Second essay: The Cuban literacy campaign report in 1961.
In 1959, the Cuban president Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by his successor Fidel Castro. What made Castro powerful and confident for Cubans was that he pursued social and economic reforms such as agrarian reform, health care reform and education reform. However according to the outgoing Cuban regime, the Castro’s revolutionary campaign was rather a pious unction than a target to satisfy the need to abolish illiteracy in Cuba. I do not agree with the outgoing government’s argument because some evidence such as statistical data, the King Sejong Literacy Price award to Castro Administration, as well as the producer and director, Catherine Murphy’s documentary. All these facts made me believe the Castro’s government achievement of literacy in the Island.
As soon as the president Fidel Castro reached the throne, one of his agenda’s main goal was to fight for equality between rural and urban Cubans as suburb residents had less chances of access to education than city ones. The fact of knowing how to read and write is the first step of every human fulfillment. It provides even the most independency and privacy for the literates as becoming literate free them from relying on others to understand written private papers. For instance, a printout of a literate’s HIV test result would be easily read directly by the supposed patient instead of referring to someone else who may not be able to keep the secret confidently. Therefore, Castro started to sensitize the city’s literates the necessity of education for all Cubans. Then, he formed four categories of workers. Category 1 was the “Conrado Benitez Brigade. It was about hundred thousands of young volunteer ages from ten to nineteen who left school and work with students in the countryside”. The second category was the “Popular Alphabetizers. Thirteen thousands of factory workers held classes for their illiterate co-workers after hours. In this group there were also individuals who taught friends, neighbors or family members out of their home”. The third category was the “Fatherland or Death Brigade. A group of fifteen thousands of adult workers who were paid to teach in remote rural locations through an arrangement that their co-workers would fill in for them, so that the workforce remained strong”. The last category was the “Schoolteacher Brigades. A group of fifteen thousands of professional teachers who oversaw the technical and organizational aspects of the campaign”. The impact of the program was significant regarding the big jump in the percentage number of literate Cubans.
Before, the illiteracy’s rate among city dwellers was 11%, compared to 41.7% in the countryside. Over the year of the campaign, the literates’ percentage reached 96%. From these data we can see that the rural literates’ percentage moved from 58.3% to 96%. This is a remarkable success by the campaign’s completion. The percentage of children enrolled in school ages six to twelve raised dramatically over the years. In 1953, the literate’s percentage was 56%, in 1970, it was 88%, and since 1986 it nearly almost 100%. Google’s estimation shows that two hundred sixty-eight thousands of Cubans worked to eliminate illiteracy during the dedicated years of education, also, seven hundred seven thousands and two hundred twelve adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%. Furthermore, the Cuba’s literacy campaign movement was not only limited to its national territory, it was rather expanded to an international level.
On November third in Paris, France, the UNESCO’s general director Koichiro Matsuura announced that the 2006 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize will “be given to the Youth and Adult Literacy and Education Chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute of the Republic of Cuba (IPLAC) for its work to advance individual and social potential through innovative teaching methods with successful outcome in more than 15 countries from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, benefiting nearly two million people.” Cuba is known as the top first country in the world that worked hard to eliminate illiteracy rate. Every single Cuban can go to school from primary school to the doctorate at no cost based on some credible sources like the Cuban Press. This encouraging fact is illustrated by Catherine Murphy’s film from 2011.
The Maestra is a 33 minute documentary film directed by Catherine Murphy. It was about the Cuban literacy campaign especially the youngest female teachers of the 1961 Cuban campaign. Murphy made three recorded interviews with former literacy campaign volunteers (Norma Guillard, one of the first Cuban woman to call herself feminist, and Diana Balboa, one of the first open members of Cuba’s LGBT community and an international advocate for gay and lesbian rights) and tracked down the story of the Cuban literacy campaign.
In conclusion, the Castro’s Administration campaign about promoting the illiteracy eradication is a true characteristic of literacy campaign instead of a tending to distract the Cuban population as the Batista Regime thinks. To me, education for all and no exception at no cost is a wonderful fact of the part of Castro Administration. A small country like Cuba which worked to reach the peak in education is an appreciable step that other countries may imitate. I think that education at no cost can even solve one of the main actual problems like immigration issue as I know some immigrants, as responsible de family just immigrate to the United States in order to cope with their children’s education expenses back home.
Work cited:
-Cuban National Press
-UNESCO data
-Murphy’s documentary
I learned in this report that Cuban President Fidel Castro overthrow his success and made Cuban a better country by establishing school systems all over in Cuba. The type of style writing that was use in this writing were third person point of view
What I learned from reading this was that the Cuban literacy rate before the literacy campaign was below 50% and after the campaign the literacy rate in Cuba went up to 96% making almost the whole country being able to read and write. The writing style I appreciated was how the intro was short and contained basically how people attempted to say the campaign was negative but in the body paragraphs she used evidence to support the campaign.