Caravan of Freedom arrives in Havana
Cuba commemorates a glorious moment in the world anti-imperialist struggle
On January 1, 1959, the Rebel Army occupied Santiago de Cuba without resistance from Batista’s troops, in accordance with an agreement between their commander and Fidel. From Parque Céspedes in the heart of Santiago de Cuba, Fidel declared the triumph of the Revolution. Meanwhile, Rebel Army troops under the command of Che Guevara and Camilio Cienfuegos moved west toward Havana, without encountering resistance.
With the flight of Batista in the early morning hours of January 1, important political actors in the nation were working to convert the revolutionary triumph into a coup d’état, seeking to create a situation that they could control. In response, Fidel put forth the slogan, “Coup d’état, No! Revolution, Yes!” Fidel was also concerned with preserving the unity of the triumphant Revolution, mindful that divisions had frustrated the revolution in previous moments of triumph in Cuba in 1878 and 1898. Fidel was anxious to get to Havana to deal with these threats.
Fidel had intended to move rapidly to Havana. The troop movement to Havana had two military-political objectives: the relocation of Fidel to the capital to manage political threats to the triumphant Revolution; and the taking of possession of the Columbia military camp in Havana, where a surviving remnant of Batista’s army was holed up. Departing from Santiago de Cuba on January 2, the open movement of the rebel troops toward Havana found no military resistance, and the Rebel Army was greeted along the road by cheering multitudes with a desire to talk with Fidel and other leaders and to salute the rebel troops. Fidel was stopped by the people for interchanges in the provinces of Granma, Holguin, Las Tunas, Camaguey, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Matanzas. The journey took six days, and it was conducted in a celebratory mood, converting the troop movement into a triumphant march. Fidel and his troops arrived in Havana on April 8, culminating what would become known to Cuban history as the Caravan of Freedom.
An important dimension of the Revolution’s socialization of the people toward revolutionary values is the celebration of important historic events in the Revolution from 1868 to the present. Accordingly, every year from January 2 to January 8 a caravan reenacts the historic caravan, with ceremonial celebrations in each of the places where interchanges with the people were held in the historic caravan. Various organizations of civil society participate in the organization of the activity, including the organization of young people for inclusion in the group moving from Santiago de Cuba to Havana and for participation in the various celebratory ceremonies along the route.
On January 8, 1959, when Fidel spoke in the Columbia military camp in Havana, three white doves from a nearby home were circulating where he was speaking, so that the discourse often is referred to as the “speech of the doves.” He speaks in this historic discourse of the need for all revolutionaries to speak truthfully and to avoid being overly idealistic or optimistic, because the greatest challenges lie ahead. He speaks of the outburst of expressions of happiness among the people as imposing a burden on him to fulfill their hopes.
Fidel calls upon all revolutionaries to examine their motives for being in the revolution; they should not be motivated by rewards, including high-level posts in the government. He speaks of the need to unify the different revolutionary organizations into a single organization that would include people who contributed in different ways to the overthrow of the dictatorship.
Fidel was not included and did not wish to be included in the Cuban Revolutionary Government that was formed on January 1-2. He preferred to freelance, and to be named to head particular commissions or tasks by the government, maintaining an informal influence. On two occasions in the tumultuous next months, he found himself in tension with the government and the people concerning the somewhat unusual way in which he wanted to function as leader of the Revolution. He ultimately accepted their demands that he serve as head of state. In this speech, Fidel refers to his thinking on the question, noting that to assume any position is a sacrifice for him. But he has accepted the position of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, to which he was named by the President of the Republic in the newly formed Cuban Revolutionary Government.
In accordance with his new duties as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, he informs the people that any member of the Rebel Army is free to continue in the armed forces with the same rank. “The doors are open to revolutionary combatants,” he declares. He notes that the arms of the Rebel Army are locked in the barracks. Arms are not necessary at the moment, because there is not current need to fight against anyone. But the arms are available if one day it becomes necessary to fight against a foreign enemy or a movement that goes against the Revolution.
