Get up, fight, and don't lament anymore!

There is a phrase that is over 200 years old, which has undergone slight transformations—I will add another one before this article concludes—and it expresses a profound truth that many forget or refuse to understand. This famous maxim was the motto of the newspaper Les Révolutions de Paris, which began circulating in July 1789. It is said that the author was Élisée Loustalot, the main editor of the publication.

Subsequently, this ruling was utilized by one of the most brilliant speakers of the French Revolution: the lawyer and Girondin politician Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, a deputy from Gironde in the Legislative Assembly and later in the National Convention. He was noted for his extraordinary eloquence and his defense of civil liberties, as well as for his criticism of both the absolute monarchy and the excesses of the Revolution.

The phrase in question should be engraved in fire, by every Cuban, in their mind. Because, to a large extent, all the bad and unpleasant things that happen in our homeland are due to our failure to heed its teachings. If we had made it our own, our people would not suffer from the extreme oppression and misery, the blackouts, and the injustices imposed by the Castro-communist regime.

If that principle were as present in our minds as: traveling abroad, rice, oil, pork, clothing, shoes, EcoFlow, Turkish or Brazilian soap operas, soccer, baseball, boxing, Mipymes, reggaeton, deliveries, Bebeshito, Bad Bunny, Karol G, beer, and rum, there would be no hunger, blackouts, miserable salaries, health crises, shortages of medicine, deprivations of all kinds, or so many injustices in the largest of the Antilles.

If our people were to remember the importance of what that revolutionary French journalist said, we wouldn't be waiting for others to do all the work for us, nor would our enthusiasm and discouragement depend on what Donald Trump or Marco Rubio say. When a people sits idly by waiting for someone else to liberate them, they run the risk of remaining enslaved for a lifetime.

Have you read five paragraphs already and still not figured out what the famous phrase is that would greatly help Cubans overcome the serious crisis imposed on the nation? I’m sure many already know what it is or what it’s about. But before I share it with you, patient reader, I will tell you that it is also attributed, in a more complete version, to the 16th-century jurist, humanist, and writer Étienne de La Boétie.

Following the previous mentions, the renowned writer Alexandre Dumas, author of "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers," explicitly reproduced the phrase in his work "Ange Pitou" and attributed it to his character, who belonged to Louis-Marie Prudhomme, the founder of the newspaper Les Révolutions de Paris, or, more likely, to the "virtuoso Loustalot."

The sentence in question is… Yes, it is time to reveal it. Let's start with the original in French: Les grands ne nous paraissent grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux. Let's rise! Now in English, and remember this well, compatriot, so that you never feel discouraged again, so that you do what you must for yourself, for your loved ones, and for your homeland: "The great only seem great to us because we are on our knees. Let's rise!"

But this is not my preferred version. No. I prefer the one attributed to Étienne de la Boétie, and there's no need to present it in Dumas's language. Let’s do it only in Cervantes's language, so you never forget, brother: "Tyrants appear great to us because we are on our knees. Let us rise!"

But I told you that before finishing the article, I would share my version, and here it is: The Castro-communist tyranny, yes, the one that deprives you of your rights, your dignity, and forces you to live under infamous oppression and extreme misery, or makes you abandon your homeland, seems invincible because you look on your knees and with fear. That criminal regime appears so powerful because you do not join those who fight for your freedom and well-being.

A lot is happening in Cuba, and there is a growing number of brave citizens fighting for a future of freedom, justice, and well-being for all. The United States is doing a great deal for the democratization of our homeland, and whether you believe it or not, I assure you it will do much more. And if you do your part, it may soon do what many of us desire so much. Support and solidarity are growing in Latin America and Europe. But you, my brother, are lamenting in your home or getting discouraged at the first discouraging phrase from Trump or Rubio that you hear.

This is not how you succeed, how you win, how you break free from oppression and extreme poverty. Stand up! Take heart! Fight, organize, withdraw your obedience, your collaboration and consent from those who oppress you, from those who lie to you from the comfort of their well-stocked mansions. Do what you need to do and stop crying. Your freedom and well-being are in your hands.