René’s message

August 13, 2007

Year 49 of the Revolution

Dear Fidel,

It has been one year since your people celebrated this date, each in their own trench, serene and willing to continue constructing the project to which you have dedicated your fruitful existence.

I can imagine your struggle for life, your tremendous will and iron discipline applied to the task of maintaining your invaluable presence among those who love you around the world. The others, those who hate and destroy – conjuring their demons in vain – while you and your people throw another punch their way as we celebrate today, with you among us, another birthday.

It has been a victory repeated many times, that we have achieved as one. Before the eyes of the world, the prize of a confused enemy caught in a web of lies. Before your eyes, the well deserved privilege of living the future to which you have given so much. Before our eyes, the confidence that you will continue to celebrate birthdays eternally as we continue to make history.

Wishing you a total recovery and that you will have many more birthdays among us.

Many congratulations and an embrace,

René González Sehwerert

Translated by Granma International
 

From the lineage of Titans

August 6, 2007

Year 49 of the Revolution

Dear Fidel,

This past year has been one of great optimism and joy, following your virtuous daily struggle for life and complete recuperation. We feel deeply proud to have as Comandante a giant among Titans, one of those who never abandon a battle, never give up their dreams. You are our best example and guide.

On this, your 81st birthday, we wish you health and vitality; many, many more birthdays and that we will celebrate your future birthdays together in our beautiful homeland.

Accept the eternal embrace of the Five, our love and affection.

Congratulations, Comandante,

Ramón Labañino Salazar

U.S.P. Beaumont, Texas, USA

Conviction of victory

Dear Commander in Chief:

I send you my warmest wishes and an embrace for your birthday this August 13.

On this occasion, the happiness that I wish for you is greater, and I feel it too, knowing that you have recovered.

A year ago today, moreover, after the unusual and adverse ruling by the judges in our case, despite your delicate state of health, a note came out in your handwriting for the five of us, assuring us that we would overcome that monstrous injustice.

Thirty-nine minutes into your birthday, as you were recovering in your convalescent bed, with the traced letters of a person who is lying down, you transmitted to us in your own handwriting that perennial conviction of victory which characterizes you.  

Your gesture will always remain in my consciousness, as a Cuban revolutionary, as one of so many examples — this one closer, personally speaking — of the reasons why you are and always will be our Commander in Chief.

Happy birthday!

Fernando González Llort

Federal Correction Center

Oxford, Wisconsin

United States of America

A happy coincidence

“Having my birthday on August 13 is, of course, an accident of the calendar, a probability of one in 365 that happened even though, as family legend has it, Mom wanted to hold on until the 14th, because here in the United States where I was born, the number 13 is unlucky.

“Later, I realized that the accident was a fortunate coincidence, a process of revelation that developed little by little as I first became aware that it was my birthday and then that it was also Fidel’s. Gradually, more people around me made me mindful of it.

“I remember when Fidel turned 50. In the military unit where I was at the time, we wrote a collective letter, and as I signed my name, my comrades also wished me a happy birthday for turning 20 years old. It was such a beautiful experience, one that I will never forget.

“In short, the fact that Mom was not able to hold on those 15 extra minutes for the first chimes of August 14 became a coincidence that for me is a commitment, because of everything that Fidel represents, and as a Cuban revolutionary, having been born on the same day as him is a satisfaction and a constant motivation for being better.”

That was the opinion of René González Sehwerert in an article published in our newspaper last year on the coincidence of having been born, just like our president, on August 13.

René, who is serving an unjust prison sentence in Marianna, Florida, turns 51 years old today. On August 1, René sent a happy birthday message to our Commander in Chief, as confirmed by his wife, Olga Salanueva, in a telephone message yesterday, August 12. The message has yet to arrive.

Your ideas are the essence of our people

Dear Fidel,

Happy Birthday from a prison within the Empire where everyday I hold you in my heart.

Fate, or who knows what, has conspired to make August a month of important events in the legal battle against the monstrous injustice that keeps us imprisoned. We can almost say, in a poetic way, that the case is moving at an August pace, slow, when you consider that our appeal has yet to be resolved after five years of argument, analysis and decisions.

This coming August 20 there is another hearing before a panel of judges of the Court of Appeals in Atlanta. There, we are sure, one more time, our reason “will lift justice beyond the reach of the greed of men.” We do not know when a decision will be forthcoming from this panel but I reaffirm to you that the Five remain steadfast and serene, as are our people, ready to face whatever may come with total confidence, as Che taught us, that victory will always be ours.

Your reflections reach us here. We read them carefully with pleasure. They educate, guide and strengthen us. They show us how well you are recuperating and how you remain on the front lines in our colossal, transcendental Battle of Ideas.

Also arriving here, day after day, are numerous letters of encouragement and support from our beloved country and all corners of the earth. Reading what they write, children, university students, workers, Committee for the Defense of the Revolution members, people in general, as well as friends of Cuba around the world, we feel with all our hearts, the absolute certainty of your affirmation to the empire, “I assure you, you will never have Cuba.”

The just ideas that you, Comandante, instill in us everyday will never die. They are the essence of our heroic and invincible people.

¡Viva la Revolución!

A strong revolutionary embrace,

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez

July 28, 2007

U.S. Penitentiary, Florence, Colorado

Translated by Granma International  

(Granma) 13-08-2007