On Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7, 1959, Fidel Fidel was on the Isla de Pinos (Island of Youth, since 1978). Local historians have recorded more than 40 visits by the leader of the Revolution to this territory, where his mark can be found in every space of its geography and, above all, in the hearts of its inhabitants.
By historical coincidence, this year 2024 commemorates the 65th anniversary of this first visit after the triumph and, at the same time, the 30th anniversary of the last one, carried out in August 1994, when the island won the headquarters of July 26 and Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, in his words at the central event – alluding to Fidel’s fighting spirit and optimism – uttered for the first time the phrase: Yes we can.
The first visit of the then Cuban Prime Minister to the island constituted the turning point in the economic and social transformation of the place. In his words, before a sea of people concentrated in the square in front of the Nueva Gerona city hall, Fidel outlined a minimum development program that, in a short time, began to become a reality.
«When Fidel Castro, following the victory, returned to the Isla de Pinos as Head of the Revolution – Raúl Roa would express it in 1978 –, the dawn of a new life dawned on its 11,000 inhabitants, still drowsy from the narcotics of underdevelopment and the gravitating shadow of the prison. Fidel has been the true discoverer of him and his tireless defender (…). “He saw clearly and far when he predicted an exceptional future for the Island through work, audacity, initiative and tenacity.”
Details of this visit were collected in the newspaper Revolución, dated June 8, 1959: «Continuing the travel plan drawn up by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform to implement the country’s agrarian restructuring on the fly, the Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, and the executive director of the Agrarian Reform Institute, Dr. Antonio Núñez Jiménez, visited the Isle of Pines. Crewing the Second Front plane Frank País, of the Revolutionary Air Forces, the Minister left for the island at a quarter past one in the afternoon on Saturday, returning at two twenty-five.
The press that accompanied Fidel, Vilma Espín, also stands out; Lupe Velis, companion in the life and work of Núñez Jiménez; Celia Sánchez; the journalist Euclides Vázquez Candela, deputy director of the newspaper Revolución; and the lieutenant captain of the Venezuelan navy, Héctor Abdelnour Mussa, who was an assistant to Admiral Larrazábal, with a great contribution to the Revolution in its insurrectional stage. Commander Raúl Castro would join them hours later, at the Colony hotel on Siguanea beach.
On Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, Fidel visited several farms intervened by the Ministry of Recovery of Embezzled Assets, and others subject to a process of compensated expropriation by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (inra), to verify the ground the state and nature of these, for the purposes of their incorporation into the Agrarian Reform process.
He met with state officials and small landowners, as well as with the civil and military authorities of Nueva Gerona, among them, Commander William Gálvez, inspector general of the Rebel Army, and the municipal commissioner, Félix Moas. He took care of the economic and social situation of the Isle of Pines, as well as its most urgent needs. The testimony of Núñez Jiménez indicates that he also visited the most attractive tourist places in that territory.
At the conclusion of the tour, Fidel spoke to the people at City Hall, in front of Lacret Park. His words were visionary.
«Finally, the Isle of Pines can begin a new history and an entirely Cuban history –said Fidel, in the initial moments of his intervention– (…). In this meeting, therefore, we are going to draw up the guidelines, you and we, and in absolute agreement of what we are going to do in Isla de Pinos. But when we say we are going to do it, we don’t say it, but we start doing it right away. As you know, I did not tell anyone that I was coming to the Isle of Pines.
«For us it happens the opposite than the previous rulers, who were announcing the events a week before, renting trucks and doing everything for people to come, and for us it happens the other way around, so that people let us work. And the events, look how they organize themselves and for that reason, because I came first to study the specific situation of Isla de Pinos and, after I was able to observe the situation of Isla de Pinos on the ground, to come and speak to the people.
«After we already have the plans that we are going to carry out in accordance with you, Isla de Pinos has four great possibilities. The first of all is tourist. The second, livestock. Third, the crops. And lastly, another need is the industrialization of the Isle of Pines.
The leader of the Revolution presented to the people of Pinero a minimum economic and social rehabilitation plan for the Isla de Pinos, which contained among its priorities: the elimination of the Free Trade Zone; the construction of the highway from Santa Fe to the South, as well as other communication routes; the establishment of a national hatchery Zebu cattle; an agricultural development that would turn the Island into the fourth zone established by the INRA; the progress of national and international tourism with direct flights to Florida; the reduction in the cost of sea, air and land tickets; the construction of homes, industries, aqueduct and sewage of Nueva Gerona; the promotion of technology, the creation of jobs, and the transfer of the Model Prison.
Fidel also referred, in his speech, to the need to promote the film industry on the island.
“I leave today with the satisfaction that we are going to accomplish everything I have promised, and that you will see very soon that all this is simply a reality,” he expressed, with deep conviction, at the conclusion of his words.
It would not take long for Fidel’s dreams to begin to materialize on the Isle of Pines. By 1975, the Cuban leader himself explained some of those achievements, in a speech given at the event for the visit to the Isle of Pines of a delegation from Trinidad and Tobago, chaired by the Prime Minister, Eric Williams.
Fidel highlighted that, from a demographic point of view, the Island had grown five times in population density, from 11,000 to 55,000 people; The territory already had one of the most complete educational systems in the country; Of the 500 hectares of citrus trees existing at the triumph of the Revolution, there were already approximately 20,000 hectares.
Likewise, there were more than 200 million cubic meters of reservoir capacity, and large and modern irrigation systems were being developed. When in 1959 there were barely 60 kilometers of roads and paths, there were already 750; electrical generation had increased from 200 kilowatts to 8,000; and many other important results that allowed him to assure that “rarely do we have the privilege of seeing certain dreams come to life. But we can say that Isla de Pinos – Isla de Pinos yesterday, Isla de la Juventud tomorrow – constitutes for the Revolution a dream turned into reality.
Over the years, the economic and social development of the Isle of Youth proclaimed in 1978 would continue to grow. An exemplary experience was the educational program of international scholarships, a unique experience in the world, the livestock program, the development of agriculture, the marble and ceramics industry, among many others.
The difficult times that the country went through after the collapse of the socialist camp, and the effects of cyclones and hurricanes, made a dent in many of these achievements, but not in the spirit of resistance and victory of the people of Pinar del Río, and in the reflection of the revolutionary work and its historical leader on that island beautiful in its nature, but also in its history and identity.
65 years after that first visit by Fidel to the Pinero territory, the leadership of the Party and the Government, united with the people, are making great efforts to continue the path of transformations and prosperity that the Revolution opened in that year of freedom, with the motivation to achieve again, 30 years later, the headquarters of July 26.
