Why do the Cuban women decisively back up the Revolution?
I told a comrade that this phenomenon of women in the (Cuban) Revolution was a revolution within another revolution. And if we were asked what the most revolutionary thing the Revolution is doing is, we would respond that the most revolutionary thing the Revolution is doing is precisely this; that is, the revolution that is taking place in women in our country. If we were asked what things we have been taught the most in the Revolution, we would respond that one of the most interesting lessons that revolutionaries are being taught in the Revolution is the lesson that women are teaching us (…).
Actually, it’s happening to us that this potential force is greater than the most optimistic of us could ever have seen, and that’s why we said that maybe deep down, unconsciously, unconsciously, there was some prejudice or underestimation, since reality is showing, just beginning to march down this road, all the possibilities and all the role that women can play in a revolutionary process (…).
If women believe that their situation within society is an optimal situation, if women believe that the revolutionary function, their revolutionary function within society has been fulfilled, they would be making a mistake.
It seems to us that women still have to fight a lot, that women have to make a lot of effort to reach the place they really have to occupy (…).
If women in our country were doubly exploited, doubly humiliated, that simply means that in a social revolution women must be doubly revolutionary.
And perhaps this explains, or contributes to explaining, and it can be said that it is the social base that makes it possible to explain why Cuban women support the Revolution so decisively, the Revolution so enthusiastically, the Revolution so firmly, the Revolution so faithfully. Simply because of that, because it is a revolution that means for women two revolutions, that means for women a double liberation: women forming part of the humble sectors of the country, of the exploited sectors of the country; and women -in addition- discriminated against not as workers, but discriminated against as women within that same exploitative society.
This is why the attitude of women in our Revolution, in our country, responds to this reality, responds to what the Revolution has meant for women. And the popular sectors, the sectors of the people support the Revolution to the same extent that the Revolution has meant liberation for them (…).
The only thing left for me to say with all my strength: Long live the Cuban women! Long live the revolutionary spirit, the discipline, the devotion of Cuban women!
Long live the feminine revolution within the Socialist Revolution!
(Taken from Granma in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
