.
Major Juan Almeida

By CARL JORDAN

he revolution has no color,’’ said

Antonio Maceo. He was Cuba’s out-
standing military leader and one of the
most advanced political thinkers during
the decades of struggle against Spanish
domination.

Maceo was a black man. He was
killed in battle in 1895. He and. Jose
Marti, a white man, are the two great-
est national heroes of Cuba’s past.

Maceo’s statement that ‘‘the Revolu-
tion has'no color’? meant that color was
irrelevant. Most of the soldiers who
fought for an independent Cuba during
the last century were black. Maceo and
Jose Marti challenged every expression
of racism and discrimination in the
ranks of the independence movement.

When the last stage of the independ-
ence war against Spain began, Marti’s
representative inside Cuba was Juan
Gualberto Gomez. Juan Gualberto, a
black man, was the one who advised
Marti, who was still in exile, that the
insurrection should not. be delayed. any
longer. Marti then sent instructions for
the insurrection to begin in the second
half of February, 1895. When all was in
order Juan Gualberto sent Marti a cod-
ed telegram informing him that hostil-
ities were about to begin.

The insurrectional activities of the
province of Oriente were decisive dur-
ing this last stage of the war against
Spain. General Guillermo Moncada, of
the Independence Army. a black man,
played a leading role in initiating ac-
tion in Oriente. During the period of
direct American intervention in the first
years of the present century, racism be-
came the official State policy. Many
racist practices were transferred to
Cuba from the United States. The U.S.
controlled government set up discrim-
inatory civil service practices and pro-
hibited blacks, who had fought so hard
for Cuba’s independence, from even
serving in the police force.

(Editor’s note: This Yankee imperial-
ism action reinforced racist practices left
overfromslavery.). — —

Cuban blacks remained relegated to
a position of second-class citizens. This
condition of inequality in social, politi-
cal and economic life, continued

’ throughout the entire period of the pseu-

do-Republic and only ended with the
triumph of the Cuban revolution.

Blacks in Cuba suffered all the tra-
ditional forms of humiliation found in a
racist society. They were burdened with
the hardest, most unskilled and lowest

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1970-“Page 4

Jesus Menendez

paid work. Black women, with some
exceptions as in the case of entertain-
ers, could aspire to no more than being
a maid or washerwoman. :

Many were forced into a life of pros-
titution. The beaches, social clubs and

many better neighborhoods were Jim -

Crow. Blacks had less opportunities for
education than whites. Blacks, like their
poor white brothers and sisters, lived in

the most miserable conditions. Unem- |

ployment among blacks was proportion-
ally higher than among whites.

In spite of the objective conditions of
degradation, the Cuban black felt proud
of his heritage. The African tradition
penetrated all Cuban popular culture.
The knowledge that blacks played a
leading role in the struggle for Cuban
independence gave him an inner sense

of pride and belonging. He was, as”

Marti said, a Cuban first and a black
second. :

e

During the years of the Republic
when Cuba was a semi-colony of the
United States, blacks fought for their
rights alongside other Cubans. Many of
the leading working-class leaders were
blacks.

Jesus Menendez of the Sugar Workers
and Aracelio Iglesias of the dock work-
ers were recognized leaders, elected
by the rank and file of their unions,
both black and white.

Their courage and integrity have be-
come legend in Cuba. They fought in the
interest of the working man without
wavering or compromising of principles.
They confronted the gangster elements
that had taken over many of the trade
unions and remained leaders until they
were gunned down by paid assassins.

The names of Menendez and Iglesias
have been given to many factories,
schools, farms and work brigades in the
new Cuba. The banner won by the young
Americans of the Venceremos Brigade
for cutting a million arrobas of cane
was adorned with a portrait of Jesus
Menendez.

Iglesias and Mendez are just two of
the men with black skin who led Cubans
— black and white — in the struggle
against the American and Cuban elite
who controlled the wealth of Cuba.
From Pinar del Rio in the West to
Oriente province in the East the people
remember these old fighters. Some con-

tinue to play respected roles in the |

building of a socialist society. *
Blacks fought alongside Fidel Castro
in all stages of the struggle against Ba-

tista for a free Cuba. Armando Mestre,
among others, took part in the attack on
the Moncada Fortress and was later
killed.

