As early as December 31, 1960, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz ordered the first major mobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces to defend the nascent process of social transformation against the threat of a direct invasion by the United States.
As 1960 drew to a close, on the last day of the year, Fidel, along with thousands of teachers, commemorated the Year of Education in Ciudad Libertad (Liberty City), where he reiterated his commitment to eradicating illiteracy in just one year and emphasized that the two major tasks for 1961 were education and defense.
Fidel announced the mass literacy campaign on August 29, 1960, at the graduation ceremony of the first contingent of Volunteer Teachers, and it officially began on January 1, 1961, in its first organizational phase, amidst the first major military mobilization in defense of the people's gains.
Indeed, in the first days of January 1961, the U.S. government under President Dwight Eisenhower, just three weeks before the end of his term, broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the American press feverishly attempted to justify an armed intervention in Cuba.
The dangerous threat and the preparations underway in Central America for an invasion managed to halt some of the Revolution's plans, but despite the large military mobilization, the Literacy Campaign continued its impetuous progress.
Anticipating the events that were coming, Fidel Castro proclaimed the creation of the National Revolutionary Militias (MNR) on October 26, 1959, an organization of the people in arms to defend the island from military aggression and protect civilian targets against actions by terrorist groups operating both in Cuba and from the United States and other Caribbean countries.
The Cuban leader, explaining the reason for arming the people, said it was “because our cause is just, because we don't want to harm anyone, and no one has the right to harm us. From today onward, we proclaim that we fear nothing and no one, that we do not fear the measures being plotted against us, nor do we fear the measures we must take to combat those who want to destroy us.”
On January 23, 1961, during the graduation of the second contingent of volunteer teachers, Fidel announced the assassination of the young volunteer teacher, Conrado Benítez, and with an emotional voice, proclaimed, “Even after his death, that teacher will continue to be a teacher! (...) That teacher is the martyr whose blood will serve to motivate us to doubly resolve to win the battle we have undertaken against illiteracy.”
On January 28, in homage to the birth of José Martí, the leader of the Revolution presided over the conversion of the old military fortress of Santa Clara into a school, where he reiterated that literacy is one of the greatest battles for culture ever waged by any people.
“It’s going to be a truly epic battle, in which the entire nation must participate,” he said, anticipating that “we are going to organize 100,000 young literacy volunteers who have at least a sixth-grade education and are at least 13 years old,” and he asked the young people of Villa Clara to be the first to register.
Ten days after taking office, the new US president, John F. Kennedy, announced an aggressive plan against Cuba, which was living under conditions of undeclared war, but without neglecting the organization of the literacy brigades that would bear the name of Conrado Benítez.
On February 28, Fidel Castro revisited the National Literacy Commission to bid farewell to the first group of young people who made up the Conrado Benítez Pilot Brigades as they departed for rural areas to teach literacy, and he gave instructions that, starting March 6, all young people in the country who wished to join these brigades could register.
When on April 17, 1961, the The mercenary brigade landed at Playa Larga and Playa Girón, and was immediately counterattacked by the local militias, the vanguard of an uninterrupted offensive along all access routes to the beachhead occupied by the invaders.
The militiamen constituted the majority of the infantry troops and the entire complement of the crews of the land and anti-aircraft artillery batteries that participated in the battle. They were joined by special combat columns, tank crews, and the battalion of the National Revolutionary Police, whose fighters came from the Rebel Army and the underground resistance.
The victory at Girón foreshadowed another great victory: the declaration of Cuba as a Territory Free of Illiteracy on December 22, 1961. Fidel, as always, fulfilled his promises to the Cuban people.