By Father Luis Barrios
Not only have you graduated as medical doctors, but also as humanists. You have learned what it means to practice international solidarity and have understood the reality of preventive and healing medicine in a socio-political context. This brings to reality the much celebrated phrase of Jose Marti: Homeland is humanity.This was the message conceptualized in the third graduation of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Habana, Cuba on the 24th of July. More than 1,200 students coming from more than 20 countries saw their dreams become reality. The majority of these students, now medical doctors, come from indigenous, working class, unemployed and minority families, etc. Therefore, these are the children of the condemned peoples who were robbed of their hope by our corporate capitalist system.
These young adults are a small representation of the people which ruling class governments have stripped of human and civil rights. However they have been blessed by the socialist revolution of Cuba and are attending this school without paying for tuition, books, food, or living space; and they now return to their countries to re-evaluate and continue their studies in specialized medicine. This demonstrates once again that regardless of the kicking and screaming of the Pentagon and Washington this Cuban revolution is in fact irreversible and increasingly revolutionary.
Like round balls that come in square boxes, from the richest country in the world-the United States- eight students graduated including one from the New York City borough known for salsa: the Bronx. These eight young adults are poor, black, and Latinos/as, who have traveled from far away with the sole purpose of benefiting from the international solidarity.
This Cuban sense of international solidarity which is manifested by a subversive love and a radical morality was taught to us by the doctor turned guerilla fighter, Ernesto Che Guevara. This is why we say without fear of being mistaken: Che continues to gallop on the roads of the ALBA and his ideas of a new human being as well as Fidel’s works for a better world continue to be present. Therefore this project of democratic socialism, on one hand continues to demonstrate the failures of our corporate capitalism, and on the other hand lets us see that there is still hope of building a paradise on earth.
A very important point in the medical formation of these young doctors is that they were not trained to commercialize medicine. Contrary to what is taught in medical schools in the United States, they have learned that the principal of social medicine is to save lives and that it is immoral, dishonest, and profane to use this practice to gain money.
In other words, these young doctors have understood that health care is a right and not a privilege. This concept, as well as the Cuban revolution, makes these doctors more spiritual and brings them closer to God. This is possible, even though Cuba is a poor country that has had to confront a blockade for the past 49 years. This is where the Cuban revolution, as well as the graduated students, through their actions are bringing to reality what our brother and comrade Jesus told us: Blessed are those who are peacemakers, for they shall be called the people of God. Cuba does not export soldiers around the world to kill people, much less sets out to invade or colonize other countries as the United States does. This Cuban revolution, through their love, sends out doctors and teachers throughout the world as missionaries to save lives, as well as to cure, save and protect the image of God.
For this reason I constantly ask myself; how can a religious person such as Bush have so much malice and cruelty towards the image of God and a non-religious person such as Fidel have so much respect and love for this image of God? And so the Bible says: they will be known by the fruits they bear.”
It is because of this and more that I do not get tired of saying that in a class society, such as the one we live in, the United States, the expression of subversive and radical love is part of the conspiring project of our Goddess. With this project we will build this paradise on earth with democratic socialism. Long live the Cuban revolution and may God bless us all!
Fr. Luis Barrios
Iglesia San Romero de las Américas
July 26, 2007
Habana, Cuba
lbarrios@jjay.cuny.edu
Translation: Kaila Paulino & Manolo de los Santos
