Let’s imagine this child, surrounded by poverty and discriminated against for being black, who has been fighting for family support since adolescence. Let’s imagine how this circumstance became an encouragement rather than a regret in the formation of his beliefs, characterized by the desire to win a better life.
Thus, it is clear that many words can be found for the verbal portrait of Jesús Menendez Larrondo, but I think it is enough to mention his origins as an intelligent, unifying person, courageous, honest, decent, modest and ideological fortitude.
This man, great among the great, was born on December 14, 1911, on the farm of La Palma in the municipality of Villa Clara in Encrucichada, where he began his dedication to the cause of the working class.
Imagine that the need to help the family prevented him from finishing primary school and he had to devote himself to street vendors until he started working at the Constancia factory, today Abel Santamaría, where he began his journey as a union leader. Exodus? From that moment on, his loyalty to the humble became greater, and he became the supreme leader of the national sugar union.
Imagine their joy at achieving the historical demands desired by the workers: the first collective labor agreement, the creation of a sugar pension, a guarantee clause that makes the payment of the sugar differential possible. His prestige went beyond this sector and the people elected him as a representative to the House in 1940 and 1946.
He came into this world with a natural intelligence that he cultivated to win with sharp action ahead, as reflected in the simple and eloquent anecdotes told by those who shared his struggle.
Jesús Menéndez, dubbed “El general de las cañas” by the national poet Nicolás Guillén, was able to root the unity of the various trade unions and organize them to assert their rights.
He never agreed to arbitrary imposition, which was demonstrated 75 years ago on the same day as today, in 1948, when he was vilely murdered in Manzanillo by the captain of the rural guard, Joaquin Casillas Lumpuy, who wanted to arrest him, despite the fact that Parliamentary immunity is enshrined in the Constitution. Republic.
It was the executive hand of those who gave him the order from the shadows, but the work of Jesús Menéndez, born in La Palma, the symbolic name of the tree that represents the Cuban, as it sheltered the destitute and dignified them. It’s already been history!
Source: Juventud Rebelde