In this speech, Fidel celebrates the legacy of Antonio Maceo and Che Guevara as important leaders and symbols of Cuban independence and self-determination.

Published in the Brazilian Journal of African Studies on March 20, 2019, this article by Zuleica, one of the only accessible online in English, provides a detailed history and investigation into the racial and national identities used by individuals in Cuba and the historical and material conditions that have shaped them. At the end of the article she discusses her own feelings of personal identification in this context.

This book has become the definitive account of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, a revolution that began in the wake of the Bastille but became the model for the Third World liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.

Antonio Maceo, the “Titan of Bronze,” was a leader in the Cuban struggle for independence. Known for his heroic will and military acumen, Maceo rose to second-in-command in the Mambi Army and dedicated his life to liberation from Spanish colonialism and later U.S. imperialism. In a meeting with Spanish General Martínez-Campos, known as the protest at Baragua, he refused to accept any terms ending 1878 Ten Years War against Spain without the inclusion of the complete abolition of slavery in Cuba and true independence from colonizers. (Source)

Carlota Lucumí, an African woman of Yoruba heritage, led an uprising of enslaved Africans at the Triumvirato sugar mill in Matanzas Province. Her name was given to Cuba’s “Black Carlota'' operation in South Africa in 1980, which culminated into a battle that defeated the South African and UNITA forces. Her legacy is honored in Triumvirato, where there was a monument erected depicting her wielding her iconic machete along with the two other uprising leaders. (Source)

Haydée Santamaría was one of the founding members of the 26th of July Movement and an essential leader in all aspects of the Revolution, from fighting in the Sierra Maestra with the guerilla forces to disseminating propaganda in the rural and urban areas for the revolutionary movement. Haydée was the founding director of Casa de las Americas.

Fidel Castro was one of the leaders of the 26th of July Movement, Cuba’s prime minister after the 1959 Revolution and then president until 2008. Known as the face of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel’s leadership, words, and acts of internationalism have been celebrated and evoked by revolutionary struggles across the Americas.

C.L.R. James, Trinidadian historian, artist, and author of The Black Jacobins, was an influential Marxist of the 20th century who asserted that enslaved people waged some of the earliest pre-industrial class struggles. The Black Jacobins remains a seminal Marxist text and history on the Haitian Revolution.

in traditional Marxists terms, the base refers to the economy, or the realm of production, distribution and how people relate to one another and property in production; the superstructure is the totality of institutions, the ideological relations and views built upon an economic base and that upholds the social order, which includes law and the state, and morality religion, philosophy, art, and the political and legal forms of consciousness and all institutions that correspond to the base; the base is the foundation on which the superstructure is built but the superstructure also reacts to and upon the base, influencing its development (Marxist Glossary - Expanded Edition: 3.0 by Darryl "Waistline" Mitchell)

mestizaje is a term used in Latin America and the Caribbean to describe someone of a mixed racial background; while it is a term used colloquially in Cuba today, mestizaje is a colonial term that comes from the violent and exploitative context of European colonizers mixing with indigenous and enslaved Africans; since different colonial regimes created different racial categories across the Americas, mestizaje and mestizo have different political connotations in different periods of time and in different contexts

the second of three wars between Cuba and Spain in the late 19th century, the Little War (La Guerra Chiquita) began as an uprising led by Cuban liberation army generals, including Antonio Maceo and his brother José Maceo, who did not accept the terms of the Pact of Zanjón, which ended the Ten Years’ War. Although it lasted for less than one year, the Little War was a continuation of the struggle for Cuban independence and 15 years later the final war begins, which ends in Cuba’s formal independence from Spain (see Antonio Maceo)

the 26th of July Movement was the vanguard organization that led the Cuban Revolution in 1959; the organization gets its name from the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, an action which initiated the long struggle against the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista regime

six months after the Cuban Revolution triumphed, the agrarian reform was signed into law and established limits to the size of farms and real estate. All large shareholdings were broken up and distributed to peasants or held as state run communes. These reforms also nationalized all foreign-owned property, including large U.S.-owned sugar plantations. These reforms effectively gave land titles to at least 32,000 families, eliminated illegal evictions and created permanent employment for many farmers and workers (Source)

in 1961, the Cuban government trained 250,000 volunteers, a vast majority of them women, and sent them as teachers into rural and remote areas to eradicate illiteracy; in 1959 UNESCO reports that 23.6% of the population above the age of 10 were illiterate and by 1961, that number had fallen to 3.9%

founded by revolutionary Hayee Santamaría in 1959, Casa de las Américas carries out non-governmental activities aimed at developing and expanding socio-cultural relations with the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world. When all Latin American governments, with the exception of Mexico's, broke off relations with Cuba, the institution helped prevent the total destruction of cultural ties between the island and the rest of the continent. Casa de las Américas promotes, researches, sponsors, awards and publishes the work of writers, artists, musicians, performers and scholars of literature, arts and social sciences of the continent. (Source)

in November 2019, the Council of Ministers in Cuba approved the National Program Against Racism and Racial Discrimination to tackle issues of racism and discrimination. The objectives include identifying the causes of racist and discriminatory practices, identifying actions to be carried out in each level of society, disseminating the historical-cultural legacy of African descendants and other non-white people, and encouraging organized public debate on racial issues within political, mass and social organizations, as well as in media.