Frei Betto: the Cuban Revolution is an evangelical work
• Excerpts from Frei Betto’s words

THERE was a time – I have been coming to Cuba for more than 30 years now – when there was talk of emulation, after rectification, and now, of guidelines. If Stalin was still prevailing, Cubans would be called "rectificationists." But many people do not realize that here changes are not made along the lines of Lampedusa – changing things to leave everything as it is – changes are made to improve this social work of the Revolution which, from my point of view, is a not only a political or ideological work, but evangelical.

What does the evangelism of Jesus mean? It means giving food to the hungry, health to the sick, shelter to the homeless, occupation to the unemployed. This is in the words of the Gospel. That is why I say it is a transcendental work.

On many occasions those of us in progressive movements are not doing what the Cuban Revolution is doing, an examination of our consciences, our self-criticism. Why are there no progressive movements in the world, with the exception of those of Latin America? Faced with the crisis in Europe, what proposals do we have? There is talk of the Wall Street occupation, which is a movement of indignation, but many people do not realize that Wall Street means "the street of the wall," and while this wall remains standing, our indignation is not going to result in anything. It is going to be good for us, not for the people.

Two things are fundamental, and these two things have been practiced in the Cuban Revolution. First: having a project, not solely indignation. Having a proposal, goals. And, secondly, popular roots, contact with the people. Gramsci said, "The people have experiences, but on many occasions do not understand their situation." We, as intellectuals, understand the reality but we do not experience it.

Cuba is the only Latin American country which had a successful revolution, as recently there were other revolutions in Nicaragua and other countries, but the most successful is this one. Because it is not a revolution like the one in Europe, which was a bewigged socialism, which came from the top downward. Not here, this one is of hair, from downward to the top – I was going to follow the hair equation for a little while, because Zuleica (Romay, president of the Cuban Book Institute) has short hair, Abel (Prieto) has long hair and Fidel has a balance – and virtue lies in the middle.