Good article. Thom Hartman and his wife Louise, just returned from an
"Educational Tour" to Cuba. Thom's pretty much of a Progressive
Democrat. He conducts a thoughtful, fair-minded daily talk program.
He came home really pumped by what they saw. While they did have tour
guides, they were able to go anywhere they wished, talk to anyone they
wanted to, with no sense that they were being fed the Party Line.
Thom said it was far diffeerent than earlier visits he'd made to the
old Soviet Union.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/11/18, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2018/8211/821105.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 11 March 19, 2018
(front page)
‘Cuban Revolution opened road for people to think
for themselves’
Griselda Aguilera, left at age 7 in 1961, hands literacy certificate to
worker she taught to read and write. Aguilera spoke about literacy
campaign and Cuban Revolution to hundreds on college campuses, churches
and union halls during recent U.S. tour.
BY JANICE LYNN
AND SHARON LOGAN
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — “Our revolution opened the road for people to
advance, to think for themselves, to have access to more information,”
Cuban revolutionary Griselda Agui-lera told some 30 students, professors
and others at a Feb. 19 meeting at the University of Tennessee here.
At the age of 7, Aguilera was the youngest person to participate in
Cuba’s 1961 mass literacy campaign. Some 250,000 volunteers, many of
them teenagers, spread out across the country to teach more than 700,000
adults to read and write. The campaign was one key result of the
historic victory won when workers and farmers, led by Fidel Castro and
the July 26th Movement, overthrew the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista
dictatorship on Jan. 1, 1959.
“It was a huge and beautiful thing we did. We answered the call by
Fidel. By Dec. 22, 1961, Cuba was free of illiteracy,” Aguilera said.
She explained how the campaign had other important results — “for the
first time the countryside was united with the city, and blacks and
whites were united together.” Racist attitudes and regional prejudices
began to be broken down by working together, she said.
Because of her age, Aguilera was assigned to stay in Havana, where she
taught a 58-year-old street cleaner to read and write.
Meeting organizers showed the film “Maestra” (Teacher) by Catherine
Murphy, who accompanied Aguilera to Tennessee. It features interviews
with a number of those who participated in the literacy campaign,
including Aguilera. The documentary shows how they were transformed by
their experiences, becoming more disciplined, more revolutionary-minded
and more confident to continue to fight to improve society.
Cuba took many of the lessons learned from the literacy drive and
developed a special program, Yo si puedo (Yes I Can), Murphy told the
meeting. Cuban volunteers have used it to combat illiteracy among adults
in more than 30 countries across Latin America, Africa and elsewhere,
especially in rural areas and among indigenous populations, like
Aboriginal people in Australia.
Aguilera contrasted Cuba’s continuing solidarity with working people
around the world — sending doctors and teachers to “help other countries
in the fields of health care and education” — to the U.S. government,
which carries out “many armed conflicts around the world.”
One woman who said she had visited Cuba, commented, “It seems like Cuba
is getting more capitalistic. Would you say Cuba is in a postrevolution
phase?”
Cuba has faced a continuous economic war by the U.S. government,
Aguilera said. “In 1967 private property was eradicated in Cuba. But
several years ago, we decided to allow self-employment which was
necessary to deal with our economic challenges. But this also created
contradictions as economic differences arose between workers in our
factories and those who got into the private sector. The government is
taking measures to keep this to a minimum.
“If this doesn’t work, we will try something else. We’re determined to
keep the achievements of the Cuban Revolution,” she said. “North
Americans can do a lot to support our revolution by working to get rid
of the economic blockade.”
Samir Hazboun, who helped organize the Knoxville leg of Aguilera’s tour,
encouraged those at the meeting to sign up for the May Day International
Brigade to Cuba. “I urge you to see Cuba for yourselves and learn about
the gains of the Cuban Revolution,” he said. Sixteen people signed up to
find out more about the brigade during Aguilera’s three-day tour in
Tennessee.
On Feb. 20 Aguilera spoke to two classes at Bearden High School, one
composed of students who are native Spanish-speakers. They had a lively
discussion, including asking her about Cuba’s medical and education
systems. “My mom had to pay hundreds of dollars for a simple blood test
here,” one student said. Others humorously begged Aguilera to take them
with her back to Cuba.
Aguilera’s tour ended with a day at Pellissippi State Community College,
where she spoke to some 75 students, teachers and others at two morning
classes and an evening event.
“The literacy campaign broke the tradition in Cuba of women and girls
staying at home,” Aguilera said at one of the classes. “We went out into
the world for the first time, to areas with no electricity, no running
water, no roads. So different than the life we were used to in the
cities. We were converted from students to teachers!
“We showed we were capable of living and working with the field workers.
This was a fundamental part of the literacy campaign — and it
transformed the young people,” she said. “It wasn’t just the volunteers.
The whole country was involved in the literacy campaign and helped with
all aspects of it.”
There is still an organization of former literacy volunteers who meet
together, Aguilera said. “We became and remain strong supporters of the
revolution.”
“The literacy campaign was the first big campaign of the revolution,”
she explained at the evening meeting. “It helped prepare Cuban workers
and peasants for their responsibilities in running the country.”
From the beginning, the revolution made concerted efforts to develop
the countryside and close the gap between conditions there and in the
cities, Aguilera said. “We have built roads and bridges where there were
none before. The homes of the peasants have improved. There is
electrification throughout the country. We have created rural
communities with schools, libraries, shopping centers, doctors and
hospitals.”
“Education has been a priority of the revolution,” Aguilera said. “We
may lack a lot of material things, but spiritually we are a very
elevated country.”
Related articles:
See Cuba’s revolution on May Day Brigade!
Cubans help put out fire at US-occupied Guantánamo base
Cuban Revolution involves all, with sight or not
Cinema clubs with audio descriptions expand access to culture for
visually impaired
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