Havana, Aug 12.- In the centennial year of the historical leader and Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban people, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Ocean Sur publishing house has sought to pay tribute to him with a new editorial proposal: the Revolution Collection.
The concept outlined by Fidel on May 1, 2000, serves as the inspiration for this work, which has selected and grouped into 10 notebooks those speeches, interventions, letters, reflections, and articles that, throughout the revolutionary process, establish the essences of the concept of Revolution bequeathed by the Commander.
Its compilers belong to the latest generation of Cubans who had the privilege of meeting Fidel in person. Some were able to converse with him and shake his hand; others, the youngest, managed to hear him live via radio or television; all paid him a final farewell in the days following November 25, 2016. Together with the Ocean Sur editorial team, they have prepared these 10 volumes thinking of those who did not have the opportunity to know him during his lifetime, and who will have to access his teachings through a work that is already known to be everlasting.
Therefore, in small notebooks, they have selected texts, interventions, and reflections that serve not only to understand the different stages of the revolutionary process in Cuba but also to comprehend the depth, ethics, and coherence of Fidel's thought.
In the coming days, as announced on the publisher's social media, the 10 volumes will be published in digital format for free download.
Prior to this digital launch, we share on Cubadebate a brief review of each of the volumes that make up the Revolution Collection, which is part of a much larger compendium of more than 50 titles published in recent decades as part of the Fidel Castro collection by Ocean Sur.
Sense of the historical moment (compiled by Daily Sánchez Lemus)
The volume brings together eight texts and interventions by Fidel that were born in full coherence with the sense of the historical moment he lived through. Among the most significant are foundational texts such as History Will Absolve Me and his last public intervention at the closing of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Changing everything that must be changed (compiled by Frank Josué Soler Cabrales)
This notebook compiles seven speeches and articles by Fidel that demonstrate his permanent historical will, and that of the Revolutionary Government, to change everything that needed to be changed. Most are set between 1952 and 1962, a period in which, first as leader of the 26th of July Movement, and later at the helm of the Revolution, he outlined and led significant political and social transformations on the Island.
Emancipating ourselves by our own means (compiled by Yoerly Sánchez Cuellar)
The book groups four documents of profound historical value for those wishing to approach the history of the Cuban Revolution. The First and Second Declarations of Havana belong to those texts considered foundational. The other two, more recent, correspond to the period of the Battle of Ideas. In different eras, all reinforce the need for peoples to emancipate themselves through their own efforts.
Modesty, selflessness, altruism (compiled by Ibis Juanes Caballero)
This volume contains six speeches delivered by Fidel at different moments of the revolutionary process. In each of them, one can see that modesty, selflessness, and altruism are not just Martian values that he incorporated as a way of life and struggle, but that he sought to make them values shared by the Cuban people in their long struggle for emancipation and the construction of socialism.
Never lying or violating ethical principles (compiled by Rodolfo Romero Reyes)
The text brings together four interventions by Fidel in which it is confirmed that truth and ethics, for him, function as that great moral vestment erected by the people themselves. The first two speeches date from his early conversations with the masses in January 1959; in the remaining two, he also engages in dialogue—with the working people in 1970 and with university students—faithful to the premise that truth is always revolutionary.
The strength of truth and ideas (compiled by Elier Ramírez Cañedo)
The book compiles five essential interventions that allow for an understanding of the value Fidel placed on ideas, principles, and truth as a driving force. Many of these reflections were debated precisely in spaces related to culture. Notable among these interventions are Words to the Intellectuals in 1961, and his words at the closing of the V Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba in 1993.
Unity, independence, dreams of justice (compiled by Wilmer Rodríguez Fernández)
This volume gathers five documents of profound historical value: a letter written to the signatories of the Miami Pact in December 1957, and four speeches delivered after the triumph of the Revolution, whose essences revolve around unity in the revolutionary struggle, dreams and aspirations of social justice, and the independence of Cuba.
Patriotism (compiled by Raciel Sánchez Ledesma)
Contains four interventions by Fidel that provide important elements regarding his Martían and revolutionary understanding of what homeland and patriotism mean. Notable among them are his words at the funeral of the victims of the sabotage of the steamship La Coubre in March, and his speech on the centennial of the start of the independence struggles in Cuba, delivered on October 10, 1968.
Socialism (compiled by Marxlenin Pérez Valdés)
This book features seven speeches by Fidel that help to understand how the leader of the Revolution embraced and enriched the doctrines of socialism, not only from a theoretical point of view, but by contributing to those conceptions the lessons derived from the daily practice of leading the construction of a socialist society in an underdeveloped country under the constant siege and threat of American imperialism.
Internationalism (compiled by Yunet López Ricardo)
The volume groups seven texts, including reflections and speeches by Fidel, related to one of the values and principles that has characterized the Cuban Revolution since its origins: internationalism. Part of that history of altruism and profound nobility of Cuba toward other nations is reflected in these pages, which bring us closer to the events and interpretations that expose the stance of an Island, of a dignified people, with the certainty that no country can be truly free while another suffers, and that it is its sacred duty to always help those in need.
With a novel and attractive editorial design, the Revolution Collection constitutes a gift for Cuban youth in the centennial year of Fidel's birth.
(Taken from Cubadebate)
