“Federation members! Women of this worthy and invincible land! (...) With the satisfaction of the overwhelming achievements in the battle for the full exercise of women’s equality, and with the resolve to continue forward toward new conquests, today we convoke the 8th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women.”

This was written by the eternal president of the Federation (FMC), Vilma Espín Guillois, in March of 2004. With these words she expressed her accurate analysis of the evident results of a revolutionary conception that, from its beginnings and with an unquestionable will, combined both sentiment and scientific ideas. To this was added the development of timely and coherent public policies driven by its main architect: the visionary and humanist Fidel, our Comandante en Jefe.

The profound conviction of the leader of the Cuban Revolution to promote a necessary, radical, and fundamental process for the construction of a better world, that would lead to the conquest of all justice and the rights of Cuban women, marked the beginning of the end of inequality, discrimination, and the age-old inferior status awarded this half of the population. Women, many of them also mothers, began to understand and join the liberating, empowering process.

Vilma was the most tenacious, faithful, and creative interpreter of Fidel’s ideas and aspirations. She wrote the above opening text that, in the light of the realities assumed today by Cuban women, appears as if conceived for this moment in time, in which the FMC is holding its 10th Congress; an example of continuity and the permanent exercise of democracy and inclusion.

This important event pays tribute to the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, and likewise Vilma’s wisdom and extraordinary work, which the historical memory of a nation continues to recreate. A nation where women represent an army of builders, victors over all obstacles, enthusiastic when confronting difficulties, and increasingly prepared and aware.

The beautiful assessment made by our beloved Vilma in favor of women remains relevant: this is still a time when “genius flourishes and ingenuity is multiplied.”

Cuban women also commemorate with legitimate pride the 150th anniversary of the Constituent Assembly of Guáimaro. It was in April 1869, when the courageous nature of patriots, academics, and fighters, in all the culminating moments of the Cuban revolutionary process, was inscribed, forever, in the history of the nation.

There, at that historic site, in that important meeting to draft and approve the Constitution of the independent and sovereign homeland, the vanguard position of the heroine Ana Betancourt stood out, an attitude described by the Father of the Homeland, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, as an expression of the advanced ideas of a Mambi fighter who was ahead of her time. With great clarity, her voice rang out in that premonitory constitutional debate:

“Citizens: the Cuban woman, in the dark and quiet corner of the home, patient and resigned, awaits this sublime hour, in which a just revolution breaks its yoke and spreads its wings. Here everything was enslaving: origin, color, and sex. You want to destroy the bondage of origin by fighting to the death. You have destroyed the slavery of color by emancipating the slave. The time has come to liberate the woman!”

Recalling that heroic event is a nod of respect to the origins of the rising revolutionary path of Cuban women. And during these days of debate, changes and the search for solutions, it is valid to highlight the active and conscious participation of women as a conclusive reality of the Socialist Revolution, as well as the political culture and the technical, professional, and scientific achievements that identify them today. That is an unquestionable truth, which despite adversities and prejudices, was foreseen and promoted by Fidel, that avid follower of Martí, and accomplished in each stage of the struggle.

This prediction by Fidel is tangible proof of his visionary capacity and his confidence in Cuban women, reaffirmed in the 5th National Plenary of the FMC, held in the city of Santa Clara, on December 9, 1966, with his definition and concrete contribution to theory and practice: “When we arrived here tonight, I told a compañero that this phenomenon of women in the Revolution was a revolution within the revolution. And if we were asked what is the most revolutionary thing that the Revolution is doing, we would answer that the most revolutionary thing is precisely this, the revolution that is taking place among the women of our country.”

That thought and its action are realities that penetrated very deeply among Cuban women. Proof of this are the intelligent and enriching interventions of the island’s female deputies in the recent sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power, dedicated to debating the new Constitution, which the Cuban people approved with a categorical YES in the referendum on February 24.

The speech by deputy Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), was impressive, as a follower of the advanced ideas and humanistic practices of her mother, Vilma, a source of permanent inspiration for the FMC.

Also touching was her embrace with her father, the beloved and admired compañero Raúl, a loving gesture that brought Vilma to mind, that paradigm of resolve, of dedication, of Cuban identity for every FMC member, who from a “distance” continues to persuade us to face the challenges of the new battles that lie ahead.

Undoubtedly, one of the key events in our revolutionary evolution took place during the 5th FMC Congress, on March 7, 1990. Precisely in his closing speech, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz informed the people of the possibility of a difficult, complex stage ahead, which would need to be confronted without delay.

There, he said: “Revolutionary ideas will never die, no matter what happens: they will not die. And we must know that this struggle can be waged in the economic field, it can consist of resisting, resisting, and resisting. In war, resistance is victory; but also in peace and in a special period in peacetime, to resist is a victory... That is why the banner of unity must be raised more than ever... We defend the most beautiful banners that have ever been raised on earth, the noblest dreams of human beings...”

Fidel recommended that we defend the justice we had conquered as women, and continue working to advance in the struggle for equality.

In her report to the 5th FMC Congress, President Vilma, who always shared her ideas and strategic objectives with Fidel, conveyed to members the guidelines necessary for such moments: “We are aware of the difficult moments we are experiencing, and we have the profound pride of defending our Marxist-Leninist ideology, of defending the principles of socialism... without socialism, the image of women would never have been dignified, and would remain invisible to the eyes of history.

“Cuban women, from this Congress, reiterate to our Comandante en Jefe that we are not willing to take a single step back. We will never be slaves to a foreign power or a capitalist employer. We have made a fully conscious choice: Socialism no matter what happens.”

Some years later, on March 8, 1997, International Women’s Day, Fidel sent a warm letter of congratulations to the FMC. In it he wrote: “... with the Revolution came the full dignification of women... On the other hand, without women the enormous work of the Revolution would not have been possible... Neither words nor tributes can fully reflect the greatness of the Cuban woman, gained by dint of her incomparable example.

“... No one like her has made the greatest sacrifices in the Special Period that we are still experiencing, nor risen up such that her everyday effort has become a feat.”

In Vilma’s letter of congratulations to mark Fidel’s 70th birthday, she wrote:

“What a privilege for us to live in your time and share with you the immense ups and downs of this struggle to defend the justice won! (...) There are so many noble and profound sentiments that we would like to convey to you on this date, but that which we most owe to you, which we wish to convey to you with all our love, is the infinite gratitude of every Cuban woman, who has reached the social position that you demanded for us with your visionary project of the future that is already the present!”

That present summons us today.