The example of Conrado Benitez Garcia had inspired a hundred thousand young people who swelled the Brigades who took their name and were the fundamental strength of the literacy campaign conducted throughout Cuba the same year of his death.
The young Conrad was one of those early volunteer teachers to the call of the Revolution, rose mountains to offer the light of learning to people who until then had been denied all access to education.
On January 5, 1961, Conrad was murdered in the Trinitarian mountains. The only weapons carried teacher, were his books to teach their students.
Conrado Benitez, the young man of 18, whom the poet Nicolas Guillen recalled as the “master, pure friend,” was captured by bandits financed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, in the low hills of the Escambray, where He was teaching to farmers.
The example of Conrado Benitez and multiplied a hundred thousand young Cubans continued the work of the murdered teacher, at the same time thousands of peasants reaffirmed their faith in the nascent revolution.
For the conscience of the world the crime committed in the area of San Ambrosio was a page of terrorism against the Cuban people, executed by men supported by the CIA.
When Cuba in 1961 declared illiteracy-free territory, the legacy of the master murdered on 5 January of that year he became rallying cry for all time.
Translated by: Daysi Olano Fernandez
