Havana, April 1 (RHC)-- "Our triumph is a fact," proclaimed "the gallant Flor" standing tall from the damp sands of the Homeland, where the raging waves of the Atlantic had just tossed him and his companions, almost to the point of shipwreck.

Flor Crombet proclaimed it when he, nor the brothers Antonio and José Maceo, nor any of the brave men who made up the expedition, knew the exact place they had arrived at. A farmer would tell him shortly afterward that this was the mouth of the Duaba.

But from the beginning, they knew they were on home soil, and that explains the certainty of the proclamation. How much light emerged from the words spoken and embraced by 23 men who, in the early morning, seemed like silhouettes in the merciless darkness of that April 1st!

Personal quarrels and differences were set aside. Above them, the sacred, capital reason: the commitment to Cuba; a greater undertaking: freedom, independence, the full dignity of a deserving people who were preparing to conquer it.

Ahead lay the war—necessary but hard, like all wars—persecution, suffering, hardship, sacrifice, sieges, fatigue, ambushes, deaths… a path “full of thorns and thistles,” foretold by the Bronze Titan weeks before.

In the love-filled letter addressed to his wife, in which he predicted such a reality, along with the name María Cabrales, Cuba could well also appear as the recipient, and equally, in this last case, the other patriots and the people of the beloved Island as senders.

One hundred and thirty years have passed. The freedom and independence that were then desired are now conquests. But harassed, slandered, threatened. And that poses a similar, necessary struggle, albeit in different circumstances.

The same duty that commanded us to "shake off the yoke" now commands us to prevent the chains of the past from returning. Commitment summons us by example in the face of difficulties that only virtue can overcome. "How important the duty of honest men is!" the Bronze Titan seems to repeat.

Most likely, now, with the endorsement of history, José Martí would have upheld the same message: "The beauty is that we reached where we are without a single reservation, concealment, or duplicity."

And who doubts that "the gallant Flor," from Duaba, on the road to Cuba, with the dignity blazing in his chest that belongs to his people, would repeat the certainty: "Our triumph is a fact." 

(Source: Granma)