This speech is one of the first Che Guevara gave in Havana just weeks after the triumph of the revolution. It is important because it develops his earlier work on the role of doctors in social transformation and emphasizes the legacy of José Martí. It was presented to a meeting held in his honor, sponsored by the College of Medicine, on January 16, 1959.
I haven’t brought a written speech that I’m hiding under my arm like the guy who didn’t want to be unprepared and so brought one just in case, so he wouldn’t have to decline the undeserved honor of being asked to address the meeting. I came here to fulfill my rather neglected duty as a doctor and to greet you—that’s all.
Really, I’m not very accustomed—I’m not at all accustomed—to being among those presiding over or on the dais of a meeting of professionals, and I think that, if my life had followed the channels of science, I still wouldn’t be here. The fact that I’ve been invited to be here to say a few words shows that warriors are still considered important in Latin America.
I don’t think there is anything special about a foreigner’s having come to fight for Cuba. Martí lived, spoke and taught in Cuba, and his main goal was to unite Latin America. I’ve never felt myself to be a foreigner, either in Cuba or in any of the other countries in which I’ve traveled, and I’ve had a rather adventurous life.
I felt like a Guatemalan in Guatemala, like a Mexican in Mexico and like a Peruvian in Peru; now, I feel like a Cuban in Cuba—and, naturally, I also feel like an Argentine, both here and everywhere else, because it’s a part of my personality: I can’t forget mate and Argentine BBQs.
Now let’s talk about something more important: the contribution that doctors can make to our revolution—not what you’ve already done, which everybody acknowledges, for your profession may well be the one that has given the most blood and men to the revolution. (I can’t remember any of our columns that didn’t have the services of at least one doctor.)
As a doctor who has always been concerned about social questions, I think this is the time to make substantial contributions in order to radically change the health conditions that prevail in Cuba, as in all other nations.
During my travels through other Latin American countries, I saw that health was one of the most backward spheres. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, there was no health care at all.
Many of the guys told me while we were in Mexico that Cuba was different, that Cuba was not like Mexico—where, in reality, there is absolutely no health care outside the capital—but I’ve seen that health care is completely unknown in many parts of Cuba, too, although the Sierra Maestra seems to be unrelated to the rest of Cuba. Later, I saw that the picture was completely different in the cities and more prosperous agricultural areas, and even in other rural areas.
I think that what we must do now, in these days of victory and peace, is to prepare to struggle honestly and ardently so that the Cuban health care system takes an important step forward, providing clinics and services in all those areas without them and to modernize many others.
I haven’t had a chance to visit the research centers and many of the health services here in the capital yet, but I’m aware that there is still a lot to do. I’m beginning the critique here, simply because I consider myself a Cuban and think that I have not only the right but also the duty to call attention to anything I find that is not working properly.
I think it’s time to start thinking seriously. Just a few minutes ago, I was telling Dr. del Valle and Dr. Rodríguez about the new direction that medicine must take in Cuba. Since we’ve created a revolution that may be history-making and that marks a new step forward in the Latin American peoples’ struggles for liberation, we should complete it in all spheres and courageously carry it to social medicine, advancing as far as possible.
I’m simply calling your attention to the issue, not laying down any guidelines—because I don’t have the training to do that. Now, I ask you to forgive me for having bitten off more than I can chew and for having spoken about things I should perhaps have left alone. Perhaps I should have talked about things related to the guerrilla struggle, which I know well— not medical topics—but, since I was invited by the College of Medicine, I have taken the opportunity to say these things, because I wanted to call the compañeros’ attention to these issues.