The construction of the new man in Cuba (1959-1961): a process of transformation through literacy as a freedom practice

Abstract

The literacy of a people can promote much more than learning to read and write, as Paulo Freire (1987) points out, it can promote liberation and citizenship, a new model of man and a new awareness of the world. In this work, the objective was to outline some reflections on how the construction, through literacy, began of the model of the ideal Cuban man: the new man. The methodological procedure was a bibliographic research, of a historiographical character based on the research project: Cuba and the revolutionary teacher education: the construction of the New Man linked to the State University of Maringá-UEM. The Alphabetical Manual (CUBA, 1961b) and Fidel Castro's speeches in the 1960s, 1961 and 1967 and Che Guevara's 1965 speech were delimited as a primary source. In a scenario of social transformation, Cuban education was reformulated from 1959, with a view to the construction of a new pedagogical model of a political, social, economic and cultural character. The first step towards this reformulation was the Literacy Campaign carried out in 1961, in which it was necessary to make each Cuban a teacher. Thus, the anthropological project of Cuba was developing and gaining characteristics in the context of the formation of the literacy teacher in order to transform, at the same time, the apprentice into a master. The study concluded that discussing Cuban literacy practices can greatly promote reflection on issues that involve an efficient process of combating illiteracy in its various facets.