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Havana
- December, 1960

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Led by cheerleaders, a
procession roamed the city

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proclaiming its detachment
from everything American.

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It was last year, in Havana.

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We were preparing to celebrate, in order:

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The 1st of January, which
is the 1st of January.

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The 2nd of January,
anniversary of the Revolution

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and the Epiphany (Day of Kings),
which is Christmas, the true Christmas,

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a day of gifts, when children are given...

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puppies, which will grow,

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baby rabbits, which will grow,

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parakeets, bears and dolls...

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and baby machine-guns, 
which will also grow.

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In the window of a department
store, Magi took orders by telephone.

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A large bearded man who can be asked
anything, part of Cuban folklore.

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Teresita, what would
you ask from the Kings?

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A doll

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and a lottery game.

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That's all?

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That's all.

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Do you study hard, Teresita?

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Oh, yes.

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And what grade are you?

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Kindergarten.

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And how old are you?

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Five years old.

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And is your family here?

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Yes.

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And what's your name?

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Jorge.

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How old are you?

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Seven... eight years old.

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And what class?

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Sixth.

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And what would you ask from the Kings?

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A train.

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What else?

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A rifle...

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A machine gun.

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A doll dressed as a ballerina.

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A bicycle and two dolls.

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An aircraft carrier.

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A machine gun.

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A rifle.

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A doll.

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An aircraft carrier...

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But adults also had their kings,

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Magi on the television...

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Fidel Castro, Che Guevara 
and Juan Almeida

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gave the people the three
gifts of the revolution:

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Industrialization

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Agrarian Reform

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and Literacy.

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Out of six million Cubans, 
a quarter could not read or write.

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1961 is the year of education.

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Every educated Cuban became
responsible for every illiterate Cuban.

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The Catholic Church tried to co-opt
This new notion of responsibility.

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"Will this child be a believer
or atheist?  It depends on you."

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The Revolution responded:

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"Will this child be a patriot
or traitor? It depends on you."

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This happened in Havana,
this American city,

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where American concentrate grafted
onto Cuban skin like a vaccine.

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Havana, where the casino
hotels have no thirteenth floor

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remembering a not-distant time
when games were the main industry,

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with prostitution and a variety
of public underground cinema.

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But in this New York setting, there's
now a Cuban style of regulation.

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There is a Cuban way
of looking at things:

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to be curious, to be
flirtatious, to be patriotic.

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It was the day of the year, the week of
kings, the year of education, the festival...

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It was also the time of bombs.

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A department store had burned down.

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The crowd assembled,
commented, interpreted.

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Signs appeared to turn the traitors in,

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not to pardon them, but to
put them up against the wall.

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However, the melting pot of
passion was still baseball.

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Fidel Castro himself led
the Barbudas team to victory.

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Alongside the revolutionary slogans,

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tourism posters reminded that
America was an hour's flight away.

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But this crowd was under threat,
and they knew it.

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From inside, from outside.

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There were bombs,
the counter-revolutionary underground.

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Planes of unknown nationality,
having flown less than an hour,

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appeared, struck, disappeared.

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Who would defend this
crowd in case of attack?

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Itself?

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The militants on their way to the parade
at dawn on January 2nd were not soldiers.

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They were baseball spectators,
celebrating the Epiphany.

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Fidel Castro was going to tell them

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things you don't usually hear 
on days of military parades.

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"We do not like parades.

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"We do not like war.

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"We live in a world where
we must defend ourselves.

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"But we'd rather switch from guns
and skip ahead to the gymnasts."

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The parade at Civic Square.

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The great popular
demonstrations of Havana

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have been called 
"Red Square on Broadway".

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But in the heart of the crowd,
images become more precise.

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Everything was Cuban in this
celebration: the noise, beautiful girls,

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and a Cuban way of peeling oranges,
a machine that adds coils to the party.

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Students, volunteers for the literary
campaign, exist in three forms:

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Spanish,

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Black,

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and Mulatto, beautiful as an eclipse.

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The Cuban way of drinking fresh
water, or nationalized Coca-Cola.

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The songs of January 2 told
a true story, or close enough.

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Two years.

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Two years of history,

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and beyond, a prehistory
which seemed somewhat legendary.

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Strangers appeared, generally bearded:

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El Che, Raul, Camilo,

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and a young lawyer who became
leader of the guerrillas,

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somewhat uncomfortable on camera,

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named Fidel Castro.

