In 1961, Cuba undertook the Cuban Literacy Campaign, an eight-month national effort to abolish illiteracy. It was not just an education programme but a social revolution that turned the entire island into a classroom.
‘Let’s Learn to Read’
Launched by Fidel Castro and Education Minister Armando Hart, the campaign mobilised nearly 250,000 volunteers, many of them schoolchildren and university students, who travelled to the remotest villages. Carrying kerosene lamps, chalkboards, and simple primers titled Alfabeticemos (‘Let’s Learn to Read’), they lived with farming families and taught them to read and write.
The effort was as much about dignity as it was about knowledge. Farmers who had never held a pencil proudly signed their names for the first time. Rural women, often doubly marginalised, discovered literacy as a tool of empowerment. The campaign transformed teachers too; young volunteers returned home with a deeper understanding of inequality and solidarity.
Free of illiteracy
By the end of 1961, Cuba declared itself free of illiteracy, reducing rates from over 20% to less than 4%. The feat won international acclaim, becoming a model for literacy drives worldwide, from Nicaragua to East Timor.
More than six decades later, the memories endure. For many Cubans, the campaign is not just history but personal heritage: a story of a nation that, for one year, set aside everything else to ensure that no citizen lived in the darkness of illiteracy.
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