By Maritza Gutiérrez / Radio Havana Cuba
This day finds the Cuban people, once again, paying homage and glory to their heroes. Their names and example of courage are intertwined with the names carved in stone of our Mambises, our internationalist heroes, and those who dedicate themselves daily to the defense of our people and other peoples of the world.
Today we are called to a March of the Combative People. And we come here not for an empty ritual, but because we understand something essential: honoring heroes is not looking to the past but nourishing the future.
That is why we march today. Because the history of Cuba beats in our veins like an underground river. Every act of valor by those who came before us is not dust in archives, but sap that nourishes our collective identity.
That is why we march today. Because our heroes are not unattainable statues, but mirrors in which we recognize ourselves in our noblest moments.
Because the ideals bequeathed to us by men like Martí, Maceo, Mella, Camilo, Che, and Fidel stand as a beacon that continues to guide us and serves as an example for all oppressed peoples of the world.
For that volunteer teacher who taught literacy under threat and fire from counterrevolutionary bandits in the Escambray Mountains, for that nurse who shared her rations with the wounded, for that young man who chose the rifle over the invader. Their choices were not monuments, but seeds.
The sovereignty they defended was not an abstract concept, but the collective right to decide our course, to write our own history without external tutelage.
Today, Cuba honors that struggle, understanding that true independence begins in a free, open, creative and revolutionary mind.
Because the Homeland, as Martí taught us, is humanity. It is the fabric of shared memories, languages, landscapes and dreams. It is the embrace that doesn’t ask for surnames, the land that welcomes diverse footprints. To honor the heroes is to continually weave that common mantle.
That is why we are here. Because the solidarity and internationalism shown by those names etched in our memory was not mere rhetoric, but concrete action: and the best example is right here, before our eyes: the sacrifice of their lives.
Because the future they envisioned shines in the eyes of the children who run through our parks and plazas today. They did not fight to perpetuate their own names, but to build a habitable horizon for generations yet unborn. To honor them is to take up that torch.
The justice for which they offered their lives was not a legal abstraction, but the daily bread of dignity.
That is why we are here. Because the true monument to heroes is not in marble, but in a socialist society, prosperous, ever more just and sustainable.
Dignity, in the end, sums it all up. These men, like those who came before them. We cannot and must not forget.
Because honoring heroes is not about bowing our heads to the past but about standing tall to build the world they envisioned in their fondest dreams. It is understanding that a nation is built with our hands, with our words, with our example. Every single day.
That is why we are here, marching together, fighting, in this daily task of building a nation with justice, education, peace and solidarity. Because the most lasting tribute is to transform their legacy into a life that flourishes.
To honor is to be honored!
