This Tuesday, from the Portocarrero Hall of the Palace of the Revolution and before a large group of young people, the presentation of the Selected Works of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz took place.

«Take advantage, study…» was the invitation, looking to the future, made this Tuesday morning by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, to the young people who had experienced, from the Portocarrero Hall of the Palace of the Revolution, the presentation of the Selected Works of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.

He said it motivated by the need to understand history better and better, in a world where truth is one of the most wounded virtues, and where the struggle for noble causes seems not to be in fashion. His invitation to journey through nine volumes of substance and beauty has been stamped in the prologue, written by him, in which he expresses: «Raúl is part of that generation that valued life above all else and fought to defend it, even if it cost his own.»

In other lines of the portico to the Selected Works, Díaz-Canel assures every possible reader that precisely that Raúl, defender of life, will be found in the pages, «through nine intense volumes that close with his core speech on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution.» He speaks of the Army General as «the Cuban who has given everything for his country and who will always accompany the sacrificial and difficult, but necessary and beautiful, path of the Cuban Revolution.»

Before one hundred young people – 50 of them belonging to different sectors of Cuban society; and another 50, students from the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences – the Doctor of Historical Sciences, Elier Ramírez Cañedo – who was in charge of the presentation together with the prestigious intellectual and president of Casa de las Américas, Abel Prieto Jiménez – did not overlook that this Tuesday was 24th February.

There could not be a more notable day, there could not be a better place to talk about the Selected Works of Raúl, said Elier. And then he recalled, among other historical coincidences, the libertarian contest restarted in Cuba on 24th February 1895; and that on a 24th February, but in 1899, the Generalissimo Máximo Gómez entered Havana, coming from the central region of the Island; that the 13th March Revolutionary Directorate was founded on 24th February 1956; and that on 24th February 1976 the first Socialist Constitution of Cuba was proclaimed, and that precisely at that moment comrade Raúl had the central words.

About the Army General, Elier Ramírez highlighted that he has been the «helmsman of the Cuban Revolution for over six decades,» and that he still remains active, with his foot in the stirrup. Next, in reference to the editorial work, compiled by Ediciones Celia, he recalled that it began to take shape just over four years ago in the Office of Historical Affairs, the same one founded by Celia Sánchez Manduley.

As is known, the then director of that Centre, Eugenio Suárez Pérez (now deceased), and the head of the Directorate for the Preservation of the Documentary Heritage of the Palace of the Revolution, Alberto Alvariño Atiénzar, were those who dreamed up and thought of the first steps of an editorial work that contains more than 500 documents and more than 5,000 pages, which are enriched with more than 2,070 footnotes.

Each volume – he explained – has a QR code that links to images of Raúl in specific stages. The texts can be found on the websites of the Communist Party and the country’s media outlets. This work, he commented, is not «to adorn shelves,» it is «a treasure of inestimable value for young people.» The also deputy head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was explicit in his desire for the collection to circulate, be studied, and be loved.

WORDS ABOUT AN «EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION»

Abel Prieto Jiménez began his conversation with the hundred young people present in the Portocarrero Hall, and with the entire audience, with a beautiful detail: he commented that many were there for the first time; that the hall owes its name to a work of avant-garde Cuban visual art, authored by René Portocarrero; he spoke of the precious stained glass window by Cuban artist Mario Gallardo, «Sun of America Revolution,» located in the Palace; and he noted that «here there are ferns from the Sierra Maestra, from the Escambray…»

In his reflections on the Selected Works, Abel affirmed that these books have enormous significance for Cubans, and also for those who, from other parts of the world, continue to see in the Island a paradigm of firmness in times of betrayal and fears in the face of the threats of a grotesque emperor.

To the special recipients of the editorial work, the prestigious thinker recounted that reading the collection has allowed him to understand what Raúl’s leadership is – which is different from Fidel’s, while being a continuation of the legacy of the Commander in Chief, just as it is also a continuation, he said, of comrade Díaz-Canel.

He spoke of the deeply Martí-inspired Raúl, of his tireless vocation as an educator – always concerned that the Cuban army understood the meaning of the struggle –. He highlighted the colloquial, unique, profoundly Cuban style of the Army General; and at another point in his speech he highlighted that, in its pages, «Celia is a very frequent presence, she is like a guardian angel.»

The President of Casa de las Américas commented to the young people that at this moment it is vital that the new generations, teachers, families, know history, because the world suffers from simplifications and many misrepresentations. Abel alerted about the serious cultural and ethical crisis that marks the planet.

Among references to quotes and expressions of special value, Abel Prieto emphasised Raúl’s humanism; his philosophy of never humiliating a subordinate; the naturalness with which he has always spoken of death; his sense of loyalty to friends; the importance he has always attached to unity and respect for the truth. The writer, referring to the Selected Works, spoke of reading them as living an impressive journey through history.

It was a day full of patriotic emotions, in which were also present, among other leaders and guests, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz; the Secretary of Organisation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Dr Roberto Morales Ojeda; the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa; the Secretary of the Council of Ministers and Major General, José Amado Ricardo Guerra; all members of the Political Bureau.

FOR COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND FOR THE FUTURE

The documents kept within these pages allow us to follow the thread of a life in Revolution, and the fundamental historical events of Cuba in the last 70 years, affirmed historian Elier Ramírez Cañedo, deputy head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Party, when presenting the Selected Works of Raúl Castro Ruz, at the University of Havana.

Neither the chosen date nor the place were coincidental: at the University «we always learn to be revolutionaries and to defend the Homeland,» assured Daily Sánchez Lemus, deputy director of the Office of Historical Affairs, and she described 24th February as an insurgent day. Precisely, the Works, which constitute «a gift for Cuban youth,» begin with an article from 1951 published by Raúl in Saeta, a publication of the Alma Mater.

Before an audience composed of young students – who received as a gift from the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) the collection of nine volumes – the virtues of the Army General were highlighted, who was described as a paradigm for various generations of revolutionaries, simple, audacious, honest, demanding of others and of himself.

The collection, valued Ramírez Cañedo, presents the strategist and the defender and builder of the Cuban Revolution, the statesman, the guide: it becomes a manual of direction, a treatise on revolutionary ethics, an ideological arsenal and a hymn to unity.

In the complex time we live in, these Works must be studied and debated – he pointed out – as they are nourishment for collective memory and for the future we are building.

This edition, by Ediciones Celia, contains more than 500 texts, several of them previously unpublished; and it is part of the political movement our country is experiencing around the centenary of Fidel and the 95th birthday of Raúl, in 2026.

For several months it has been possible to access the digital version on the Party’s websites and the country’s media outlets.