Cuba · Havana / 1961 · campaign; museum photograph 2015
The 1961 literacy campaign
Learning to read as a national project
A photograph of a photograph displayed in Cuba’s National Museum of the Literacy Campaign. The original photographer and the date of the displayed image are not established here.
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In 1961 Cuba mobilised thousands of young volunteers to teach reading and writing in homes and villages. The campaign was a state project with a strong political purpose: literacy was presented as part of revolutionary citizenship. It produced a widely cited claim that illiteracy was eliminated; that claim should be read alongside the campaign’s mobilisation, the experiences of teachers and learners, and the political pressures of the period. The photograph shows a museum display, so it documents how the campaign is remembered as much as the campaign itself.
- Date
- 1961 · campaign; museum photograph 2015
- Maker / designer
- Cuban state literacy campaign; volunteers and learners
- Material
- Primers, notebooks, volunteer brigades
- Context
- A state literacy campaign; the image is a photograph of a museum display, not an original 1961 print.
Evidence: Date established · Place established
Historical record
- The campaign took place in 1961.
- It mobilised volunteer brigades to teach reading and writing.
- The photograph is of a museum display, taken in 2015; it is not an original 1961 photograph.
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