This year’s July 26th is the 70th anniversary of the attack on the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship’s Moncada barracks in Santiago, led by Fidel Castro. This was the opening gun of the Cuban Revolution. This year is also the 125th anniversary of Washington’s invasion of Cuba. This meeting will discuss one of the earliest great accomplishments of the Cuban revolution – the 1961 literacy campaign, when a quarter of a million volunteers, the brigadistas, who were mostly young women, went to every corner of Cuba to teach people to read and write. They packed their bags and set out for the remotest villages, many without electricity or running water. In a little over a year, literacy rates in Cuba went from only 60%-76% to almost 100%.

Why did the Cuban revolution prioritize literacy? What can we learn from this campaign?

Program:

Film: Silvio Rodríguez: My First Calling
Global music giant Silvio Rodriguez recounts his coming of age story as a volunteer on the youth brigades of the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign.

Speakers:

• Matthew Streitz, Young Democratic Socialists of America, University of Minnesota
• Gary Prevost, Member, Minnesota Cuba Committee, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Latin American Studies, College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University

Wednesday, July 26, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
Lind Hall-Room 302, 207 Church St. SE, University of Minnesota East Bank campus

Sponsored by: Minnesota Cuba Committee, Young Democratic Socialist of America, University of Minnesota, Solidarity Committee on the Americas

For more information: mncuba@gmail.com, https://www.facebook.com/MNCubaCmte/