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Twelve men at first,
survivors of a risky landing.

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Then other men, other women joined them.

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An underground is organized
in the Sierra Maestra.

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They must communicate,
survive, arm themselves...

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Villagers help the guerrillas.

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The population knows their
newspapers and leaflets.

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Between clashes, contact is made with
the peasants, the poorest of the island,

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who contribute to the struggle,

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first to bring down a dictatorship,

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then to build a new society.

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And if everyone's in
agreement on the first goal,

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the second is fraught with
problems for the future.

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In winter 1958, on a television
they presented to themselves,

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Sierran fighters saw the
disintegration of enemy defences.

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The dictator Batista, to make his exit,

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prepared a government of
transition, which would rule forever.

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The last throes of the regime,

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as corrupt Cuban history
mingles with sports news.

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Major upheavals are close.

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But for the rest of the
world, especially Americans,

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it is easier to resurrect myths:

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that Fidel Castro is Robin Hood.

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Perhaps he is Robin Hood,

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but to take from the rich and
give to the poor, in our century,

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it's not necessary to
attack the stagecoach.

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And when Robin Hood was
reading Marx in the mountains,

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while preparing the laws and
reforms of the future republic,

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part of the world began to
painfully realize, belatedly,

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that he was also a Robin Hood.

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Thus do legends die.

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The Robin Hood myth is shattered.

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In its place: a revolution.

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Work for all, land for farming,

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housing for those who live there,

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and houses for those who don't.

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What could be more obvious?

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The Revolution is only making
obvious things come true,

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not those which the best
minds strove to overcome.

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One example: it took the Revolution,

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on an island with 3,500 km of coastline,

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to create the first popular beaches here.

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The Revolution is also finding
new resources, new industries.

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For example, that of the bullfrog,

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which Gatti did not invent (this is
the only thing he has not invented),

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which will be the crocodile of the poor.

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But the Revolution is
primarily for education.

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From the alphabet to poetry,

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there is a huge effort
to make the culture belong

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to those who build it.

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Abroad, of course, cultural
aspects of the revolution

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are not well understood or presented.

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Yet in the USA, even among
shouts of terror and scandal,

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men raise their voices to
invite their countrymen 

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into a serious examination 
of conscience.

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But information has its own demands:

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Front page for executions, a
snippet or nothing for reforms.

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Everyone has seen the televised
death of one of Batista's captains,

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but the prison system overhaul,
with its parole vacations,

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and these strange competitions
between prisoners and guards,

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restoring sporting equality
in the world of punishment,

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nobody speaks of this.

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"Castro has betrayed the
revolution," said the State Dept.

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And we know how the State Dept. 

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jealously
protects the purity of the revolution.

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We hesitate to believe
this is the main concern

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of the USA's avatars
of democracy in Cuba.

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There must be something else.

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The church also takes a position.

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For her, Castro is a
dictator.  That says it all.

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But even on this point, the
situation may not be so simple.

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Apart from what I can see personally,

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I think the Cuban Revolution
brings to the country a new nation,

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a new homeland, new social structures.

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Agrarian reform, urban reform,

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and socialization of
national and foreign companies

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are the pillars of the revolution,

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and these structures will
change the face of the nation,

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bringing prosperity
and industrialization,

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especially giving economic independence,

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without which there is
no political independence.

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Ultimately it is trying to
solve Cuban social problems:

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housing, unemployment,
health and education problems.

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And this is done not at
the expense of human dignity,

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but by doing some violence to the happy
life of debauchery that existed here.

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This is wise and beneficial.

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The immense benefits of the
revolution are much closer

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to a true Christian social structure
than anything we had before!

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Before: that is to say
under Batista 

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and his entourage of gangsters,
local or imported.

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00:19:07,022 --> 00:19:12,134
This time the young lawyer Castro
was released from prison

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after a resounding plea linked to the
Revolution's future goals and spirit.

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But who is Castro?

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Between the rebel without a cause 
and the leader of the partisans,

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00:19:21,422 --> 00:19:28,162
between the son of large landowners 
and the pupil of the Jesuits,

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founder of the first socialist republic in America,
how has he managed this metamorphosis?

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Everyone has his own ideas on Castro,
everyone has their own label. 

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But since everyone is able to respond
on their own, perhaps, himself ...

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00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:50,733
FIDEL: I think it's a tough question ..

