Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, sent a message of congratulations “to all Cuban women for the heroic work they have carried out in these 64 years, for what they have done and continue to do,” the Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Women reported on the social network X.
Without the need for words, women’s hands transcend falsehood and caress the truths because they speak a language only revealed to them.
The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) accompanied its mother, the Revolution, on the path, grateful for the gift of freedom and willing to expand it for the benefit of all, the only way to pay the debt for its existence.
On August 23, 1960, Cuban women united their efforts in a single organization, and elected Vilma Espín Guillois as their first and eternal leader. From that moment on, they began their battle for the essential role in a society devoted to justice.
However, conscience lags behind political will, and that gap imposed the urgent and still current task of removing centuries of machismo and other legacies of mental colonialism.
Until the fall of the Neocolonial Republic, the luckiest followed the pre-established destiny of finding a good man –for his money– and fulfilling the service of guardians of the home. In other cases, poverty and the few alternatives forced them to stain their dignity in degrading activities, including prostitution.
Against the worst of the past, the FMC bet on the future, and its representatives sought the best within themselves to give it to the call of each feat, in a country overflowing with them. Their faces were engraved in every sphere of human creation.
The greatest guarantee of continuing the struggle lies in nonconformity, and the present poses tremendous challenges to keep the shared dream safe. This organization, like every daughter of the revolutionary process, needs to connect with the deepest part of its being to mobilize the most beautiful endeavor: the aggrandizement of the Homeland.
At this point I will avoid mentioning their names to avoid the risk of unforgivable omissions, but also because two words are enough to invoke them all: Cuban woman.
