Articles of burial

The mutual love filled with glory and victories, which was sealed from the very first time he saw its sky, sea and mountains, met its men and women, faithful to a history of enduring struggles for the homeland, has just been confirmed for all time: Santiago de Cuba is Fidel’s city.

Cuba is prepared to assimilate the accelerated changes in the global economy, Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Economic Sciences Laureate, stated during a conference organized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment held in the capital.

“All the glory in the world would fit within a kernel of corn,” wrote Cuba’s national hero José Martí, but today it seems that all of the glory in the world fits in a small cedar chest draped with a Cuban flag, bearing a simple inscription: Fidel Castro Ruz, with no letters indicating military rank or position, that weighed heavy in the hearts of those present in this city’s Antonio Maceo Grajales Plaza de la Revolución.

The people of Santiago de Cuba and many visiting the provincial capital continue to render tribute to Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, a designated National Monument, where his ashes were laid to rest in a simple ceremony on Sunday, December 4. Since the afternoon of that day, a long line of people has formed, many with flowers in hand, waiting to silently pass by the site where Fidel’s remains rest.