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00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:58,377
I think I was a kid,
like all children ...

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00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:05,533
It's very difficult to
consider which factors

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make you into a revolutionary.

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00:20:11,733 --> 00:20:21,000
A little professional politics, first ...
But it's also a question of character...

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00:20:21,533 --> 00:20:29,600
a little rebellious character, a
natural tendency towards justice,

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00:20:30,977 --> 00:20:36,733
an innate opposition to what
you feel is unjust or immoral ...

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It's all part of the vocation. 

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00:20:43,748 --> 00:20:49,600
But in fact,
neither revolution nor revolutionaries

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are dependent on themselves...

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00:20:54,551 --> 00:21:06,133
The Revolution...
is dependent on the climate,

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a climate of injustice, the conditions

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00:21:18,777 --> 00:21:21,591
that enable one to really speak.

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00:21:21,777 --> 00:21:26,311
There cannot be a
revolution at the wrong time.

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00:21:26,311 --> 00:21:33,044
How many Marats, how many
Dantons, how many Robespierres

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00:21:33,511 --> 00:21:38,066
have been born in France
since France has existed -

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00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:43,311
and yet only Marat, Danton, Robespierre

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00:21:43,311 --> 00:21:45,199
became revolutionaries!

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00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:50,676
It was necessary that the
feudal monarchy and its decadence 

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brought her to
the edge of disappearance.

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00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:59,216
It was necessary that
French society bore these conditions

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00:21:59,217 --> 00:22:03,399
to form a new society,
 a new world ...

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00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,892
Thus the factors that
made me a revolutionary,

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00:22:06,893 --> 00:22:10,310
that made revolutionaries
out of my companions,

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00:22:10,311 --> 00:22:14,140
that made the people
revolutionary, these factors

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00:22:14,141 --> 00:22:17,510
are born inside the
society in which we live.

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00:22:17,511 --> 00:22:19,618
The society in which they lived...

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00:22:19,619 --> 00:22:21,910
the revolutionaries lived in the bush,

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00:22:21,911 --> 00:22:24,821
there they opened the
first peasant schools.

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00:22:24,822 --> 00:22:28,140
It was necessary to leave these
false American cities 

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00:22:28,141 --> 00:22:29,810
to discover the real Cuba, 

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00:22:29,811 --> 00:22:33,087
that under-developed country of
which statistics say:

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00:22:33,088 --> 00:22:35,354
a million illiterate,

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00:22:35,355 --> 00:22:36,799
500,000 unemployed,

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00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,714
30 % of land in the hands of 1 %.

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00:22:40,288 --> 00:22:42,318
The conditions of life, 

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00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:46,717
housing, sanitation, 
unsatisfactory beyond description.

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00:23:05,022 --> 00:23:07,554
The other pole of this
society is this:

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the palaces, the endless
gardens where billionaires

250
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:16,084
live in splendour like
that of the Borgias.

251
00:23:16,222 --> 00:23:20,087
If only knowledge of human
nature could explain to us

252
00:23:20,088 --> 00:23:24,044
why they were so crazy, so
selfish, cynical, indifferent or blind.

253
00:23:24,044 --> 00:23:27,332
But there is one thing that
is always hard to understand:

254
00:23:27,333 --> 00:23:29,585
that they were Christians.

255
00:23:35,655 --> 00:23:38,687
Here, between the
crosses, nymphs and satyrs,

256
00:23:38,688 --> 00:23:41,763
crossed with a little black magic,
 is where they came to settle: 

257
00:23:41,764 --> 00:23:43,999
the kings of tobacco,
the emperors of sugar cane.

258
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,635
Here nothing  disturbed their
dreams. Nothing happened.

259
00:23:52,511 --> 00:23:56,554
Elsewhere, things were
happening. Burials, for example.

260
00:23:56,555 --> 00:23:58,621
Of those victims of the dictatorship.

261
00:23:58,622 --> 00:24:00,084
20,000 in six years. 

262
00:24:00,085 --> 00:24:03,844
Massacred, tortured,
sometimes castrated by the police.

263
00:24:03,844 --> 00:24:08,465
It was Batista who was to declare
after the events of April 1961:

264
00:24:08,466 --> 00:24:11,465
"I wish for Cuba a regime
founded on the principles

265
00:24:11,466 --> 00:24:17,302
of Christianity and justice that were
given to the people in 1940 ... "

266
00:24:25,044 --> 00:24:28,733
Organized resistance resumed under
the tradition of popular anger

267
00:24:28,733 --> 00:24:33,776
that Cuba had known since 1933,
then under another dictatorship.