He reports that “elements from a certain revolutionary organization” have stolen arms from one of the barracks and are clandestinely storing them. Even though no one has the right to form a private army, no action is being taken against them at the present time. But the people should be aware of such dangers. A revolution with the support of the people, he observes, does not need to use force.
Fidel concludes by promising that he will never defraud the people.
I provide selections from the “speech of the doves” below.1
Compatriots:
I know that speaking tonight here presents me with one of the most difficult obligations, perhaps, in this long process of struggle that was initiated in Santiago de Cuba on November 30, 1956.
The people are listening, the revolutionary combatants are listening, and the soldiers of the Army are listening, whose destiny is in our hands.
I believe that this is a decisive moment in our history: the dictatorship has been overthrown. Happiness is immense. However, much remains to be done. We ought not deceive ourselves into believing that what lies ahead will be easy; perhaps all that lies ahead will be more difficult.
To speak the truth is the first duty of all revolutionaries. To deceive the people, to awaken false hopes, always brings the worst consequences, and I consider that the people should be alert against the excess of optimism.
How did the Rebel Army win the war? Speaking the truth. How did the dictatorship lose the war? Deceiving the soldiers.
. . . .
A distance has been walked, perhaps a considerable step forward. Here we are in the capital; here we are in Columbia. The revolutionary forces appear victorious. The government is constituted, recognized by numerous countries of the world. It appears that peace has been attained. However, we ought not to be optimistic.
While the people laugh today, while the people are happy, we are worried. The more extraordinary the multitude that turned out to receive us, and the more extraordinary was the jubilation of the people, the greater was our preoccupation, because the greater was our responsibility before history and before the people of Cuba.
. . . .
There are many kinds of revolutionaries. We have been hearing people speak of revolution for some time. Even on March 10,2 it was said that a revolution had been made, and they invoked the word “revolution.” Everything was revolutionary. The soldiers met here and spoke of “The Revolution of March 10.” (LAUGHTER)
. . . .
The first mention of revolutionary that we heard as a boy, we heard it said, “So-and-so was revolutionary, he was in a particular combat or a particular operation, or he placed bombs.” A caste of revolutionaries was even created, revolutionaries who wanted to live off the revolution, who wanted to live on their being certified as revolutionaries, for having placed a bomb or two bombs. And it is possible that those that spoke more were those that had done less.
But it is certain that they turned to ministers to look for posts, to live as parasites, to charge a fee for what they had done in that moment, for a revolution that unfortunately did not arrive to be fulfilled. I consider that the present revolution is the first revolution that has greater possibilities for fulfilling itself, if we do not ruin it. (“No!”)
. . . .
The first thing that those of us who have done this Revolution have to ask ourselves is with what intentions did we do it. We have to ask:
if some of us were hiding an ambition, an eagerness for command, an ignoble intention;
if in each one of the combatants in this Revolution there was an idealism, or a pretense of idealism in pursuit of other ends;
if we did this Revolution thinking that once the dictatorship is overthrown we would enjoy the privileges of power;
if each one of us was going to live like a king, if each one of us was going to have a mansion, and life for us in the future would be a walk in the park, inasmuch as for that we had been revolutionaries and had overthrown the dictatorship;
if what we were thinking was to remove some ministers and to put others, if what we were thinking was merely to remove some men and replace them with others;
or if in each one of us there was true unselfishness;
if in each one of us there was a true spirit of sacrifice;
if in each one of us there was the intention of giving all in exchange for nothing;
and if at the outset we were disposed to sacrifice all to fulfill in a spirit of sacrifice the duty of sincere revolutionaries.
We must ask that question, because our destiny and the future destiny of Cuba and of the people can depend on our test of conscience.
. . . .
It is of great interest to the people if we are going to do this Revolution well, or if we are going to incur the same errors of the previous revolution, and the one previous to that, and the ones previous to that. We are going to suffer consequences, because there is no error without consequences for the people. There is no political error that is not paid, sooner or later.
