Women in the Cuban Literacy Campaign
by Joanne C. Elvy
In Ciudad Libertad, an educational complex in the Playa
district of Havana, is a small museum that commemorates Cuba’s
Literacy Campaign, an initiative that brought together thousands
of volunteers in 1961 in Cuba’s battle against illiteracy
and underdevelopment. This museum houses a variety of documents—letters,
journals, photographs and mementos—that reflect the participation
of young and old in their first contribution to the Revolution
following its inauguration in 1959. At that time, the targeted
illiterate in Cuba would have numbered almost one million—citizens
without access to basic schooling due to race, gender and geographic
isolation. As a direct outcome of this Literacy Campaign, alongside
the Revolutionary government’s
ongoing commitment to education as a basic human right, Cuba currently
celebrates one of the highest literacy rates in the world, ranking
first amongst Latin American countries.
“This Campaign was the first major task of the Revolution,
one that invited the people to become involved, en masse, to
resolve challenges faced by the country. And for this reason,
this Campaign eld great value: social value, economic value,
political value… Indeed, the formation of our consciousness.” Mirta,
Viñales
Looking back on this moment in Cuban history, the Literacy Campaign
involved 271,000 volunteer “teachers,” many of whom
were sent into remote areas of the country for weeks or months
at a time. In order to reach its goal of an illiteracy-free Cuba
within one year, the Revolutionary government also closed down
city schools during 1961 to provide young people with the opportunity
to contribute as literacy brigadistas. More than 90,000
students between the ages of 10 and 19 with a grade 6 education
thus left their homes in urban centres to live with peasant families
in the countryside. Armed with teaching manuals and lanterns, the
ethical exhilaration amongst the young brigadistas ran
high with the promise of a better life for all. Integrated into
peasant households, they worked alongside their new “families” by
day, and then taught them how to read and write by lantern at night.
Indeed, the young literacy volunteers learned first-hand of the
challenges faced by their fellow Cubans living in underdeveloped
conditions.
As an artist-researcher I travelled throughout the country to
conduct further studies on those who had been brigadistas many
years ago. The stories I collected spoke of how the broader value
of the Campaign for female volunteers stood apart from that of
the males. I noted how over 50 per cent of the volunteer teachers
in the Campaign were young women, whereas traditionally there would
have been little or no opportunity for females to engage in activities
outside the family home. For many women, their contribution to
the Literacy Campaign marked the first time they were away from
their parents on their own, and the first time they were invited
to take on the same tasks as their male counterparts. Prior to
this, girls from a “respectable” class simply had not
left the family home unescorted, with parents making decisions
on behalf of unmarried daughters to ensure their future as “good” wives
and mothers. It appeared that the Literacy Campaign in Cuba thus
initiated a social and cultural shift in the role of women in civic
society.
“This Campaign was the first significant Revolutionary
event for those of my age. Myself, I was only 13 years
old. To participate in such a massive undertaking was a point
of departure for me in respect to my personal independence
and identity and the responsibilities I ook on as a young woman.” – Rosa,
Havana
However, more than a coming-of-age event, the participation of
young Cuban women as volunteers in the Campaign was pivotal in
how they began to re-imagine their place as active contributors
in areas of development. Dora described how she became more independent
in making her own decisions and deciding her own future: “I
became outgoing…conscientious. I wasn’t going to be
tied down again!” Even now, Latin American women remain challenged
by the ideological framework of family and cultural patterns that
reinforce their roles as nurturers at a young age. The Cuban Literacy
Campaign raised consciousness of how women can be active participants
in the building of a nation, their actions valuable in the realm
of social justice.
In this way, beyond the mechanics of reading and writing, the
Cuban Literacy Campaign helped the nation come to realize that
the voice and civic engagement of women actually mattered. This
underlying force has since become the ethical backdrop of the entire
country until present times. “A gesture of humanity, a Revolution
itself,” concurs former brigadista Zeida on the
inclusion of women in this massive event. “Those of us who
were part of it proved that together we could overcome obstacles,
despite all the challenges we would undoubtedly face, socially
or economically, in the future…that we women are capable
of taking on such tasks.” The Cuban Literacy Campaign was
thus an example of the merit of women’s participating in
a nation’s development, beyond its immediate value as an
educational initiative.
Joanne C. Elvy is currently the Program Director
for Sault Program for English Language Learning and Adjunct Professor
of Photography at Algoma University College, in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario. She is working on her PhD through OISE/University of Toronto
in the Adult Education Department, where her focus is on meaning
making and the development of consciousness in women in relation
to the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign.
To learn more about the Cuban literacy campaign:
Fagen, Richard R. (1961). The Transformation of Political
Culture in Cuba. Stanford: Stanford University
Press.
Keeble, Alexandra (2001). In the Spirit of Wandering Teachers:
The Cuban Literacy Campaign 1961. Melbourne: Ocean Press.
Kozol, Jonathan (1978). A new look at the literacy campaign in
Cuba. Harvard Educational Review, 48, 341-377.
Leiner, Martin (1987). The 1961 national literacy campaign. In
R. Arnove & H. Graff (eds.), National Literacy Campaigns: Historical
and Comparative Perspectives. New York: Plenum Press,
173-196.
Mujica, Rene J. (1981). Some Recollections of My Experiences in
the Cuban Literacy Campaign. Journal of Reading, 25(3),
222-225.
