Today evening I found myself in Varadero, Cuba.
Ever since the Covid-19 lockdowns started, I had picked up the habit of walking up and down the terrace after sunset, listening to music, podcasts or, sometimes, just checking the never-ending backlog of messages on social media. Today's special was a podcast - a remarkable Duolingo episode titled "Una maestra en botas" (A teacher in army boots).
This Spanish-English bilingual podcast was a first-person account of a 73-year-old Afro-Cuban lady named Norma Guillard. Born and brought up in one of the poorest provinces of Cuba she was about 14 when Fidel Castro took over the country and brought in the revolution. One of his top priorities was to raise the level of education in Cuba
1961 was declared the "Year of Education", and paradoxically, a full school-year was cancelled! Approximately 300,000 school-going teenagers like Norma were asked to volunteer one year for teaching a family in the countryside not only how to read, but also to teach them how to prevent common diseases like TB and Leprosy. In return the government gave them scholarships to pursue higher education.
So an army of teenagers, armed with textbooks, notepads and pencils, went through a brief training course and then out into remote rural areas, to spread education. Not everything, of course, went off as planned: Norma's first host-family was racist - they did not want a black teacher; the second one kept her away because they suspected her of having contracted leprosy. In the midst of of this came the US "Bay of Pigs" invasion. She was finally able to settle down and teach a family of six how to read.
One of the thoughtful elements of Castro's plan was the rule that the eldest member of each household had to be taught first, so that they could read, understand and sign official papers. Later, this was dovetailed into the national land re-distribution campaign.
Given the background it is hardly surprising that during the current pandemic, Cuba won international praise for sending no less than 28,000 doctors to 59 countries to to help them fight Covid-19!
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LINKS & REFERENCES
* Duolingo - Episode 51 - "Una maestra en botas" - https://podcast.duolingo.com/episode-51-una-maestra-en-botas-a-teacher-in-army-boots
* Cuban Literacy Campaign - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Literacy_Campaign
* The Worlds Most Ambitious Literacy Campaign - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/latin-lessons-what-can-we-learn-from-the-worldrsquos-most-ambitious-literacy-campaign-2124433.html
* 28,000 docs in 59 countries - https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/kerala-and-cuba-how-left-cousins-won-praise-for-covid-19-fight-70834
2 comments:
Dear Blogger
I can notice in your post a litte bit of love for Cuba??? I can not deny the high level of education and medicine in the island. But, it is far from a case of success as a country
:) Dear Roberto,
It's not a 'bit of love', just a bit of admiration -- especially for things i did not about Cuba earlier.
For a country that has been screwed by USA for the past 60 years, and still managed to have a healthy, educated population which is willing and able to help the rest of the world (especially the so-called successful countries!) cope with the Covid-19 pandemic...not a bad achievement!
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