A Teeny Army of Teachers

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

Espiritrompa!

Q: What is this kid so angry about? At whom is he grimacing, hurling stones and abuses?
A: His favourite teacher, Don Gregorio.

In between this question and its unlikely answer lies a story that has been poignantly told in Spanish movie "La lengua de las mariposas". Directed by José Luis Cuerda this 1999 movie is about a shy, asthmatic child named Moncho, growing up in a Gallician town in the 1930s.

This is a little town like any other, closely knit and insular and yet full of people with divergent political opinions. Moncho's own family is represents these different views - his mother is deeply religious and conservative while the father, a tailor, has leftist leanings. In the normal course this would have been just fine but these are fraught times, Spain is in turmoil and the country is about to plunge into a bloody civil war.

Moncho hates going to school. He hates being taunted for his clunky breathing apparatus, he is unable to make friends and prefers being alone. On his first day at school he gets upset about being called a 'sparrow' by his teacher, Don Gergorio, and runs away to the woods.

Gradually he warms up to the elderly Don's gentle humorous ways, his love for nature and learning. Even as young Moncho is learning about far away places in Australia, and of butterflies extract nectar from flowers with their spring-like proboscis - the espiritrompa.  Political disagreements are turning into something nastier.

The Republicans are on the ascendant and they have decided to get rid of the Nationalists. People are being hauled out of homes in the middle of the night, and Moncho's mother have come to realise that the only way to survive and hold the family together is to put up a display of support for the Republicans, even if it means that they have to betray friends.

As things come to a head the whole town assembles to condemn the Nationalists as they are being arrested and taken away. Don Gregorio is among them. The mother joins the chorus of abusers and urges her husband and children too to join the mob. The last scene has Moncho running after the truck carrying the prisoners, hurling stones and expletives - "Traitors! Communists! Espiritrompa!"

This film makes you wonder how many times such dilemmas would have played out in history - in Catholic Europe, amongst Zoroastrians in Persia conquered by the Arabs, in Nazi Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, and in pre-partition India...

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LINKS

* Preview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYNyrPVTbIk
* Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly%27s_Tongue