From 1899 to 1958 the illiteracy rate dropped from 59.5% (Census of 1899) to 18% (Cuba's Ministry of Education archives) for persons older than 10 years of age, a remarkable achievement. Cubans were not just literate but also educated.
There is a pattern from the regime to inflate the percentage of illiterates prior to 1959, by using the illiteracy rate of the 1953 census of 23.8%. Fidel Castro on December 17, 1960, in the CMQ-TV program "Meet the Press" affirmed that
“The illiteracy rate in our country is 37.5%.” In the Central Report to the First Congress of the Party in 1975, Fidel said that
“on the date of the Moncada (1953), 23.6% of the population over 10 years was illiterate.” [1]. In spite of what Fidel said, the document "V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1997, referring to the period before 1959 says
“a country with more than 40 per cent of illiterates.” [2]
The regime eventually acknowledge the real number, which indicated that in 1961 from a total of 929,207 identified as illiterates, 707,212 were taught to read and write; 221,995 did not acquire these skills [3].
[1] Fidel Castro Ruz: Informe Central al Primer Congreso del Partido. Editado por el DOR del Comité Central del PCC, Habana, Cuba, 1975, p. 27.
[2] Granma Internacional 1997,
Welcome cartadecuba.org - Justhost.com
[3] Verde Olivo (Havana), August 16, 1968, pp. 40-43 - En ese año se habían localizado 979.207 analfabetos y de ellos se habían alfabetizado 707.212; de la población cubana, entonces estimada en 6.933.253 habitantes. Quedaban sin alfabetizar 271.955 [In that year, 979,207 illiterate people had been located and from them 707,212 had been literate; from the Cuban population, then estimated at 6,933,253 inhabitants, 271,955 were left iliterate]