Parliament of the humble, with the humble, for the humble

In the history of nations there are events that mark generations for life. Events, experiences, images that accumulate in the subconscious and then when you least expect them to emerge under certain circumstances, cause reactions, attitudes and even make the heart beat harder, is when you know that your whole being is made up by them.

I have a very clear memory of my father dressed as a militia officer, with an olive green metal helmet and a Czech submachine gun on his chest, sweating, in a hurry, and of my mother, cheerful and loving, but with her eyes full of worry.

The helmet reached my chin and the gun weighed a ton in my hands, nobody made me sleep that morning and I even felt jealous of the caresses and kisses exchanged at the farewell without paying attention to the spicy comments of the other militiamen who were crowding a huge Kamaz truck. They were too young and I was too young. That was the first time I ever heard of Homeland or Death.

Much later, when I was able to understand the true meaning of those words, and many others like Dignity and Socialism, I found other ways to understand the essence of Independence and to relate them to Varela, Céspedes, Agramonte, Maceo, Martí, Mella, Villena, Frank, José Antonio. To Fidel I owe most of it.

I also understood that I am part of a whole, that many of us share similar experiences and convictions that define us as Cubans and that we learned as a people to celebrate victory in so many battles, to not lose faith in the future, and that by walking together we will be able to make all our dreams of social justice come true.

Times are different and demand more intelligence, sacrifice, honesty, wisdom, common sense, intransigence. I have no right to tiredness or hesitation and I demand this from those around me, from friends, from co-workers, from those who represent me.

The spirit of the Bay of Pigs victory, with the Commander in Chief always on the front line, even without being physically present, will guide the constitution of the National Assembly of People's Power, whose deputies, fulfilling the mandate of more than seven million Cubans, will be responsible for electing the new Council of State.

All of them, without any doubt, are genuine representatives of the generations of Cubans who, shortly after learning to say Mom and Dad, identified and called them by name: Fidel, Raúl, Camilo and Che; even for many, the epic of Bay of Pigs, the October Crisis, the harvest of the Ten Million and the flight to the Cosmos by Tamayo are facts they learned in the history books.

My 605 Deputies are of humble extraction, although the majority has reached the highest levels of intellectual, political and social development.

My deputies do not make fortunes, nor are they corrupt, nor did they accept donations from anyone to campaign; they are all distinguished by the will to serve the people who elected them and all have the mandate to advance along the path that began in 1868 in Demajagua and that now leads us towards the goal of building a prosperous and sustainable socialism.

Reflecting on these issues, I read an article by American journalists Iris Lee and Christina Bellantoni, published on March 5 on the website of the Los Angeles Times, which states that the state of California contributes 20 millionaires to the U.S. Congress, And in spite of this, the government institution will pay them an annual salary of 174,000 dollars, well above what the average Californian earns.

Another researcher on these issues is David Hawkings, senior editor of Capitol Hill, who compiled the annual data provided by The Times, which allows him to state that "the accumulated net worth of senators and members of the House increased by one-fifth from 2016 to date, which exceeds the typical income of Americans.

On the contrary, my deputies receive the same salary from their workplace and maintain their ties with it and with their grassroots constituents, take their positions voluntarily and do not aspire to any benefit from it, except that of the satisfaction of serving the people and the country, and if that were not enough 234 of them are workers, self-employed workers, peasants and cooperativists, teachers and public health workers.

With the constitution of the new National Assembly of People's Power and the election of the Council of State, its President, First Vice-President and Vice-Presidents, I will celebrate the victory of bay of Pigs so that my Revolution, your Revolution, our Revolution, and of course its Assembly, will continue to be one of the humble, with the humble and for the humble.