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In Memoriam
July
22, 1942 - April 6, 2020With heavy hearts we inform you
that
we lost our comrade Miguel Ángel
Céspedes Pino to
COVID-19 in Montreal on April 6.
Miguel was 77. We are informed
he died
peacefully in his sleep.
Miguel was born in Chile on
July 22,
1942. He left his country of
birth during the Pinochet
dictatorship, at
first to study and work in
France, following which he came
to live and
work in Quebec. There he soon
joined the work to defend the
rights of
all, uphold the sovereignty of
the peoples of the world and
champion
the cause of making Canada a
zone for peace. In the course of
this
work, Miguel became a member of
the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist), as well as a
founding member of the Parti
marxiste-léniniste du Québec,
ever upholding
Quebec's right to
self-determination and the
rights of all against
state-organized racist attacks
and other acts of injustice.
Miguel was a very talented
artist. He
worked as a window dresser a
good part of his life, at The
Bay on
St-Catherine Street in downtown
Montreal. After he retired he
was able
to devote his life to his art.
His complex and colourful
paintings of
geometric shapes and their 3D
structures which he exhibited
whenever he
could brought great joy to
colleagues and friends who
reveled in his
quiet joie de vivre
and fidelity to the principles
he stood for his entire life.
We send our most heartfelt
sympathies
to his comrades in the Party and
his many friends. Our deepest
condolences also go out to his
family, his brothers and sisters
and to
his many nephews and nieces,
whom he dearly cherished.
Special thoughts
and appreciation for the loss of
Miguel go to his dear neighbour
and
friend Nancy who, for many
years, watched over Miguel, just
as Miguel
watched over her.
"It's the saddest of news,"
Nancy
wrote. "Each of us has lost a
friend, an exceptional person
who changed
our lives. For my part, I
realize that my day-to-day life
will be
changed, as for 14 years Miguel
and I have looked after each
other. He
is a friend who over the years
has nourished me with stories,
projects,
love and it is within this sad
confinement that my daughter and
I will
realize this huge loss in our
lives. My heart goes out to you.
Within
the space of our confinement, I
hope we are all able to find
comfort
with those we love."
Miguel was always present, rain
or
shine,
bone-chilling cold or exhausting
heat, at the monthly pickets
against
the brutal U.S. blockade of Cuba
and at all actions in support of
the
struggles of the Haitian,
Palestinian, Venezuelan, and
other peoples of
the world valiantly fighting for
their right to be. Very
concerned
about Canada's integration into
the U.S. war machine and its
policy of
appeasement of U.S. imperialist
wars of aggression and
occupation and
its coups d'état in the
Americas, Miguel was a stalwart
in
uniting fellow Montrealers of
all nationalities to support the
peoples
of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela,
Brazil, Bolivia and other
countries. Devoted
to the cause of making Canada a
zone for peace, he did his
utmost to
collect signatures to demand
peace on the Korean Peninsula
and make
sure the people were not divided
by state-organized
disinformation
spreading Islamophobia and the
like. When the people of his
native land
rose up in 2019, he
wholeheartedly joined their
struggle to rid
themselves once and for all of
the Pinochet Constitution. All
together
we sang as one the anthem Stand
Up and Sing -- Victory Will be
Ours!
which we dedicate to you, our
dearest Miguel, on this saddest
of
occasions.
By decision of the Central
Committee
of the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist), the name of
Miguel
Céspedes will be added to the
Party Memorial at Beechwood
Cemetery in Ottawa.
Miguel, you are forever with
us, in
our hearts, as one of those
precious people who has taken a
stand for
the progress of society, sharing
all your concerns which humanity
holds
in common, with your comrades,
your family, your colleagues and
friends. In your quiet
determined way, yours was a life
that shows us: Only
in
Fighting
Are We Unvanquished.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 12 - April 11, 2020
Article Link:
In Memoriam: Miguel Ángel Céspedes Pino
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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