. . . .
Today the people have the peace that they desired: a peace without dictatorship, a peace without crime, a peace without censorship, a peace without persecution.
. . . .
I say and I swear before my compatriots that if any of my compañeros, or our movement, or I, were to be in any way an obstacle to the peace of Cuba, beginning right now we are at the disposal of the people, and the people can tell us what we have to do. I am a man that knows the meaning of sacrifice. I have shown it more than once in my life, and I have taught it to my compañeros. I have morality, and I feel myself with sufficient force and authority to speak in a moment such as this. (“Viva Fidel Castro!”)
. . . .
When the July 26 Movement was organized, even when we initiated this year, I considered that even though the sacrifices that we were making were very great, and even though the struggle was going to be very long, as it has been . . . we comforted ourselves with one idea. It was evident that the July 26 Movement had popular sympathy and the backing of the majority. It was evident that the July 26 Movement had the nearly unanimous support of Cuban youth.
. . . .
I believe that we all ought to be from the first movement in a single revolutionary organization, be it another or ours. Because we were the same, those of us struggling in the Sierra Maestra, or those of us struggling in Escambray, or struggling in Pinar del Río; young men, and men with the same ideals. Why should there be half dozen revolutionary organizations?
Ours simply was the first. Ours simply was the one that fought the first battle at Moncada; that disembarked in the Granma on December 2; that struggled alone during more than a year against all the force of the tyranny; that when it did not have more than twelve men, maintained high the flag of the rebellion; that taught the people that it could fight and it could win; and that destroyed all the false ideas over the Revolution in Cuba.
. . . .
There is, besides, another question of fact: the July 26 Movement was the organization with the absolute majority. Is that not so? (“Sí!”) How did the struggle end? I am going to say: the Rebel Army, that is the name of our army, which was initiated in the Sierra Maestra. When the dictatorship fell, the Rebel Army had taken all of Oriente, all of Camagüey, part of Las Villas, all of Matanzas, La Cabaña, Columbia, the Police Headquarters, and Pinar del Río.
. . . .
Does this mean that others had not struggled? No. Does this mean that the others do not have merits? No. Because we have all struggled, because the people have struggled. In Havana, there was no Sierra, but there are hundreds of dead, fallen compañeros assassinated while fulfilling their revolutionary duties. In Havana, there was no Sierra, but the general strike was a decisive factor that made the triumph of the Revolution complete.
Not only did the July 26 Movement design the guidelines for the war, but it also taught how to treat the enemy in war. This has been perhaps the first revolution in the world where a prisoner of war never was assassinated, where a wounded soldier never was abandoned, where no man was tortured. The Rebel Army designed this guideline.
. . . .
Now the Republic, or the Revolution, enters a new phase. Would it be right that ambition or favoritism come here to place in danger the destiny of the Revolution? (“No!”) What is it that interests the people, because it is the people that have the last word? (“Freedom! Freedom!”) The people are interested, in the first place, in freedoms, in the rights that the dictatorship denied, and in peace.
. . . .
It is necessary to speak in this form, in order that demagoguery, confusion, and division do not emerge, and that with the first sign of ambition, the people will recognize it.
….
All this I say to you, because I want to ask the people a question; I want to ask the people a question that interests me much, and interests the people much, for you to respond: Why are clandestine arms being stored in these moments? Why are arms being hidden in different places in the capital? Why? And I say to you that there are elements from a certain revolutionary organization that are hiding arms, that are storing arms, and that are smuggling arms.
All the arms that the Rebel Army attained are in the barracks, such that they have not been touched by a single person. No one has carried them to his house, nor has anyone hidden them. They are in the barracks, under lock. The same in Pinar del Río, in La Cabaña, in Columbia, in Matanzas, in Santa Clara, in Camagüey, and in Oriente. No one has loaded trucks with arms in order to hide them anywhere, because those arms ought to be in the barracks.