268
00:24:33,822 --> 00:24:36,288
So betrayed by corrupt
governments, the will of Resistance

269
00:24:36,288 --> 00:24:42,305
has, after failure after failure,
forged the reasons for victory.

270
00:24:54,022 --> 00:24:56,733
The underground press 
informed, educated,

271
00:24:56,733 --> 00:24:59,288
and denounced the crimes,
naming the criminals.

272
00:24:59,288 --> 00:25:01,110
In turn, the Resistance struck.

273
00:25:01,111 --> 00:25:03,755
It barred the names on
the list. And there above,

274
00:25:03,755 --> 00:25:08,310
in the Sierra Maestra, they
were forging the Revolution.

275
00:25:08,311 --> 00:25:12,543
But in the enchanted gardens,
nothing was happening.

276
00:25:12,544 --> 00:25:16,376
There was luxury,
calm, sometimes pleasure.

277
00:25:16,377 --> 00:25:18,960
Then came the summer of 58...

278
00:25:24,666 --> 00:25:28,376
A tragic race, in which
Fangio did not participate,

279
00:25:28,377 --> 00:25:31,086
kidnapped by the bearded ones

280
00:25:31,087 --> 00:25:34,494
who sought to speak
with the government.

281
00:25:35,111 --> 00:25:39,461
Six months later, they were
seeking no more.

282
00:26:03,422 --> 00:26:06,666
On January 1st 1959, Batista fled.

283
00:26:07,133 --> 00:26:09,644
He left for Camp Columbia,
inside the Forbidden City,

284
00:26:09,644 --> 00:26:13,155
the nursery he had built for his
children, and we found, 

285
00:26:13,155 --> 00:26:15,996
two years later, these ruins.

286
00:26:16,088 --> 00:26:19,576
The dictator sought and obtained
asylum in the United States,

287
00:26:19,577 --> 00:26:23,532
where he retired with a fortune
estimated at 300 million dollars.

288
00:26:23,533 --> 00:26:26,288
The only thing left standing

289
00:26:26,288 --> 00:26:29,132
in this garden was a statue...
that of a baby-Napoleon.

290
00:26:29,133 --> 00:26:32,255
All around, the militia stood guard.

291
00:26:32,355 --> 00:26:37,822
For the first time in five
centuries, Cuba belonged to Cubans.

292
00:26:39,155 --> 00:26:40,755
End of First Part

293
00:26:41,733 --> 00:26:43,800
Second Part

294
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,022
Liberty!

295
00:26:49,244 --> 00:26:54,265
Fidel: It's not that we are
disinterested in power after the war.

296
00:26:54,266 --> 00:27:01,087
We stress that we were not moved
in this struggle by personal ambitions.

297
00:27:01,088 --> 00:27:05,592
What mattered was that a
certain program be applied.

298
00:27:06,511 --> 00:27:18,111
We confess that at one point
we believed this was possible.

299
00:27:19,066 --> 00:27:25,488
This means that at some point
we were a little ...utopian.

300
00:27:26,555 --> 00:27:32,644
I confess that for the first time
since the triumph of the revolution,

301
00:27:32,644 --> 00:27:42,777
of the war after the war, we were
almost completely without government.

302
00:27:42,777 --> 00:27:48,800
We had absolutely nothing left
of the Council of Ministers,

303
00:27:49,955 --> 00:27:55,059
and we expected, as it was the
most logical thing in the world,

304
00:27:55,060 --> 00:27:59,937
that those who held
the main responsibility

305
00:27:59,938 --> 00:28:04,481
for the basic measures 
that people needed

306
00:28:04,482 --> 00:28:12,711
would take action, and that seemed,
to us ... the ABC's of any revolution.

307
00:28:13,266 --> 00:28:16,176
As the weeks passed, however, 

308
00:28:16,177 --> 00:28:20,444
not a single one of these measures 
was taken.

309
00:28:20,955 --> 00:28:24,381
Even if we had wanted us to stay away,

310
00:28:24,666 --> 00:28:30,555
even if we had not
intended to govern, 

311
00:28:30,555 --> 00:28:34,932
even if we had wanted to stay
away, we could not ...

