Che Guevara Talks to Young People. Ernesto Che Guevara

are many bad things, I know. There is much disorganisation, I know. If you have been to the Sierra Maestra, then you already know this. We still use guerrilla methods, I know. We lack technicians in fabulous quantities commensurate to our aspirations, I know. Our army has still not reached the necessary degree of maturity nor have the militia members achieved sufficient coordination to constitute themselves as an army, I know.

      But what I also know – and what I want all of you to know – is that this revolution has always acted with the will of the entire people of Cuba. Every peasant and every worker, if they handle a rifle poorly, are working to handle it better every day, to defend their revolution. And if right now they can’t understand the complicated workings of a machine whose technician fled to the United States, then they are studying every day to learn it, so their factory runs better. And the peasants will study their tractor, to fix its mechanical problems, so the fields of their cooperative yield more.

      All Cubans, from both city and countryside, sharing the same sentiments, are marching towards the future, totally united in their thinking, led by a leader in whom they have absolute confidence, because he has shown in a thousand battles [Applause] and on a thousand different occasions his capacity for sacrifice, and the power and foresight of his thought.

      The nation before you today might disappear from the face of the earth because an atomic conflict may be unleashed on its account, and we might be the first target. Even if this entire island were to disappear along with its inhabitants, its people would consider themselves completely satisfied and fulfilled if each of you, upon returning to your countries, would say:

      “Here we are. Our words come from the humid air of the Cuban forests. We have climbed the Sierra Maestra and seen the dawn, and our minds and our hands are filled with the seeds of that dawn. We are prepared to plant them in this land, and defend them so they can grow.”

      From all the brother countries of the Americas, and from our own land – if it should still remain standing as an example – from that moment on and forever, the voice of the peoples will answer: “Thus it shall be: Let freedom triumph in every corner of the Americas!” [Ovation]