65th Anniversary of the Coal Dinner Commemorated (+photos)

The Cuban president exchanged with the community and descendants of those families at the same site where the 50th Anniversary Memorial-Library of the coal dinner with Fidel is erected.

On December 24th, 1959, Prime Minister Fidel Castro Ruz, accompanied by Captain Antonio Núñez Jiménez, executive director of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA); the Minister of Agriculture, Comandante Pedro Miret, and Celia Sánchez joined the Christmas Eve dinner of a group of coal mining families in the heart of the Zapata Swamp.

Today, 65 years later, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, accompanied by Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as Mario Sabines Lorenzo, first secretary of the Party in Matanzas and the governor, Marieta Poey Zamora, arrived at this site.

The president exchanged with the community and descendants of those families in the same place where the Memorial-Library 50th anniversary of the Coal Dinner with Fidel is erected.

Sitting at the table again, the date that has remained in the collective memory of the inhabitants was recalled and Díaz-Canel explained the importance of preserving these spaces.

«I believe that Fidel gave many messages. First of all, a message of altruism, a message of sensitivity and commitment to the people, which he had been expressing since the first speech he gave in Santiago when the Revolution triumphed, of his commitment to the people.

«He is also giving a lesson that in Cuba with the Revolution we were all equal, we could all share a table, we could all be talking, we could all be in the same conditions. And I believe that he also expressed a conviction of commitment to the present and the future.

«Today here with the history that you have told us and with the things that we have lived with the tenths of the repentistas, one has confirmed things that one had also read in life and everything is the same. Everything is the same as we have been told, as we have known it and with the things that you have explained to us.

«One of the best ways to be convinced of why we have to defend the Revolution is to see what happened here and how you remember it and how you defend it. But in times like these, the issue is not only to fight for the economic prosperity of the country, which is important and necessary, and we have to achieve it in the shortest possible time, but also to have historical memory and not forget where we come from,» said Díaz-Canel.

Haydeé García Montano was barely nine years old when on December 24th, 1959, Prime Minister Fidel Castro Ruz arrived at her hut in Soplillar, in the Zapata Swamp. Rogelio García, (Haydeé’s father), accompanied by his large family, as well as other neighbors, hosted the dinner.

Haydée García Montano recalls the surprise of the family and how for the first time a politician visited this forgotten area and also recalled the affection of that great man.

For this reason Alexis Leiva Machado (Kcho), could not let history be lost and promoted the Memorial-Library 50th anniversary of the Coal Dinner with Fidel.

This event marked a milestone in Cuban history, being the first time that a state leader shared a festivity with the most humble, symbolizing the Revolution’s commitment to the underprivileged, one of the most radical events of the time.

Written by Yunielys Moliner Isasi.