312
00:28:34,933 --> 00:28:38,221
The country was
theirs to govern overnight,

313
00:28:38,222 --> 00:28:41,555
this island of the West Indies, 
where Columbus landed

314
00:28:41,555 --> 00:28:45,112
on October 27, 1492, 
persuaded it was India.

315
00:28:45,466 --> 00:28:48,622
They wanted to assure
him that he had discovered America

316
00:28:48,622 --> 00:28:53,043
but the cry was "India yes,
Yankee No!" and no one budged.

317
00:28:53,044 --> 00:28:56,377
At the arrival of the Spaniards, Cuba
was inhabited by Siboney Indians.

318
00:28:56,377 --> 00:28:59,043
By the time they departed,
there were none left.

319
00:28:59,044 --> 00:29:02,688
This despite the efforts of Father
de Las Casas 

320
00:29:02,688 --> 00:29:04,688
and several other religious 
protectors of the Indians.

321
00:29:04,688 --> 00:29:07,555
It was noticed that the work of a negro
was worth that of four Indians,

322
00:29:07,555 --> 00:29:11,139
which favoured the importation
of African slaves.

323
00:29:36,644 --> 00:29:38,688
But Cuba was a Spanish possession.

324
00:29:38,688 --> 00:29:41,287
It would not be until the beginning
of this century,

325
00:29:41,288 --> 00:29:44,687
as the Universal Dictionary of
M. Bouillet warned us, that

326
00:29:44,688 --> 00:29:48,333
"this possession is bound to follow
the fate of other Spanish colonies

327
00:29:48,333 --> 00:29:53,911
and be absorbed by the United
States, which has long coveted it."

328
00:29:54,911 --> 00:29:57,288
This lust,
the sun of our liberal century,

329
00:29:57,288 --> 00:30:00,576
would become an influence
and also a monopoly.

330
00:30:00,577 --> 00:30:03,555
When the United States suspended exports,

331
00:30:03,555 --> 00:30:06,110
we quickly came to see
that life in Cuba was dependent,

332
00:30:06,111 --> 00:30:08,544
technically and commercially.

333
00:30:08,866 --> 00:30:11,400
The consequence: once the
playground and property in 1958,

334
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:16,416
Cuba became the bastion 
of anti-Americanism in 1960.

335
00:30:24,288 --> 00:30:27,022
Sugar cane is the best and worst thing.

336
00:30:27,022 --> 00:30:28,916
On the one hand, it is expansive. 

337
00:30:28,917 --> 00:30:31,311
When it is cut, it grows 
up to twenty times.

338
00:30:31,311 --> 00:30:34,311
To ensure the harvest earlier this
year, we saw the whole government,

339
00:30:34,311 --> 00:30:37,065
including the President of the
Dorticos Republic and the Minister of

340
00:30:37,066 --> 00:30:41,244
Foreign Affairs Raul Roa, giving
an example of civil mobilization.

341
00:30:41,244 --> 00:30:44,133
It included a healthy rivalry
with urban citizens,

342
00:30:44,133 --> 00:30:47,359
but there was ultimately 
a shortcoming of technique.

343
00:30:51,733 --> 00:30:55,065
But sugar cane is
also a trap for Cuba.

344
00:30:55,066 --> 00:30:57,933
In this fabulously rich land,
where almost anything can grow,

345
00:30:57,933 --> 00:31:00,244
foreign influence has
distorted and proliferated

346
00:31:00,244 --> 00:31:02,244
the culture of cane.

347
00:31:03,466 --> 00:31:06,777
Instead of responding
to the diversity of its needs

348
00:31:06,777 --> 00:31:08,777
through the diversity of its products,

349
00:31:08,777 --> 00:31:10,777
Cuba was suffering from
the cancer of sugar.

350
00:31:10,777 --> 00:31:13,644
Moreover, the quota system has absorbed

351
00:31:13,644 --> 00:31:15,644
all production into a single market,

352
00:31:15,644 --> 00:31:17,644
that of the United States.

353
00:31:17,644 --> 00:31:19,577
This amounted to
putting the Cuban economy

354
00:31:19,644 --> 00:31:23,621
in the absolute dependence
of a foreign economy.

355
00:31:23,622 --> 00:31:27,133
When it became obvious that Cuba
wanted to avoid this dependence,

356
00:31:27,133 --> 00:31:31,732
the U.S. retaliated with the economic
blockade and suppression of the quota.

