José Elías Borges

Wrapped in the flag of the hammer and sickle lay the coffin of the activist of the Communist Party of France, Belgium and Cuba, physician José Elías Borges.

On the morning of January 20, 1934, when he was discussing with a pharmacy owner about opening it during a strike along with a group of comrades, he fell struck down by three shots to the back.

It was on the Havana streets of Condesa and Campanario and it seemed impossible that this man of twenty-eight years and one of the main leaders in the Medical sector, would depart forever and leave behind the struggle for the autonomy of municipal health services.

The funeral of Cuban José Elías Borges was massive. Colleagues, friends, revolutionaries, grateful people from the masses, said goodbye to him. To be continued in the next minute...

Doctor José Elías Borges was born into comfort, but preferred to affiliate himself with the dispossessed, with the visionaries of a world with greater equity. He said that the activity of the physician should be closely linked with the yearnings and struggles of the popular masses.

And, in that sense, his life was directed, from the days of confrontation with the Machado dictatorship, the fruitful exile in France and Belgium, until his return to his Island, where he chose and won a position as surgeon in the Emergency hospital.

José Elías Borges was the organizer of the Association of Professionals, Students and Employees of the Municipal Health Services, and was on the front line of medical strikes, defending the rights and aspirations of his colleagues.