Camilo Cienfuegos honoured in Cuba

On Tuesday afternoon, a crowd in Havana honoured Camilo Cienfuegos with a traditional tribute. Flowers were cast into the sea, marking 66 years since his physical disappearance. The event was led by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

Image via the PCC

By Alina Perera Robbio, translated from the Spanish

"Camilo Cienfuegos was not just the hero of Yaguajay; he was the hero of every place he went." This idea, once expressed by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, was remembered on Tuesday afternoon by a Cuban teenager while, nearby and close to the sea, a gathering of the capital's residents, headed by the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, honored him.

At almost four o'clock in the afternoon, and near to the iconic Casa de las Américas, the twelfth-grade student at the "Camilo Cienfuegos" Military School in Capdevila in Havana – the same school associated with Raúl's phrase – said that the hero had defeated death, and that the exceptional fighter "lives in every victory of our country."

She emphasized that the legendary fighter, who was physically lost 66 years ago on October 28, was unwavering in his commitment to his ideals, his comrades in battle, Fidel, and his faith in the people from whom he rose as a genuine legend. The student did this on a day that also included the participation of Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, along with other leaders from the party, the Government, the Union of Young Communists (UJC), the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC), the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), and officials from the capital.

Towards the conclusion of her speech, the teenager extended an invitation to bring flowers to the sea. Before Díaz-Canel Bermúdez—clad in his green uniform as President of the National Defense Council—and everyone present went to honor the occasion by the waves, the ceremony was brought to a close with art. Santa Massiel Rueda Moreno and Marcos David Fernández Brunet (known as the Kikiri of Cisneros) did this as the former performed "Como la cicada," a piece composed by the Argentine novelist and writer María Elena Walsh.

Then everyone, led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, paid the traditional tribute by the shoreline. Flowers were cast into the sea. It was an afternoon marked not only by national remembrance but also by the power of nature, as Hurricane Melissa approached to strike the eastern part of the island, and by the resolute stance of Cuban diplomacy at the United Nations, which condemned the lies of an empire that dared to deny the existence of the oppressive blockade against the largest of the Antilles.

This Tuesday, a day of struggle, it was beautiful to recall he who, as Raúl Castro Ruz, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, once described Camilo Cienfuegos, was "one of the most illustrious figures of the times of the armed struggle."

Camilo and his legacy hold special relevance today. It's easy to envision what he might have accomplished if he were here with his boundless energy and smile; as Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz stated: "Camilo was a man who loved difficult tasks; we could say that he was a man who thrived on challenges, who knew how to face them and was capable of performing feats in the most incredible circumstances".

This work was translated and shared via a License CC-BY-NC