. . . .
Well, I want to inform you that two days ago, elements of a certain organization went to a barracks, it was the San Antonio barracks, barracks that are under the jurisdiction of Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos and under my jurisdiction, as Commander in Chief of all the forces, and the arms were collected there and taken away. Some 500 arms, six machine guns, and 80,000 bullets were taken.
Honestly, I tell you that a greater provocation could not have been committed. Because to do that to men that have experienced fighting here in the country for two years, to men that today are responsible for the peace of the country and want to do things well, it is a terrible thing and an unjustifiable provocation.
. . . .
We have not stopped them or provoked them. We have left them tranquil for that robbery of arms, an unjustified robbery, because here there is not dictatorship, and no one fears that we are going to become dictators. I am going to tell you why: one who does not have the support of the people and has to turn to force becomes a dictator, because he does not have the votes to aspire for office.
. . . .
We never will need force, because we have the people, and besides, because the day that the people make a disagreeable face to us, nothing more than make a face, we are going away.
. . . .
The President of the Republic has entrusted me with the most difficult task of all, the task of reorganizing the military institutions of the Republic, and he has assigned me to the charge of Commander in Chief of all the air, sea, and land armed forces of the nation. . . . That is a sacrifice for me. That charge for me is not a reason for pride nor vanity. It is for me a sacrifice. But I want the people to tell me that they believe that I ought to assume that function (“Sí!”).
. . . .
In addition, all revolutionary combatants that desire to belong to the regular armed forces of the Republic have the right to belong to the organization to which they belong, with their ranks. . . . The doors are open for all the revolutionary combatants that want to struggle and that want to do a task for the benefit of the country.
. . . .
There no longer is an enemy facing us; it is no longer necessary to fight against anyone. If some day it becomes necessary to fight against a foreign enemy or against a movement that goes against the Revolution, they will not be fighting cats; they will fight an entire people.
The arms have to be in the barracks. No one has the right to raise private armies here. Perhaps those elements going by here with those suspicious maneuvers had found a pretext for doing that in the fact that my compañeros and I had been designated for a work that the President had assigned to us, and they have spoken of a political army. Political army? As I told you, we have all the people, and that is in truth our political army.
. . . .
When they provoke us, none of us fears falling. Because when our patience has been exhausted, we look for more patience. And when our patience is exhausted again, we again search for more patience. That will be our norm.
. . . .
This time I have omitted names, because I do not want to poison the atmosphere, because I do not want to increase tension. I simply want to warn the people of these dangers. It would be very sad if this revolution that has cost so much sacrifice—not that it is going to be frustrated, because this revolution will not in any way be frustrated, because already it is known that with the people and with all that there is in favor of the people, there is not the least danger—but it certainly would be very sad if, after the example that has been given to America, violence would return here.
The President of the Republic, with the right that corresponds to him—because he was chosen without conditions—has selected a majority of ministers from the July 26 Movement. He had this right, and on asking our collaboration, he received it fully. We take responsibility with the Revolutionary Government.
. . . .
What is important, or what needs to be said, is that I believe that the acts of the people in Havana today, the multitudinous mass concentrations of today, that mass of people kilometers long—because this has been astonishing, you saw it, and it will come out in the films and photographs—I believe, sincerely, that it has been excessive of the people, because it is much more than we deserve (“No!”).
In addition, I know that never again in our lives will there be such a mass concentration of people, except on one occasion—even though I am sure that there will be many mass gatherings—and that is the day that we die, when they have to take us to the tomb, on that day again will gather as many people as today, because we never will defraud our people!
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The text of the speech is taken from Bell Lara, José, Tania Caram León, and Delia Luisa López Garcia. 2020. Fidel in the Cuban Socialist Revolution: Understanding the Cuban Revolution, 1959-1961. Translated by Charles McKelvey. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Pp. 27-33.
March 10, 1952, was the date of the coup d’état that launched the Batista dictatorship of 1952-1958.