Some members of the Las Tunas delegation to the 10th Congress of the University Student Federation (FEU).

"Why don't we do a fire drill, to announce that it is the FEU Assembly -suggested someone. In addition, well, for a military unit we went to look for a smoke bomb and it turned out that it was expired and it caught fire in the bus that, finally, burned. Nothing, we were arrested and the rector of the University, then Juan Vela Valdés, had to go to get us out and explain what had happened." 

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Professor Francisco Bermúdez Laguna recounted some of his experiences during his years of study at the University of Camagüey, where he served as president of the University Student Federation (USF) during his last year of studies. Such remembrances arose in the heat of a recent meeting organized by the José Martí Cultural Society to honor the organization founded by Julio Antonio Mella on the occasion of its centenary and the pedagogues working today in Higher Education.

As a naughty girl, Dagneris Batista de los Ríos, director of University Extension at Las Tunas University, recalled several anecdotes. In her youthful years, she was close to the marvelous real in her efforts to make the activities of the youthful organization successful. She values the FEU from her trajectory in it and from her role as a teacher and director, always involved in projects that promote the integral development of future professionals.

"These are different times and different ways of doing things; but what we must not lose, pedagogical collectives and students, as a whole, is creativity and the determination to do things. We have to motivate our students to participate not only in what they like but also in what they need and what nourishes them for an integral formation."

"In this way, the best thing to do is to sit down and find out how they think, what they want to do... but always under the guidance of teachers who have already traveled a long way and, consequently, contribute to carrying out activities that students like and that result in better and better results."

The young educator Luis Daniel Sánchez Ravelo spoke about the challenges to study, keep good grades and fully comply with the responsibility as leaders, after describing those "inflammable years" as "times of much to do, of walking and a constant mobilization led by the FEU ". In that way, he said, he lived his years of preparation, first at the Pedagogical University and then as a graduate of the current University, in which the revitalizing force of the FEU continues to carve paths of good work.

"We would have to ask ourselves today what I do as a leader to mobilize a large layer of students and that, in unison; they feel identified with the organization. It is up to the USF to adjust to its time and seek its own identity during a process of neoliberal globalization," reflected the young teacher, who also spoke of the need to be an example, to know in detail the ABC of the organization and to achieve greater involvement of the student body in the various activities.

Alieski Caballero, Doctor of Science, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Social and Humanistic Sciences, spoke about the vital substratum of the creation of the eternal Manicato, who asked to give greater relevance, in the current times, to the awarding of the La Tiza de Oro and Alma Mater prizes. He also recalled, with nostalgia and joy, the Cueybá Festivals and the sports and knowledge competitions that encouraged a jovial rivalry among the faculties.

Yalilis Espinosa Mora and Luis René Quiala also spoke passionately. Both shared common experiences in the activism of the Federation, and the formation and work of the pedagogical brigades in the municipalities.

"You are student leaders because someone deposited their vote and their trust in your work, and that implies respect and recognition for your colleagues. Feel part of it and, consequently, do it," urged the director of the Student Residence. She also highlighted the role of the brigades, which are the fundamental cell of the organization born in December 1922.

For his part, René Quiala spoke of the importance of the feeling of usefulness and how this feeling is reached when something has been done for the common good and from a student protagonism that, at this time, he considered that it is necessary to consolidate.

Maria Sao, who invited them to seek a positive transformation of society, its deficiencies, and problems, in addition, to continue adding youth to the side of those who fight and build, spoke about transforming the immediate universe and doing it with the drive of creative youth.

Wing and root, that is how the USF that Cuba needs must be; a mixture of wills with the challenge of being more like its present and outlining futures, from the youthfulness of its members and the longevity of its essences.