A Revolutionary Hurricane Sweeps Cuba

This chapter examines the countervailing forces within Cuban society that were exposed as a revolutionary hurricane swept the island after the 1959 Revolution. It discusses the revolutionary government’s social reforms regarding child care, the nationalization of education, race relations, and gender equality, and argues that the revolutionary project initiated in January 1959 was essentially a process of economic and cultural transformation, an assertion of a vision of a New Cuba and a New Cuban. This challenged the values of more affluent Cubans who were more likely to be influenced by U.S. culture, the Catholic church, and Cold War tropes about communism’s threat to the patriarchal family and children’s minds. In drawing young Cubans into the literacy campaign, the new government encouraged them to see themselves as contributing to the revolutionary project.