I feel the emotion and pride of being Cuban as I write about the Victory of Playa Girón 60 years after the event occurred, at that time I was not born, but today I feel like a worthy daughter of the Revolution to see how our people are able to overcome the obstacles of the White House, which does not tire of threatening our independence by intensifying the economic, commercial and financial blockade even as the world struggles to survive in the face of the threat of Covid-19.
It is impossible for Cubans to forget the first defeat of imperialism in Latin America that April 19, 1961 in Playa Girón, three days and two nights of intense fighting.
Octavio Hernández Vasallo is a witness to that event, a student at the Artillery school in western Cuba at the time. At only 19 years old, he had the experience of fighting alongside our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, he remembers the words of our leader when they were attacked by 7 planes at dawn on April 18, the most intense day of the battle. bring down the planes ?.
This 79-year-old combatant today cannot help but remember the noise of the callones, the desperation to carry them over and over again manually, what they achieved with courage and determination to defend what the Cuban people had achieved “The Revolution?.
He declares with emotion Octavio: ?I only thought about doing my duty and hitting the airplanes. After so much stress and fatigue, when we obtained the victory, the first thing I did was to hug my brother Ortelio who was with me that day, and my training companions, I was proud to have been there inspired by the words of the commander on April 16. This Revolution belongs to the humble, by the humble and for the humble, declaring that day the socialist character in Cuba?.
Here is a people with history, roots and a legacy. That is why we remember today the Victory of Playa Girón and together with it we celebrate the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.
