This Sunday we Cubans are making history at the polls when for the first time we are protagonists of a referendum on the Family Code, a legal instrument that gives guarantees to all types of families that today coexist in the Cuban social fabric.
The Code that is going to referendum is the result of years of exchange, of raised ideas, of the present diversity, of contradictions arising in the heat of the debates, of generational struggles, and even of the suffering of many, and it contains within itself the political will and government to legislate for the whole society without taking into account creed, religion, political position, race, sexual orientation, skin color.
Looking once again at all its articles and reviewing each basic conceptual core can help us make the right decision.
People from Pinar del Río: We cannot think only of the Cuba of today, we must think of the Cuba of the next 40 years, the one that we are going to bequeath to our grandchildren and that owes protection and security to each one of their rights.
The Family Code that this Island proposes respects plurality in the family structure and distances itself from all prejudice and stubbornness, because it considers love and affection as the basis of all relationships.
It is not a code that focuses on an age or population group, it is a code of all and for all, whose focus goes directly to social heterogeneity, which protects manifest vulnerability and stands for justice and equity.
It is a revolutionary code, and it is not because it represents a government, but – as Professor Luis Toledo Sande said – because it revolutionizes consciences, customs, values. Because it makes us better, even that government.
A nation has not always been able to give itself the privilege of discussing at the highest level how it wants the basic cell of society to be, but not many have been able to endorse and agree on that debate either. This Sunday we have that opportunity, beautiful and historic at the same time. Let us be consistent with the reality that surrounds us and objectives when exercising the right to vote. Let’s do it for the voices silenced for so long, and even in the family environment; for our grandparents whose rights are often violated; for the best interest of the minor; for all human beings who have been victims of violence at some point in their lives; for the disabled who are marginalized, for so many stories that are not alien to us.
Let’s do it so that love and happiness prevail, so that apart from other deficiencies, spirituality and domestic peace can be cultivated; so that our children can also build for themselves the family they want, without fear, without reproaches.
Let’s do it because we are aware that no one can or should be excluded or abandoned, because it is the opportunity that all Pinar del Rio residents and all Cubans have to give ourselves, by dint of tenacity, commitment, civic and legal culture, constructive and conciliatory debate, one of the best compilations that in matters of family law have been conceived for the common good.
People from Pinar del Río: Let’s do it for the family, that of which we are a part, but that despite all the vicissitudes and setbacks, remains, because it is forever. Let’s do it for the Family Code.