Awarded on December 28, 1959, it was the result of a proposal by a group of advanced thinking professors of the then faculty of pedagogy and conferred on Che by virtue of his example and teachings formed in the practice of the struggle for freedom.

Dr. Luis Barranco, rector of the UCLV, located 278 kilometers east of Havana, recalled the presence of the guerrilla fighter at the University, while summarizing the main contributions of the university in achieving the quality of higher education and research results that place it among the first in the country.

During the gala, a group of professionals and entities that contribute to the training of new generations received the “65th Anniversary Doctor Honoris Causa” distinctions and the special recognition “70th Anniversary of the founding of the UCLV.”

For her part, Dr. C. Anayansi Castellón, vice president of the Ernesto Guevara Honorary Chair of Thought, commented on the value of Che’s speech after receiving the distinction, a speech that, she said, marked the destiny of higher education in Cuba.

On that occasion, the Heroic Guerrilla asked the university “to be painted black, to be painted mulatto, not only among the students, but also among the professors; to be painted as workers and peasants, to be painted as people, because the University is not the patrimony of anyone and belongs to the people of Cuba.”

The highest figures of the Party and the Government in the central province of Villa Clara participated in the activity, as well as Dr. Alicia Alonso, Vice Minister of Higher Education in the country.

ef/arc/ysd