Solidarity is the most beautiful human emotion which is much needed in a world ravaged by the pandemic, said Aleida Guevera, paediatrician and daughter of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
She was speaking after being felicitated by a host of progressive organisations in the city on Thursday. Her daughter and economist Estefania Guevera was also felicitated.
“Solidarity comes out of learning and understanding each other’s cultures which helps us find common objectives to fight to create a better world,” she said. Coming down heavily on sanctions imposed by the United States of America on Cuba, even refusing to sell medicines, she said Cuba did not have syringes to provide COVID-19 vaccine to the people.
In talks with Kerala
“We appealed to the Cuban solidarity across the world and help came pouring in. Now, we have developed an intra-nasal vaccine that doesn’t need syringes,” she said. Cuba is in talks with Kerala to develop Ayurvedic medicine as an alternative to allopathic medicine which was in short supply in Cuba, she said. She added that many plants grown in Kerala can be easily grown in Cuba too.. “Solidarity finally helps us create a better world, and try to alleviate the sufferings of our people everywhere in the world,” she said.
Dr. Aleida corrected several anecdotes about Che Guevara recounted at the event. “Once I was at a conference at a university in Spain where I saw a line about revolution written on the toilet’s wall and appreciated it at the event. A year later I saw it attributed to my father. We need to be careful about any kind of misinformation that is one of the biggest issues plaguing the world today,” she said.
‘Great romantic’
Correcting an earlier speaker, who said Che Guevara often described himself as “a rebel who couldn’t become a poet”, Dr. Aleida said contrary to popular perception her father did write poetry. “But he was very critical of his poetry and never read it in public or published them. But he read them to my mother in the night,” she said, describing her father as a “great romantic.” She said her father believed that one has to be a romantic to be revolutionary and that all revolutionaries must first know how to love.
