Some areas are known to develop rapidly in a certain skill, such as Cuba’s development in literacy. This is because one of their leaders named Fidel Castro impacted the country in a positive way. He fought for free education in Cuba from January to December 1961, also known as the Cuban Literacy Campaign (The Independent). The campaign was famous for quickly teaching a large population of a small island, on how to read and write. In fact it barely took “a year to teach 700,000 people to read and write” (Serra). The Cuban Literacy Campaign was known to be the “most ambitious” literary campaign, due to transforming Cuba from an illiterate country, that also went through a revolution, to one of the most literate countries in world (The Independent).
Cuba has had a history of illiteracy before Castro had lead the office. The illiteracy in Cuba was caused by a lack of instructors and schools, which both led to economic problems. Before the campaign, teaching was considered a low-status job in Cuba, which meant that many people did not want to teach (Halbert-Brooks, iii). Furthermore, Cubans who were illiterate during that time were dismissed from certain jobs, and possibly punished (Halbert-Brooks, 5-6). The parts of Cuba that were mostly affected by illiteracy were the rural areas. Based on a census in 1953, a province in Cuba named Oriente only reached a literacy rate of approximately 65%. It was estimated that rural areas only reached an average literacy rate of about 50% (Halbert-Brooks, 9). The United States had a much higher literacy rate than Cuba at that time. In 1952, the United States has a literacy rate of approximately 97.5% overall, and approximately 89.8% in the non-white population (Snyder). In terms of education, the United States was more successful than Cuba during that time period.
During 1952 to 1959, Cuba went through a Revolution, which was between Fidel Castro’s pro-Communism and Fulgencio Batista’s anti-Communism regimes. When the war started, the United States supported Batista, while the Soviet Union supported Castro (Kennedy). Batista and Castro also had different views on education. Batista supported private education, while Castro wanted to eliminate private education, so that way everyone could have an education (Kennedy). Later in the Revolution, the United States realized they acted as if they were “more interested in maintaining Batista than we were in maintaining freedom” (Kennedy). They also were aware that they were hurting Cuba economically, and they made the prediction that the Cold War will not be won in Latin America. Therefore, they decided to support Cuba’s freedom. In 1959, as a result of Batista’s corruption, Castro and his rebels exiled him from Cuba. Once Castro took over, he announced that he wanted equal rights (British Pathé).
When Castro became elected, one of his goals that he aimed for was to give everyone in Cuba an education. Castro and his rebel leader, Che Guevara, realized that many adults in Cuba grew up illiterate, after finding out that many of the country did not have an adequate education (The Independent). One of Castro’s ideas was to show Cuban teachers, through propaganda, that teaching is an important job, and that many parts of the country are lacking education. Therefore, he strove for “universal literacy,” by encouraging anyone who could read and write to teach those who can not read or write. As a result, the literate young adults taught the people around Cuba how to read and write (The Independent), which was known as the “war of ignorance (Halbert-Brooks, 9). The more literate Cubans, known as the brigadistas, dressed up in army gear during their teaching service (Halbert-Brooks, 11). Also, during the “Plaza de la Revolucion” on December 22nd, 1961, Cubans were euphorically chanting “Fidel Fidel tell us what else we can do” (The Independent). “”Study, study, study!” came the reply” from Castro (The Independent). The campaign lasted a short time, but it met Castro’s expectations quickly.
The rates of literacy in all parts of Cuba have gradually increased, after the campaign ended. By 1961, the literacy rate rose from 60% to about 96%, and almost reached 100% by 1986. After the campaign, the Law of Nationalization of Education “put an end to all private schools” (Serra), and ensured that “every child had a human right to free, quality education” (Bey). Cuba is currently one of the most literate countries, since about 100% of their students are growing up with literacy (The Independent).
Works Cited
Bey, Daniel Alan. “10 Things to Know About Revolutionary Cuba’s Literacy Program.” TeleSUR, World Bank-UNICEF, 8 Sept. 2016, www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/10-Things-to-Know-About-Revolutionary-Cubas-Literacy-Program-20160908-0007.html.
“Batista In Exile.” The World’s Finest News and Entertainment Video Film Archive, British Pathé, https://www.britishpathe.com/video/batista-in-exile.
Halbert-Brooks, Ann E. “REVOLUTIONARY TEACHERS: WOMEN AND GENDER IN THE CUBAN LITERACY CAMPAIGN OF 1961.” Carolina Digital Repository, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, 2013, cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent/uuid:75979597-917c-45ed-b85f-85fcb88c3edc.
Kennedy, John F. “Speech of Senator John F. Kennedy, Cincinnati, Ohio, Democratic Dinner,” October 6, 1960. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25660.
“Latin Lessons: What Can We Learn from the World&Rsquo;s Most Ambitious Literacy Campaign?” The Independent, 7 Nov. 2010,
Serra, Ana. “The Literacy Campaign in the Cuban Revolution and the Transformation of Identity in the Liminal Space of the Sierra.” Taylor Francis Online, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 3 Aug. 2010, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569320020030097.
Snyder, Tom. “Illiteracy.” National Center for Educational Statistics, 1993, https://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/lit_history.asp.
Cuban Literacy Campaign is interesting to me because of the way in which it was initiated. I like that one of the leader, Castro saw the need to influence the country and focus on improving the literacy. Despite the other opponents idea who was for private education. Castro public education system is generally attainable for a country who want to mass out come. It is interesting to learn that America had divided interest in Cuba.
The writer focused on transition of ideas on different paragraphs.
Max’s work on Cuban literacy campaign is very detailed and he integrated lot of credible sources to support his point. His writing is academic and the end of his paragraph announces what he will say in the next one.