By: MSc. Maria Ines Alvarez Garay (*)
Jose Marti, National Hero of Cuba, apostle of independence, politician, philosopher, journalist and poet, promoted the democratic and popular revolution towards the independence of the Caribbean nation against Spanish rule in his country in the 19th century.
Founder of the Revolutionary Party in Cuba, Martí fed his spirit of indignation and fight early, after learning about the horrors of slavery.
This May 19th marks one more anniversary of his fall in combat.
During the morning of that day in 1895, a bloody action between the Mambisas forces led by General Maximo Gomez, with a Spanish column of more than 800 troops, was staged in Dos Ríos, in the former Cuban province of Oriente, and although the Master was ordered not to participate in the confrontation, he did not obey and, eager to take action, he soon fell dejected by the impact of the enemy bullets.
Marti, always present in our memory, has been the beacon and the light that, together with our eternal Commander-in-Chief, Fidel Castro, guides us and leads us to dignity, altruism, and the final victory.
Coincidentally, this May 19th, we celebrate with great satisfaction the 42nd anniversary of the beginning of diplomatic and collaborative relations between Cuba and the Gambia, today much more intense and strengthened than ever.
Nelson Mandela, leader of Mother Africa, stated during a visit to Havana:
«Cuba is the only country in the world that did not go to Africa to loot it, to steal its wealth, but to fight for it and to leave the blood of its children on African soil.»
By the idea of Fidel Castro, historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, a Medical Brigade (BMC) with more than 150 members, saves lives and offers love and health to the Gambian people, which has earned our doctors, graduates and technicians a great prestige among the authorities and the inhabitants of this fraternal African State.
With immense pride for the work carried out in the world by health professionals, this May 23rd we will also celebrate 58 years of the first mission that the Cuban Internationalist Medical Collaboration made shine in the brother country of Algeria, and that opened an era of solidarity and unconditional help with all those in need in any corner of the planet.
Thousands of lives saved, millions of patients treated, the recognition of the peoples, sowing and reaping love through medicine, is the greatest gratitude and also fruits of the solidarity vocation that characterizes the Cuban people.
This quartet of ephemeris closes with a flourish, on May 25th, Africa Day, when we commemorate the creation of the Organization for African Unity (OAU) in 1963, which became today’s African Union (AU) in 2001.
The ties of friendship with this continent are an important part of the history of Cuba, grounded in deep cultural roots derived from the cruel slavery of more than a million human beings dragged and taken by force from their original lands.
Proud to be Cubans, all of us who now, along these paths full of history, receive the warmth of their grateful people and governments, who always accompany us in our battle, feel proud. Thanks Africa.
Africa grows in Cuba and Cuba breathes Africa.
(*) Professor and collaborator of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Gambia
"An Island on a Continent" 