Halbertbrooks Full Dissertation with Revisions Asked for 10-3-17
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AN ARMY OF TEACHERS: CUBAN WOMEN IN POLITICAL EDUCATION, FROM THE LITERACY CAMPAIGN TO YO SI PUEDO Ann E. Halbert-Brooks A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Louis A. Pérez, Jr. John Chasteen John French Miguel LaSerna Cynthia Radding Ó 2017 Ann E. Halbert-Brooks ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Ann E. Halbert-Brooks: An Army of Teachers: Cuban Women in Political Education, from the Literacy Campaign to Yo Sí Puedo (Under the direction of Louis A. Pérez, Jr.) My dissertation examines the role of women in the Cuban Revolution through the lens of the 1961 Literacy Campaign. Using archival sources, print media, oral histories, and other primary source accounts, I argue that the Campaign was a key formative period for the nascent revolutionary state and for the 250,000 teachers who worked in it. Beginning in the guerrilla insurgency of the 1950s, the 26th of July Movement invested in education and described political education as a central component of its proposed changes to Cuban society. After 1959, this institutional emphasis on education facilitated the political mobilization of women and the creation of mass organizations like the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución and the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas. Individual women engaged critically with propaganda for the Literacy Campaign, volunteering to teach with the expectation that their professional horizons would be expanded through their work. In the decades that followed, their work also influenced their relationship with the revolutionary project. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of many individuals and institutions. My research was supported by funding from the Phi Alpha Theta Doctoral Scholarship, the Cuban Heritage Collection’s Graduate Research Fellowship, the Doris G. Quinn Completion Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas’ Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, Tinker Field Research Travel Grant, and Americas Fellowships. Belkis Quesada Guerra of the Instituto de Historia de Cuba and Shelley Clark of the Institute for the Study of the Americas also provided invaluable assistance in traveling to Cuba to conduct research. I am also grateful to Luisa Campos Gallardo of the Museo Nacional de la Campaña de Alfabetización who welcomed me to Cuba on my first research trip in 2012, and Catherine Murphy, who opened her archive of interviews about the Literacy Campaign to me. I am also indebted to all of my colleagues who read and commented on early drafts of this dissertation, especially my advisor Louis A. Pérez, my committee members Miguel LaSerna, Cynthia Radding, John French, and John Chasteen, and my writing group: Angélica Castillo, Dan Giblin, Shannon James, Hannah Palmer, Alex Ruble, Ian Toller-Clark, and Mishio Yamanaka. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... x INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Cuba before the Literacy Campaign ........................................................................................... 4 Structure of the Dissertation ..................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1: “THIS WAS ONLY ACCOMPLISHED BY THE REVOLUTION” ................... 16 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 16 A Rejection of the Past ............................................................................................................. 18 Mobilizing Young Adults ......................................................................................................... 27 Organizing the Literacy Campaign ........................................................................................... 31 Ideology of the Literacy Campaign .......................................................................................... 39 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 46 CHAPTER 2: THE WORK YET TO BE DONE ......................................................................... 49 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 49 Seguimiento: Lifelong Learning for Men and Women ............................................................. 51 FMC: Emulating Earlier Generations ....................................................................................... 61 FMC: Women in a New Era of Cuban History ......................................................................... 70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 76 CHAPTER 3: THE “SYSTEM OF COLLECTIVE VIGILANCE” ............................................. 78 v Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 78 Social Norms Before 1959 ........................................................................................................ 81 CDRs and Education ................................................................................................................. 86 CDRs and Women .................................................................................................................... 98 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 105 CHAPTER 4: IMPELLED TO LEARN AND TEACH ............................................................. 108 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 108 Parental Approval ................................................................................................................... 110 Young Adults Inspired by Revolution .................................................................................... 117 Personal Independence ............................................................................................................ 121 A New Professional Class ....................................................................................................... 127 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 133 CHAPTER 5: TESTIMONIOS IN THE ERA OF YO SI PUEDO ............................................. 137 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 137 Commitment to the Revolution and a Right to Speak ............................................................ 140 Generational Change and Revolutionary Commitment .......................................................... 148 Yo Sí Puedo and Cuban Internationalism ............................................................................... 154 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 160 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 162 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 170 Archives and Manuscript Collections ..................................................................................... 170 Newspapers and Periodicals ................................................................................................... 170 Government Publications ........................................................................................................ 170 vi Published Books and Articles ................................................................................................. 171 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Selected literacy rates across Latin America around 1900 and 1950, as compiled by Javier Núñez. Núñez calculated these rates based on census data collected in different years and attempted to correct for any individuals who were not included in the original census data. In Cuba, for example, he took the official 1899 census figure of 43 percent and argued that it was an under-count, with the true literacy rate closer to 46 percent. By 1950, he found that census data more accurately reflected the demographics of each country. ......................5 Table 2: The population of Cuba by province, ca. 1953. Cubans living in rural areas were less likely to have access to schools or other social services. ........................................................ 6 viii LIST OF FIGURES