On January 5, 1961, 65 years ago, counterrevolutionary groups supported by the United States murdered volunteer teacher Conrado Benítez García in the Escambray Mountains, attempting to intimidate young Cubans from joining the announced National Literacy Campaign.
At the time of his murder, Conrado Benítez was 18 years old and had begun his career as a volunteer teacher at a school in the mountains of Sancti Spíritus, where he taught 44 children during the day and an equal number of adults at night, all working to eradicate illiteracy.
From humble origins, he was born on February 19, 1942, in the province of Matanzas. From a very young age, he wanted to go to school, but he was forced to work from the second grade onward as a shoeshine boy and baker to help his family. In 1954, after completing sixth grade, he enrolled in secondary school.
With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Conrado answered the call of then-Prime Minister Fidel Castro Ruz to form a contingent of volunteer teachers at the Minas de Frío Pedagogical Training School, who would teach literacy classes in the mountains.
He left with a group of young people for the school in Minas de Frío, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, on May 12, 1960, and his training lasted until August. During his training, the future teacher met his love, Nancy Inerarity, and spent the last days of 1960 with his family and his girlfriend. He longed to get married, fight for the Revolution, and continue improving himself.
Upon graduating, he was one of the first to be assigned, and he and Magalys Olmos López were assigned to a remote area of Trinidad, in the central mountainous region of the country, a conflict-ridden area with counterrevolutionary influence, where, among others, the gangs of Emilio Carretero and Osvaldo Ramírez operated.
Magalys was assigned to Ciego Ponciano and he to Sierra Reunión, where he became the first teacher in that area. There, he built his school in a sawmill and helped his colleague build hers. To solve the problem of seating, he hammered in stakes and placed planks on top, because what mattered most to him was that all the farmers and children learned.
After going to the zonal coordination office to pick up books and materials for the schools, on January 4th the two teachers returned to the home of the farmer Felo González, who suggested they stop because there were reports of rebels nearby. Magalys agreed, but Conrado decided to continue because he wanted to reach his students, for whom he was bringing storybooks, crayons, and toys.
Just six days after the National Literacy Campaign began, on January 5, 1961, in the town of Tinajitas in the Pitajones Mountains of the Escambray range, Conrado Benítez was murdered along with five peasants who were trying to learn to read and write. The attack was carried out by a counterrevolutionary group led by Osvaldo Ramírez, who was captured, tried, and executed on April 16, 1962, for this crime.
This murder sparked outrage and fueled the unwavering will to fight among young people training to become teachers. An obelisk was erected at the site of the crime in honor of the murdered victims, and the literacy brigade was named after them. “We are the Conrado Benítez Brigades,” the brigadistas would proclaim in their anthem.
On January 28, 1961, the supreme leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, called for the massive participation of students and the entire population in the National Literacy Campaign and declared, referring to Conrado: “That teacher, even in death, will continue to be a teacher! The people will never forget him!”
And so it was, more than one hundred thousand young students, singing their anthem and with the name of Conrado Benítez on their shoulders, advanced “through plains and mountains the brigadista goes, fulfilling his duty to the Homeland, fighting for peace,” and carried with their words the light of truth to every corner of the country until Cuba was declared a Territory Free of Illiteracy on December 22 of that same year.