In each and every battle to defend

the Cuban revolution, black and white ©

have fought side by side without dis-
tinction. When a hero is mentioned in

Cuba, the people do not ask if he was’

black or white, the important thing is
that he was a Cuban fighting for the in-
dependence of his country and for a just
society. And when Cuban heroes are
buried there is no such thing as segre-
gation in the graveyard as is the case
in so many places in the United States!

Another of the innumerable symbols
of courage within the Cuban revolution
was that of a young black teacher
named Conrado Benitez. who was brutal-
ly murdered by counterrevolutionaries
early in the 1961 literacy campaign. In
response to this savage act the Cuban

government set up the Conrado Benitez ~

Brigade, composed of tens of thousands
of young people, to carry. the task of
wiping out illiteracy to a successful con-
clusion. Many schools and enterprises,
as well as a large merchant ship, bear
the name of this young hero.
Everywhere in Cuba one finds blacks
working and studying in conditions of
complete equality with whites. The Cen-
tenary Youth Column which is working
primarily in Camaguey and Oriente has
numerous black men and .women in
leading positions. The same can be said
for the army, police and every other
sphere of Cuban life. Everything form-
erly lily-white is now the right of all.
It would be an endless task to enu-
merate all the blacks in responsible po-
sitions in Cuba. Cuba does not have
“token’’ integration — it has full inte-
gration. Capable workers and good rev-
olutionaries are promoted for their
quality, not for their color. :

In the schools and universities blacks
and whites are being educated on equal
terms as doctors, engineers, agrono-
mists, technicians, teachers and admin-
istrators. If any be in need of con-
vincing it would suffice to take them on
a visit to a medical school or to the
Miramar section of Havana where tens
of thousands of young scholarship stu-
dents are living, or to a pedagogical in-
stitute or to the naval academy. The
lesson is clear: the rug has been pulled
out from under discrimination and rac-
ism in Cuba.

Th: social and economic transforma-

Antonio Maceo

Prensa tot

tions brought about by the Cuban a |
lution have also been a significant Dr
against consequences of racism. The Hy
ban Reform Law abolished the paras
landlord class and lowered rents ‘0 il
percent of income. This year rents rt
be eliminated completely. The om
shanty towns have been eliminated a
their population given decent hous;
Only the blockade and the material ett
ficulties of production limit this aS?”
of the Revolution. Schools and hosp!
have been established in city and ©?
tryside bringing — without cost — ea
ture and medical care to deprived a,
Beaches and social clubs which 4
‘restricted’ are now free of charg®~ |
open to all Cuban citizens. sl i
The back of racial discriminatlt j
Cuba has been broken forever. .
there are survivals of prejudice
consciousness of some people, thes?
being fast uprooted and play no ins 7
ant role in Cuban life. Cuban go"
ment policy assures equality for af
That is the essential condition [0
end to all racist thinking. 5 di
In 1959 Fidel Castro declared:
must place the stigma of public co™
nation upon those who, so full 0
prejudices, are unscrupulous enoué in)
discriminate against or abuse som ie '
bans because of a lighter or dat a
skin.’’ Today this guideline is a T@4 af
Anyone who discriminates or ® ihe
voices racist ideas is anathema Dt
socialist society which Cuba is build!
No racist can hope to maintain a”
sition of authcrity in Cuba today. \s0
The Cuban Prime Minister has “é
spoken about his personal experl®
with the race problem: j
“I have had exceptional opportu
ities to understand how unjust 4
absurd is racial prejudice. Look!”
back on the most difficult epis
of my life, I think of the Grant
expedition. Those men in that litll®
boat, all in danger of being sie
lowed up by the sea, sailed und?’
the same banner and with the sam :
idea — blacks and whites. I think Fe
Mestre, a comrade from the
cada attack who died in the Re
lution. I think of Almeida, my ©?
rade, my adjutant and one of ™ —
best captains.” cid!
How “unjust and absurd is rate
prejudice”! Today the Cuban people int
in agreement with their Commande»
Chief. Cuba can say proudly that © get
injustices and absurdities no 1
exist. f°

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