Evening star., 1960-04-13
REPORT ON CASTRO
Cuban Schools Teach
Children to Hate u. S.
By WILLIAM L. RYAN

BY WILLIAM L.. Ryan
Associated Press Foreign News Analyst
CAMAGUEY. Cuba. - ITO
morrow" says the teacher,
'the class will"
A student interrupts: Gomez
says no school tomorrow"
Gomez has declared a holi-
day" shouts another.
Who is Gomez? (The name
here is fictitious to protect
sources.
ed, Allegedly he is a student,
although he may be years
overage for the school. If his
assignment is the provinces,
likely he has been sent by
Havana. He is the local leader
of the Student Union. and in
effect directs the school. He
can tell teacher or principal
whether there will be classes
on any given day. He can,
when and if he chooses, declare
a holiday.
If students do not like what
the teacher is saying, or do not
agree, they shout her down.
The student leader usually is
in the forefront of this curious
activity in the secondary and
higher schools. Some teachers
have stopped fighting-resign-
ed rather than go on under
such conditions.
Cult Of Fidel
Gomez. or his counterpart
anywhere in Cuba, is the re-
preventative of ambitious, op-
portunistic Roland Cubela. a
brown-haired, good-looking for
mer revolutionary army major
who resigned the promising lob
Of Deputy Interior Minister to
take over the presidency Of the
union of university students.
He is Prime Minister Fidel Cas-
tro's agent in the important
field of direction and propa-
gandizing of students. Many
support him, but a large num-
Der Of students-and teachers
--detest him.
Under Cubela, all levels get
an indoctrination in hate, prin-
cipally for the United States.
1t reaches all the way down to
the ranks of children just learn
ing to read. And there is in
doctrination in cult of Fidel.
Children now singsong these
lines:
Isl las cosas de Fidel son
communists que me pongan en-
la vista, pueS 20 eStoy con el."I
1t means: if the things a STU
dent sees Fidel doing are COM
munist, I am with him.
New textbooks, required for
primary schools, have been pub
liShed. These make an undis-
gulsed attempt to focus young
hatred on the. United States.
History Revised
One such book is Geography
OF Cuba" by Antonio Nunez
Jimeneny, rebel army captain
who now, as executive secretary
heads the extremely powerful
and often oppressive National
Institute of Agarian Reform
On page Is, he writes:
I'm 1898. Cuba was able to
gain her independence in the
struggle which began February
"a, 1895. Then the North Amer
lean soldiers disembarked at
Santiago. de Cuba and the
United States took over the
country, seized the Sovereignty
won in struggle and sacrifice /
and later imposed the PlattI
Amendment on the newborn
OF intervention"
The Platt Amendment was
abolished 25 years ago, but
Nunez says it really was in eff
feet all the time until January
1883. when Cuba for the first
time, won economic and politi-
cal liberty. He suggests, echoing
the current official line, that the
united States itself sank the
pattleship Maine in 1898 to pro-
vide an excuse to declare war
on Spain and seize Cuba
This book tells children the
United States plundered Cuba
Tor a half a century in a man
ner typical of colonialism
throughout the world; if Cuba
is upder-developed now, that
is the United States fault. All
Cuba's troubles are blamed on
washington and Yankee i'm
perialiSm."
One Sided Communists
History is being rewritten in
dustriously. Writers support
their thesis by the texts of Jose
Marti. Cuba's George Washing
ton, quoting his criticisms but
never his appreciations of the
United States.
In Camaguey Province, q
cartoon book is being distr-
+