357
00:31:31,733 --> 00:31:35,266
So Castro undertook to sell
its sugar to Eastern Europe.

358
00:31:35,266 --> 00:31:38,087
Then he was accused of having
sold himself to the Russians.

359
00:31:38,088 --> 00:31:40,487
It was one of two basic charges.

360
00:31:40,488 --> 00:31:43,222
The other was the absence
of elections.

361
00:31:43,222 --> 00:31:45,589
One could indeed be
surprised that Castro 

362
00:31:45,590 --> 00:31:48,176
did not sanction this form
of popular expression.

363
00:31:48,177 --> 00:31:50,121
We asked the question.

364
00:31:50,888 --> 00:31:54,811
Fidel: "It would seem
difficult to understand

365
00:31:54,812 --> 00:31:58,222
in some countries, 

366
00:31:58,222 --> 00:32:03,911
unless you understand that our country
 has been plagued for 60 years 

367
00:32:03,911 --> 00:32:07,066
by a species of farce called elections.

368
00:32:07,066 --> 00:32:09,760
That is to say a semi-democracy,

369
00:32:09,761 --> 00:32:13,353
a false democracy well known 
in Latin American countries

370
00:32:13,354 --> 00:32:17,754
for a century and a half
without ever solving anything, 

371
00:32:17,755 --> 00:32:20,244
without doing anything but bring
to power a variety of mediocre,

372
00:32:20,244 --> 00:32:23,865
and ambitious thieves and
servants of vested interests.

373
00:32:23,866 --> 00:32:30,333
The time will come 
when the Revolution

374
00:32:30,333 --> 00:32:33,070
is a dynamic process, a process

375
00:32:33,377 --> 00:32:39,622
which destroys the old and builds
the new, it will be institutionalized.

376
00:32:40,044 --> 00:32:45,844
We are not eternal and the life
of the Revolution is not eternal.

377
00:32:45,844 --> 00:32:51,088
That is to say that the time will
come when the new order 

378
00:32:51,088 --> 00:32:55,688
created by Revolution acquires 
an institutional quality,

379
00:32:55,688 --> 00:33:01,932
where this vital and real democracy
will also begin to create new forms.

380
00:33:02,222 --> 00:33:04,882
First, a society that is born,

381
00:33:05,288 --> 00:33:13,155
and then, this society will
take an institutional form.

382
00:33:13,422 --> 00:33:17,977
And then the French should
be the first to understand us:

383
00:33:17,977 --> 00:33:21,333
the French have an election almost...

384
00:33:21,377 --> 00:33:26,933
annually, municipal, national ... 
for a president, for a member...

385
00:33:26,933 --> 00:33:30,355
that is to say that perhaps 
no other country in the world

386
00:33:30,350 --> 00:33:39,244
has experienced during these six
decades, more elections than France.

387
00:33:39,555 --> 00:33:42,599
And still the French are not happy.

388
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:50,573
They can fully understand that 
political factions, electioneering, 

389
00:33:50,574 --> 00:33:54,110
has not resolved any
fundamental problems in France.

390
00:33:54,111 --> 00:33:57,888
Sometimes it happens that the ruling
classes get tired of elections

391
00:33:57,888 --> 00:34:00,222
and then go to fascism.

392
00:34:01,133 --> 00:34:02,644
To fascism!

393
00:34:02,733 --> 00:34:07,911
But in Cuba, this is a Revolution 
that moves towards socialism,

394
00:34:07,911 --> 00:34:10,239
and this revolution will gives birth

395
00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:12,955
to a regime and a new social form of life,

396
00:34:12,950 --> 00:34:22,222
a good which in turn is
institutionalized and so forth.

397
00:34:22,777 --> 00:34:25,021
We won't admit defeat!

398
00:34:25,022 --> 00:34:33,977
In the meantime, we have an
election here every month.

399
00:34:33,977 --> 00:34:36,376
But this is an election
in the public square.

400
00:34:36,377 --> 00:34:38,822
We have a kind of Athenian democracy.

401
00:34:38,866 --> 00:34:42,527
Spring 1960. Symbolic
Burial of Monopolies.

402
00:35:40,933 --> 00:35:44,694
But the Revolution,
it was not only crowds.

403
00:35:56,022 --> 00:35:58,111
In the Valley of the Two Sisters, 
near Vinales

404
00:35:58,111 --> 00:36:02,021
on a wall was a striated
illustration by Jules Verne...

