The Cuban literacy campaign under Fidel Castro lasted from January 1st, 1961 to December 22nd of that same year. This was viewed of one of the greatest literacy campaigns due to the literacy rate drastic increase in a span of a year. It is clear to us that the Cuban literacy campaign of 1961 was a massive success of the nation due to the profound numbers of people that were affected who could now read and write. The Cuban literacy campaign turned the degenerated literacy rate in the nation into one of the world’s highest by the end of the year which they still hold today.

Before the Cuban Literacy campaign, Cuba had a reputation as an exotic and permissive vacation destination, especially Havana. This and the sugar industry kept the nation’s economy afloat but wasn’t meeting expectations during the 1950s drying the economy and increasing poverty in the nation. Fulgencio Batista was the president of Cuba at the time and was viewed poorly by the people due to the corruption of his government and his use of Cuba for his own economic gains while using media censorship to control the people. The literacy rate during his reign ranged from 60% to 69% in a time where the majority of the people that could read and write were in the urban cities of Cuba. The Cuban Revolution then came in which an armed revolt by armed guerilla led by Fidel Castro overthrew the government. Castro then came into power and turned the nation Communist, adopting a strict Marxist-Lennist political and economic system. He founded many social programs and deemed 1961 ‘the year of education.’ The main cause of the modest literacy rates were connected to the lack of educational access and poor roads in the nation, mainly in the barrios (poor communities) as well as the lack of teachers available in the nation. To combat these issues Castro constructed roads through the nation and rebuilt Cuba’s transportation. Castro then initiated a campaign to recruit the youth of the nation to volunteer and become instructors to those who were illiterate. This was the beginning of the Cuban literacy campaign.

The Cuban literacy campaign movement was driven by the need of equality and abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the Cuban revolution. Under Fidel Castro administration “year of education” was introduced, to which he pledge to ensure that Cuba would be completely literate. It was estimated that over 1,000,000 Cubans were directly involved as teacher or students in the literacy campaign. “Conrado Benitez” Brigade 100,000 young volunteers (ages 10–19) were students who left school to implement their knowledge from the city and help out students from the countryside. Of all the volunteers approximately half of them were women this opportunity was the first sense of independence and females in this nation finally felt that they can make an impact in other lives. Popular Alphabetizers were adults who volunteered to teach in cities or towns. This group includes the individuals who taught friends, neighbors, or family members out of their homes. “Fatherland or Death” Brigade a group of 15,000 adult workers who were paid to teach in remote rural locations. Schoolteacher Brigade a group of 15,000 professional teachers who oversaw the technical and organizational aspects of the campaign. In April 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion occurred due to Castro’s communist ties, this led to the decrease in morale of the Cuban people which lead to many fleeing the nation, including few who were volunteers in the literacy campaign. It is estimated that 268,000 Cubans worked to eliminate illiteracy during the Year of Education, and around 707,000 Cubans became literate by December 22, 1961. By 1962, the country’s literacy rate was 96%, one of the highest in the world.

Today, Cuba remains one of the worlds highest literacy rate nations at 99.8%, second only to Georgia, who holds a rate of 100%. During the film, Maestra directed by Catherine Murphy, all of the former young lecturers still hold belief to this day that the campaign proved the most success in their lives and that teaching a person to write their own names was one of the highlights of their lives, many of them who are today in the 70s. In today’s Cuban society this campaign was the driving force for their educational system which embraces reading and writing in all communities, rich or poor.