Pain in the Family of Resumen Latinoamericano; Javier Salado Villacín, the co-editor of Our Cuban Edition has Died.

Resumen Latinoamericano, October 2, 2018

Betty Santamaría, Javier Salado Villacín, María Torrellas, Photo: Yaimi Rovelo Rojas

In his beloved Cuba, to which he dedicated a life of struggle and commitment, Javier Salado Villacin one of ours dear friends and co-editor of Resumen Latinoamericano in Cuba has died.

Javier had been suffering from a serious illness for some time but as a good warrior he never complained or never showed any sadness as he fought with all his passion in his dedication in making Resumen Latinoamericano on the island a reality. Every time we communicated with him his words convinced us that the most important thing was to continue thinking in a revolutionary way, to defend the conquests achieved and to never renounce the process of critical thinking. For Javier, the Cuban Revolution was his life and he gave it all his wisdom from a very young age. And once the Bolivarian Revolution led by Commander Hugo Chávez emerged he also contributed his grain of sand to that along with his Venezuelan brothers and sisters.

Like so many men and women in Cuba, Javier fulfilled an internationalist mission in Angola by joining the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Upon his return, he was a militant in all the tasks he was assigned, but honoring his love for literature and writing is what he was most drawn to and he soon became an editor of the left publishing house, Ocean Press.

There we met him, and “we learned to love him,” as Carlos Puebla would say about Che. A follower of Fidel from his heart and soul, Javier was always a whirlwind of ideas and work proposals. Nothing for him seemed too difficult to achieve and many times  we had our doubts he could pull something off but Javier always dreamed the impossible and time after time he would surprise us when he turned his ideas into concrete projects.

So it was, along with our beloved sister Graciela Ramirez Cruz, that he carried on his back the enormous and wonderful adventure of launching Resumen Latinoamericano in Cuba and what seemed difficult soon became an exciting reality. One edition after another had them both at the engine of an internationalist informative publication openly favoring revolutionary advancement in every corner of the Third World.

Anti-imperialist as well as a convinced anti-capitalist, Javier knew how to recognize when it was time to fight by all means those who not only were always a threat to Cuba but now repeat the script against other similar processes. Following Fidel’s example he turned his efforts into a battle of ideas. In the same field, shortly before his health was shipwrecked, he toured several countries giving lectures and presenting the film produced by Resumen, “All Guantánamo is Ours,” made by comrade Hernando Calvo Ospina.

Javier was also a fundamental part, along with Graciela, of the production of our new documentary “Cubanas. Mujeres en Revolución” (Women in Revolution), that is now translated into several languages and is moving forcefully throughout the world. It was both of them and Javier’s indispensable companion, Betty Santamaría (niece of the unforgettable Haydée and one of the protagonists of the film) who most encouraged our companion María Torrellas to capture in images an idea that she had chewed on for decades; that would bring to the screen the revolutionary struggle of the women of Cuba. We are grateful that we got to see Javier smiling and so satisfied at the packed theater in Havana for the film’s premier in June. At the event Javier brushed off questions about his health and assured everyone that he would soon be returning to his every day work on Cuba’s Resumen.

Unfortunately it was not to be. Today, when we received a laconic message from Graciela telling us, “With the pain of the soul. Our Javi was gone”, we were paralyzed and we resisted the news as it sunk in. This is always the case with the people one loves the most, we refuse to imagine that we will never see him again the next time we set foot on Cuban soil, nor will we enjoy his enthusiasm and wise advice. But as he himself would say, life must be breast-fed in order to defeat death. And in that dear brother we are sorrowful and dismayed but we will manage to continue knowing that you will continue to walk with us. Embraced by your indispensable Betty, by Graciela’s arm, and entangled between the difficulties and small victories derived from continuing to make counter-information media.

We don’t deny the rage that your departure gives us, but we prefer to keep that vital image that you gave Maria, that day of the premiere of “Cubanas Mujeres..” in Havana, and with your inalterable revolutionary task of “Patria o Muerte”.

Honoring the strength of your ideas, we say goodbye with the slogan that you Cubans made universal: Hasta la Victoria Siempre, Javier. We will win!

-Carlos Aznárez, on behalf of all of us who make Resumen Latinoamericano

http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/10/02/dolor-en-la-familia-de-resumen-latinoamericano-se-nos-fue-javier-salado-villacin-co-editor-de-la-edicion-cubana/

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation North America bureau.