tyrant who snuffed out the life of seventy brothers of mine.
Condemn me, it does not matter.
History will absolve me.” Fidel Castro.
I suggest the last statement could easily be considered the understatement
of the Century, and by the way Fidel Castro returned from exile three
years later at the head of a band of less than one hundred men.
They faced the entire Cuban Army equipped with the latest American
weaponry. I don’t know about you, but that tells me something.
As luck would have it, ha,ha, he succeeded.
Everything above has been researched and quoted from author Tad Szulc’s
excellent treatise “Fidel”. Publishers William Morrow and Company.
Venceremos, Islander.