Vol. 76/No. 42      November 19, 2012

Below is an excerpt from Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution by Vilma Espín, Asela de los Santos and Yolanda Ferrer—one of four books offered at reduced prices with a subscription to the Militant.

In the interview below, de los Santos recounts her experience as head of the Department of Education, established in the territory liberated by the Rebel Army’s Second Front under the command of Raúl Castro at the end of the 1956-58 revolutionary war waged against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Raúl Castro is currently president of Cuba’s Council of State. Copyright © 2012 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY ASELA DE LOS SANTOS  
It was in [Cuba’s eastern mountainous region of] the Sierra Maestra that preparations began on a large scale to teach literacy to Rebel Army combatants. It was in the Sierra Maestra that Fidel made sure teachers were assigned to all the tiny rural schools that had been closed by the tyranny.

From the moment the Second Front was established, Raúl had the same concern. He issued instructions stating that in all the camps, combatants who were illiterate had to be taught how to read and write. And he ordered the reopening of every small rural school that had been closed because of the war.

Carrying this out was the assignment I was given when I arrived in August.

Within the first months of the establishment of the Second Front, a wide swath of territory was liberated. After the defeat of Batista’s “encircle and annihilate offensive” by early August, those areas were largely free of Batista’s ground forces, making it possible to open more than four hundred small schools, old and new. This was also due to Raúl’s organizational capacities and to his insistence—whatever the demands of war—that there would be no neglect of something so important to the lives of the fighters and children as education. …

[M]ost important was the region’s social composition—above all, the large exploited rural population. This was a territory of large estates, of landowners who possessed enormous tracts of land. Many US corporations owned mills and plantations there, as well as nickel, manganese, and cobalt mines.

All these things together made it possible to advance. That experience became the forerunner. It showed us what needed to be done once victory was won. The growing determination of the rural population to make sure their children had schools was a big help in turning those ideas into a reality. …

Alongside the military structure, a military-governmental structure was also built to aid the functioning and development of the armed struggle. Seven departments were established, one of them being Education. The others were Agriculture, Construction and Communications, Finances, Health, Justice, and Propaganda.…

No one in the Rebel Army could confiscate anything from the peasants. Everything was bought and paid for. The peasants were respected. That was part of the ethical standard set by the Rebel Army. So Raúl created a group to manage finances, to manage the small amount of economic resources we had at the beginning. Out of this came a financial plan to support the expanding war.

There were also sugar plantations and mills in the area governed by the Second Front. Fidel, as commander in chief in the Sierra, ordered that for each 250-pound bag of sugar produced, the plantations had to pay 10 centavos to the movement in that territory. This was managed through the Finances Department.

Other funds were collected in the form of taxes formerly paid by the landlords and businessmen to the state. …

We also had a Construction and Communications Department. When it rained, roads sometimes became impassable. So this department repaired them, and opened new ones. …

There was also the Health Department, headed by José Machado Ventura, who is today first vice president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers. We organized hospitals and medical units. Medicine was supplied by the July 26 Movement in the cities. These units even performed surgery.

The Health Department provided health care to the population, peasants and combatants, without distinction, including wounded enemy soldiers.

For the most part, people living in the area of the Second Front had never had the chance to see a doctor before. Many had that opportunity only when the Second Front was established. For the first time they were treated like human beings. …

Another department was Propaganda. It was important politically, because we had a radio station that could be heard throughout the country. …

Then there was the Justice Department. It performed marriages and settled disputes among people in the area. It also regulated legal matters in the camps. There were even trials for misconduct. Some combatants were expelled from the Rebel Army. Discipline and order reigned in the life of the camps.

And finally there was the Education Department.…

The rural population in the Second Front was poor, exploited, hungry. Many young people joined the Rebel Army, so the number of combatants who were illiterate grew. And this was a challenge.

That’s how the education effort started. Raúl issued orders that we teach all these young combatants to read and write.
 
 
Related articles:
Oct. 1962: Kennedy brought world to brink of nuclear war
Resolve of Cuban workers stayed imperialists’ hands  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home