My generation was preeceded by the Mechanized Brigade Ernesto Che Guevara, created in 1967 to clean of weeds, marabou, hundreds of km of fertile grounds for the development of the agricultural plans.

From many parts of the country -up to the capital- they were coming mobilized for the sugar harvest or other tasks of the field, headed by combatants of the Revolutionary Armed forces (FAR).

In May, 1968 the Mambí Operation, marked a milestone in the sugar works, especially, the cane sowing for the Harvest of the Seventy, embryo of the Juvenile Column of the Centenary (CJC).

Soldiers and officials of the DAAFAR, arrived at Vertientes, today, the second municipality in extension of the Cuban archipelago to plant and to attend the cane cultivations.

That year -1968- rained a lot, the spring was abundant. I remember that in Valle Grande camp, one for the so many where the combatants saty, reaching the near water mill for the shortest stretch was an odyssey because of the mud. There the FAR I met the first leaders of the Union of Communist Young people (UJC), among others, Jaime Crombet Hernández-Baquero, first secretary of the Youth, when they were organizing the nascent Juvenile Column of the Centenary.

Many camps: Guasimal, Guayabito, Los Milicianos, La Diana, Manantiales… were stages of the big juvenile prowesses of that year 1968, milestone of the leading achievement of the young people of today, synthesized in only three letters CJC today Juvenile Army of the Work (EJT).

The CJC composed by adolescents and young people from the whole nation, conquered with labor exploits the most productive force condition in the sugar harvest, the schools construction in the field, of rural and urban communities. from its lines went out 73 of the 86 National Heroes of the Work decorated in Cuba at the end of the historical sugar harvest of the 70.

The soldiers and officials of the EJT today, pay tribute to their predecessors, with results recognized in the repair of railroad routes, the tasks of cleaning of the campaign against the mosquito Aedes aegypti, in the brigades of rescue and recovery of the actions to face climatological events… without neglecting the defense of the Homeland.

Translated by BA in English Language, Manuel Barrera Téllez

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