405
00:36:02,022 --> 00:36:06,938
Who was this mountaineer
harnessed, helmeted and jumping?

406
00:36:10,244 --> 00:36:11,755
He was painting.

407
00:36:13,644 --> 00:36:16,644
One day a painter had
decided that the mountainside

408
00:36:16,644 --> 00:36:19,710
would make a nice surface
for a fresco for the people.

409
00:36:19,711 --> 00:36:21,415
He was told "This is a mountain."

410
00:36:21,416 --> 00:36:23,533
It's not too busy for
such an experiment.

411
00:36:23,533 --> 00:36:27,711
Since then, climbers
have painted his mountain.

412
00:36:42,133 --> 00:36:44,088
We were not expecting Baudelaire

413
00:36:44,088 --> 00:36:46,088
in the middle of the Cuban Revolution.

414
00:36:46,088 --> 00:36:48,510
But because everything
is possible in Cuba,

415
00:36:48,511 --> 00:36:51,688
we have seen a farmer in Pinar del Rio,

416
00:36:51,688 --> 00:36:53,911
harnessed and helmeted 
as for an assault,

417
00:36:53,911 --> 00:36:58,234
rising before our eyes 
like a young giant.

418
00:37:11,911 --> 00:37:14,022
It was a vacation day.

419
00:37:14,022 --> 00:37:18,148
Unlike the painted mountains
or the tourist centre on stilts, 

420
00:37:18,149 --> 00:37:22,111
the Revolution was obviously less...
hectic than the cooperatives

421
00:37:22,111 --> 00:37:24,111
or the offices of the
Institute of Cinema.

422
00:37:24,111 --> 00:37:25,916
This was a moment for reflection,

423
00:37:25,917 --> 00:37:28,377
an auspicious day to
discover something crazy:

424
00:37:28,555 --> 00:37:31,954
that happiness is
happiness, life is life ...

425
00:37:31,955 --> 00:37:34,088
The smell of the pines of Gaira,

426
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:36,154
the voices of girls 

427
00:37:36,155 --> 00:37:37,214
among wooden stairs 

428
00:37:37,215 --> 00:37:40,127
and cabins that sleep standing 
on four legs like waders,

429
00:37:40,128 --> 00:37:43,088
 it was the stuff of memories,
times that we are afraid to forget:

430
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:46,887
here on the eve of war,
the last day of vacation.

431
00:37:46,888 --> 00:37:50,866
The return was at hand.
And war was not far.

432
00:38:27,444 --> 00:38:30,874
Alerts. Attacks. 
Fields of burning cane.

433
00:38:31,310 --> 00:38:36,045
All this indication of
another, more serious threat.

434
00:38:36,311 --> 00:38:38,265
For the second anniversary
of the Revolution,

435
00:38:38,266 --> 00:38:41,821
Fidel Castro proclaimed the
mobilization of the militias.

436
00:38:41,822 --> 00:38:44,377
On the coast, among
the old Spanish cannons,

437
00:38:44,377 --> 00:38:47,653
began a long evening of sleeplessness.

438
00:39:58,044 --> 00:40:01,066
It is a full mobilization
in a tense and vigilant atmosphere,

439
00:40:01,066 --> 00:40:04,843
a moment which has given us
a key to understand Cuba.

440
00:40:04,844 --> 00:40:06,687
We were at a crossroads.

441
00:40:06,688 --> 00:40:12,112
The passage of a children's
orchestra we wanted to film.

442
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,111
The morning was rather heavy.

443
00:40:16,111 --> 00:40:20,421
The previous night, a violent aerial
incident had disturbed everyone.

444
00:40:20,422 --> 00:40:24,953
People around us did not
look particularly Dionysian.

445
00:40:38,933 --> 00:40:42,496
At the first change of pace, 
we didn't notice anything 

446
00:40:42,597 --> 00:40:45,579
except a few
spectators practicing voodoo.

447
00:40:59,288 --> 00:41:01,852
At the second change of pace, 

448
00:41:01,853 --> 00:41:05,355
something lightened around us. Suddenly...

449
00:44:46,311 --> 00:44:48,862
This was Havana in 1961: 

450
00:44:48,863 --> 00:44:52,963
machine guns on roofs 
and conga on the street.

451
00:44:53,133 --> 00:44:57,106
In the rest of the world,
life went on as normal.

452
00:45:25,933 --> 00:45:30,199
What has this moment said about the
state of the world at this time?

