THE first Cuban school year after the triumph of
the Revolution began on September 14, 1959. Notable
events surrounding its beginning would mark the
difference to those before it.
A unique event in the history of the republics of
the American continent took place with the
transformation of the scenario of the inaugural
event, which took place in the former Columbia
Military Camp, headquarters of the Joint Chief of
Staff of the Batista dictatorship’s army, and home
to the perpetrators of the greatest atrocities
against the people. The revolutionary government had
handed it over to the Ministry of Education for its
transformation into a school complex.
Beyond the powerful symbolic meaning of this
change, the event was much more than allegoric. The
weapons that had been pointed at the people up until
that point, were transmuted into books. Books are,
without any doubt, likewise weapons, but with
totally different ends to those of the former.
The goal was precisely to educate and instruct,
without exclusions, a generation that would
hopefully play an important role in the construction
of a new society from every desk in that new school,
thus the perception of an urgent need to construct
urban education centers, as scant as their rural
counterparts, so that every child could receive
schooling.
The teachers in those schools would be able,
without obstacles or repression, make reference to
concepts previously prohibited by the overthrown
government. With knowledge of the issues, they would
be able to talk about democracy, justice, and human
rights.
Fidel, who together with other officials presided
over the event and whose speech Cubans are as
familiar with as the most distinguished specialists
to have studied it, spoke that day to the children.
Using his communicative versatility, he was able
imprint a profound message on the small members of
the audience who heard his words.
With an essentially educational emphasis, he
prioritized among his exhortations the need to study,
given that knowledge was essential for the
industrialization of the country. He insisted on
schooling and he was clear about the need to do it
right in order to effectively embark on the earliest
period of the revolutionary process that had just
begun.
The messages delivered with his powerful wisdom
and consistently suited to the age of the
schoolchildren – as he called them in his initial
invocation – were directed at explaining the noble
proposals of the Revolution to them.
At certain points, Fidel, achieving a magical
empathy with the children that they would never
abandon, asked them questions to which they
responded in unison with applause and exclamations
of approval.
The footprints left by Cuba’s national hero, José
Martí, were evident. Like the author of the Edad
de Oro (The Golden Age) did in the prelude of
his magazine for children, Fidel proposed a
competition in their studies to the students, always
in order to award effort and to provide incentive
for that principle emulation which it was so
necessary for the advance of the nascent Cuban
society forward.
As the national hero did, he spoke to the
children about cultivating a love of nature and the
importance of understanding agriculture and writing
well. He explained to them the need for solidarity
among them and urged them to live in equality "with
everyone and for the good of everyone," the aim of
the Cuban Revolution, as well as to develop a
commitment to defending it.
The voice that informed and guided not only that
present generation but many others as well,
expressed the conviction that that event would mark
"a new stage in the Cuban Revolution."
He could not have foreseen the magnitude of the
work that would be constructed from that moment
onward. After his audience had absorbed the profound
context of his words, the occasion, which Fidel
described as "the most beautiful event of this
Revolution," concluded with a book of José Martí’s
Versos sencillos, which he presented to each
one of the children, and a shower of flowers and
balloons presenting the motto: "Be educated in order
to be free."
