Cuba today celebrates the births of Antonio Maceo (1845) and Ernesto Che Guevara (1928), paradigmatic examples of the struggles of this Island for its freedom, independence and self-determination.
The coincidences between the two are not limited to the day of their births, since their thoughts and actions in different centuries place them as examples of personal courage, honesty, sense of solidarity and commitment to the libertarian causes of Cuba and Latin America.
According to Prensa Latina, among them the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, said: If one (Maceo) affirmed that whoever tried to take over Cuba would collect the dust from its soil drenched in blood if he did not perish in the fight, the other (Che) flooded the soil of Bolivia with his blood trying to prevent the empire from taking over America.
‘Both were invaders from East to West; both died in combat; both are today insurmountable symbols of courage and revolutionary intransigence?, he stressed.
According to historians, both combatants nurtured their libertarian convictions and wills for patriotic redemption in their tours of Latin American nations, Maceo forced by the circumstances of exile, and Che by his desire to learn about the Latin American reality.
If the Bronze Titan, as Maceo is known, displayed his exceptional qualities as a military strategist during the invasion from the east to the west of the island in 1895, the Argentine-Cuban combatant reissued that feat at the end of 1958 during the last insurrectionary stage.
They are considered here as a reference for a nation that still faces threats to its right to self-determination and sovereignty.