453
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:33,784
Of people, countries,
fabulous animals,

454
00:45:35,244 --> 00:45:36,311
of Algeria,

455
00:45:36,844 --> 00:45:38,422
of France,

456
00:45:38,733 --> 00:45:40,333
of America,

457
00:45:40,777 --> 00:45:41,777
of space,

458
00:45:42,622 --> 00:45:44,133
of time,

459
00:45:45,377 --> 00:45:46,488
about Congo,

460
00:45:51,588 --> 00:45:52,654
or Laos,

461
00:45:58,466 --> 00:45:59,688
or Africa,

462
00:46:04,488 --> 00:46:07,288
and what forms this has taken in
the second half of this century,

463
00:46:07,288 --> 00:46:09,744
those of violence and prayer.

464
00:46:31,643 --> 00:46:35,294
Once we also wrote of the Apocalypse,

465
00:46:35,295 --> 00:46:37,443
the costliest book in the world.

466
00:46:39,044 --> 00:46:44,441
Now we began to talk
about the world and, also, Cuba.

467
00:46:59,688 --> 00:47:01,688
When the radio, on
April 17, announced that

468
00:47:01,688 --> 00:47:04,132
an attack had been launched 
against Cuba,

469
00:47:04,133 --> 00:47:07,710
our minds returned to those
first memories of Havana,

470
00:47:07,711 --> 00:47:10,883
repeating ad nauseam that last walk.

471
00:47:11,355 --> 00:47:14,466
So, the slogans were
no longer empty words:

472
00:47:14,466 --> 00:47:18,431
they were oracles
hand drawn on the walls.

473
00:47:32,555 --> 00:47:35,487
In East Havana, the
shambles of Pastorita,

474
00:47:35,488 --> 00:47:38,487
which give shelter to 4000 families ...

475
00:47:38,488 --> 00:47:41,891
The housing fund 
is powered by a lottery.

476
00:47:42,955 --> 00:47:46,976
Before, the proceeds from the lottery
went into the pockets of Batista.

477
00:47:46,977 --> 00:47:49,600
From one lottery to another,

478
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:53,510
not only from fraud to honesty,
also from one world to another.

479
00:47:53,511 --> 00:47:57,599
Two worlds where money does not
play the same role, that's all.

480
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,931
And this is something for the
Americans who landed that day 

481
00:48:01,932 --> 00:48:07,399
to go about buying land in Cuba...
 this transition is irreversible.

482
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,866
But we, from 8000 miles away,

483
00:48:09,866 --> 00:48:12,911
we have both memory and confidence

484
00:48:13,577 --> 00:48:16,422
to confront that false news...

485
00:48:17,088 --> 00:48:19,977
THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION SEEMS TO PREVAIL

486
00:48:19,977 --> 00:48:21,977
A GREAT CITY RALLIES
THE ENEMIES OF CASTRO

487
00:48:21,977 --> 00:48:23,977
A BATTLE INSIDE HAVANA

488
00:48:23,977 --> 00:48:25,977
FIDEL AT BAY

489
00:48:25,977 --> 00:48:27,977
HAVANA BOMBED

490
00:48:29,088 --> 00:48:30,400
Radio Voice:

491
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:35,427
" ... announced a beachhead
had been established

492
00:48:35,544 --> 00:48:40,266
in the province of Las Villas, Cuba..."

493
00:48:40,266 --> 00:48:43,132
Las Villas province, Zapata Swamp,

494
00:48:43,133 --> 00:48:49,333
Playa Giron, Tresor lagoon...
It's here that the landing occurred.

495
00:52:03,466 --> 00:52:06,182
On 20 April 1961, 
the world learned

496
00:52:06,183 --> 00:52:09,287
that the attack against Cuba 
had failed.

497
00:52:09,288 --> 00:52:11,777
The world learned at the same
time that the Cuban people

498
00:52:11,777 --> 00:52:15,576
adhered to their revolution,
they were ready to defend it.

499
00:52:15,577 --> 00:52:19,556
We would have been pleased to announce 
this news to the world,

500
00:52:19,557 --> 00:52:20,776
if they had asked.

501
00:52:20,777 --> 00:52:25,087
But it seems the world only believes 
the witnesses that were slaughtered.

502
00:52:25,088 --> 00:52:29,636
And when necessary, to keep believing
it is ready to slaughter more.