 |
| Carmen en Realengo, con su linterna |
Maria del Carmen Calderón, age 13 in 1961, wanted to go teach literacy with the Conrado Benitez Brigade. They passed out forms in school - she was in 6th grade - that parents had to sign to give consent. At first her parents refused because she was very young and also asthmatic, but some of her cousins who also wanted to be literacy volunteers finally convinced her parents to agree. They thought she would be working near Yaguajay ( in Santi Spiritu Province) where they lived, but the girls were sent first to Varadero to do a one week training course. There they learned how to use the teaching cards and manuals that would teach from and also how to light their lanterns. Since they were going to places without electricity, they would need light in order to teach, and the lanterns became the symbol of the literacy volunteers as well as a necessity. They were also given their uniforms. Twenty-one girls and an adult teacher were sent to Realengo, part of San Ramón Sugar Plantation, in Oriente Province. They traveled to Bayamo by train, then by bus the rest of the way, over several days. They were distributed among the 50 or 60 households of Realengo; Carmen was sent to a married couple with 3 children. Because of the rebels in the mountains who descended at night to threaten and destroy, the literacy teaching was done by day only, and at night they did not light their lanterns or wear their uniforms. If the counter-revolutionaries - the rebels or bandits - had come the couple planned to say that Carmen was a relative staying with them. The food they ate was mostly balls of cornmeal, boiled. Carmen says she was a slender girl without much interest in food, and she didn't mind the diet. What was important to her was the affection they offered her. When she left, it was a sad farewell, with everyone crying. Over the years she stayed in contact with the family through news and letters carried by people traveling in the region. The married couple are still alive, both over 90 now. One of their sons got an engineering degree, but he was killed in a car accident. The surviving two live in San Ramon.
 |
| Con la familia campesina |
Carmen was there from April to the 22nd of December. She taught 5 people to read and write, all adults, the youngest of them 17. Her parents came to visit her twice during these months, bringing things to eat.
On December 22, all the literacy volunteers met with Fidel in the Plaza of the Revolución in Havana, and Cuba was declared a country free of illiteracy. All the volunteers shouted, " Fidel, Fidel, what do we need to do now?" and he responded, "Now what you have to do is study." They all received scholarships. In January the schools opened. Carmen gave up her scholarship in Havana because she had asthma attacks; she studied to be a lab technician with a hematology specialty in Santa Clara and did this work for many years.
 |
| Carmen hoy, en su casa |
It was a great experience, she says. It gave an opportunity to meet new people, see the difficult conditions of their lives and the desires they had to learn and to improve.
from the Decalogue of the Brigadista ( on the back of the ID card.)
1. We will honor Cuba teaching reading to the most isolated campesinos. Marti's slogan is ours: "No martyr dies in vain, no idea is ever lost."
from my interview with Carmen Calderón Navarro, October 2016
