“The merit is not mine, it belongs to the Cuban Revolution that I represent,” he would always affirm whenever he was congratulated for successes in international spaces where he proudly led the example of his country.

He also came to these patriotic principles through the education of his humble family and especially his grandfather, the mambí who fought for independence under the command of military strategists such as Antonio Maceo, Ignacio Agramonte and Maximo Gómez.

He once wrote that he discovered his revolutionary character the day he felt dissatisfied with the remaining world “and yearned for a fairer and more beautiful one.”

On June 11th, 1959, Fidel Castro announced that the Minister of State, Roberto Agramonte Pichardo, would be replaced by Dr. Raul Roa, at a historic moment when the revolutionary power took over the government, and a new direction was given to Cuba’s foreign policy.

He earned the nickname “Foreign Minister of Dignity” for his intense work at the forefront of revolutionary diplomacy, his crucial battles before international organizations and his power of quick, coherent decisions, always thinking about his country before all else.

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