A Cuban History: Colonialism, Revolution and Educational Reforms

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A Cuban History Colonialism, Revolution and
Educational Reforms
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Early Cuban Civilization

• Orientalist Perspective
• Misrepresentation of Early Cuban Civilization
• Guanahtabeyes, The First Aborigines built no
  houses, lived in caves and their source of food
  was on fruit picking)
• Arawak arrived and were called Tainos, who
  developed an advance economic system based on
  agriculture with commonly cultivated fields

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Cuba Genocide and Colonialism

• Late 15th Century and Early 16th Century
  Christopher Columbus and Christian Spaniards
  unleash a political, economical and religious
  genocide on Cuba
• Resistance and Revolt were consistent by Cuban
  Aborigines and lead to death, suicide and
  abortions
• Cultural Colonialism lead to the destruction of
  artifacts, architectural structures and
  historical evidence of Cuban Aboriginal societies
  
• Extraction of Gold and other Natural Resources
  lead to an extended colonized inhabitation by
  Spaniards in Cuba by 1513

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Cuban Colonialism and the Change in Spanish
Ideology

• Gold Washing Economic Base shifted in the mid
  16th Century to a more diverse agricultural one
• Cultural Spanish Colonialism became
  overwhelmingly the dominate form of expression
  with the Catholic churches being established and
  receiving authority, Cuban Authority receiving
  banner and seals (first coat of arms), the use of
  Spanish built buildings in Cuba as write-offs
  against European debts
• Ideology began to include the notion of the use
  of Spanish Fleets to exponentially bring
  Africans to the Island of Cuba for labor
  practices
• Between the years 1650 -1750 a spike in the
  percentage of African Slaves in Cuba is shown,
  which began to define Spanish Cultural and
  Economic Colonialism as more sharply
  distinguished between Cubas free and slave
  populations

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The Rise Afro-Cuban Slave Population, Sugar and
Tobacco Profits and Bloody Revolts
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2nd Colonialist Interest in Cuba The United
States of America

• As early as Thomas Jefferson, the United States
  viewed Cuba as part of an imperial acquisition,
  in a letter to James Madison, Jefferson said, To
  purchase Cuba (along with Florida) would be of
  great help to our nation to control the waters
  which surround the United States
• Seen as part of the key strategic island to
  controlling the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico
  and the Rivers which flow into them
• 1848 The U.S. offered Spain 100 Million Dollars
  to buy Cuba, in fear that recent Afro-Cuban
  slavery revolts may cause uprisings in the U.S.
  South
• This would just be the start of the United States
  interest in Cuba.

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Distinctive Attitudes in Colonized Cuba
Resigning to their fate or Liberation through
Revolution

• Three Distinctive Liberation Wars defined Cubas
  independence from Spain.
• 1868 1878 The Ten Years War lead by the Mambi
  Rebel Army, was lead by 92 of its resisters as
  Afro-Cuban Slaves, the largest slave revolt in
  the Western Hemisphere. The War would end with
  the peace Zanjon.
• 1879 1880 The Small War started with energy
  and enthusiasm, but did not last due to the want
  for peace
• 1895 1898 - The War of Independence the
  intellectual leadership of the writer and
  philosopher José Martí, who is considered by all
  Cubans as Father of the Country. Martí, who was
  eager to actively participate in the conflict,
  was killed on 19 May 1895 near the town of Dos
  Rios. After four years of revolutionary war, a
  constitutional convention and a July 1898 peace
  agreement by Spain, the revolution was won, the
  independence had begun, however the involvement
  by an earlier Colonized Imperialist was just
  beginningthe United States.

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Platt Amendment

• An agreement signed in 1902
• Let America intervene in Cuban affairs for
  defense
• Gave the U.S. Guantanamo bay and economic control
• In 1934 the amendment was revoked, but presence
  of America still felt

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July 16th Movement

• Movement that started with rebel fighters
  attacking the Moncada barracks
• Cuban exiles in the U.S. and elsewhere supported
• Fidel Fundraised to finance his revolution to
  overthrow Batista

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The Revolution 1956-1959

• The struggle between Cuban rebels and the army
  led by Batista
• Lead by Fidel Castro, Frank Pais, Raul Castro,
  Ernesto Guevara, Celia Sanchez, and Camilio
  Cienfuegos

March of Guerillas and peasants into Havana
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Fidel Castro

• Leader of revolution
• Created the July 26th movement
• Very articulate speaker
• Connected with the peasants of Cuba
• Became leader when he thoughts he needed more
  control over policies

Fidel out conversing in public with the people
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Agrarian Reform of 1959

• Removed foreign land owners
• Gave large areas of land to the state
• Goal to make use of human and natural resources

Farm workers raise their machetes in solidarity.
1959
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Agrarian Reform of 1963

• All medium sized lands were to be given to the
  state bringing 70 of land under government
  control
• Brought more unrest in the people with private
  farms
• Hard on private economy

• Fidel speaking to a crowd of cane cutters in 1963

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Educational Reform with the Revolution

• Castro makes education un-privatized, free of
  cost, and non-discriminatory
• Educational spending increased
• Facilites converted into schools and the
  implementation of student teachers

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• Many contributors of the literacy campaign became
  martyrs as they became the targets of
  counter-revoultionaries

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Literacy Campaign

• Castro rallies for the eradication of illeteracy
• Creation of the literary brigidistasstudents
  traveling throughout the country teaching basic
  literacy skills
• Those in rural areas and above schooling age
  receive instruction
• Students and teachers learn in the spirit of
  Paulo Freire

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Special and Early Education

• Shift from repressive to prevent approach to
  special education
• Laws and schools supporting reeducation of
  delequent minors
• Pre-school and daycare facilites created to
  liberate mothers and young women
• Provisions provided to nourish children for
  further education