Concluding now, let’s return to Fidel’s November 2005 speech at the University of Havana, where he described Cuba as an “idiot country” but added, “This is not speaking badly about the Revolution, this is in fact speaking very well of the Revolution, because we speak of a Revolution that can discuss all this and can grab the bull by the horns, even better than the Spanish bull-fighter.”

Fidel reminded Cuba’s revolutionaries that history is on their side. “I believe that sooner rather than later the empire will disintegrate and the American people will enjoy more freedom than ever, they will be able to aspire to more justice than ever before; they will be able to use science and technology for their own improvement and for the betterment of humanity; they will be able to join all of us who fight for the survival of the species.”

In the meantime, Cuba’s socialist revolution has spread to Venezuela. Together, Venezuela and Cuba are blazing a trail for socialism in the 21st century and Cuba’s revolutionaries face the challenge of carrying through a socialist renovation of their society, a challenge that recalls this prescient and wonderfully evocative passage from the man they remember fondly as Carlos (Karl) Marx:

“Bourgeois revolutions, like those of the eighteenth century, storm swiftly from success to success; their dramatic effects outdo each other; people and things seem set in sparkling brilliants; ecstasy is the everyday spirit; but they are short-lived; soon they have attained their zenith, and a crapulent depression lays hold of society before it learns soberly to assimilate the results of its storm and stress period.

“On the other hand, proletarian revolutions … criticize themselves constantly, interrupt themselves continually in their own course, come back to the apparently accomplished in order to begin it afresh, deride with unmerciful thoroughness the inadequacies, weaknesses and paltriness of their first attempts, seem to throw down their adversary only in order that he may draw new strength from the earth and rise again, more gigantic, before them, recoil ever and anon, until a situation has been created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves cry out: ‘Here is the obstacle, now jump!’”

More than any other, Cuba’s socialist revolution has demonstrated the capacity to reinvent itself at every critical juncture while staying true to itself. It is, as Raul Castro reminded Cubans celebrating its 50th anniversary, “a revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble.” Its resilience is due, above all, to the wisdom and courage of Fidel and the other leaders of the Cuban Revolution. We can be confident that Cuba’s revolutionaries will prevail.*