Consuelo Toledano Salazar

* 1942

  • “‘How and when did I join?’ Immediately. I was in my second year of high school. When they called for classrooms in the mountains, I joined, raised my hand, and immediately they called me and the campaign started. I was in my second year of high school. In January of 1961, I went and stayed until July – six months. // I was in the Roble camp. There were five camps… Roble, Mandalina, and the Central Camp… where things were acquired and everyone went from their camp and looked for supplies. We struggled because they were no classrooms… it was a camp with nothing else, some barracks, a small bathroom up there, and bathing in the river… Each camp more or less had the conditions to carry out these activities… [And with torches, with candles.] Of course, there was no electricity. It was a drastic change from the city… Because you had to adapt. We were going to be teachers in the mountains, teachers of the countryside, opening classrooms in the mountains."

  • “(The most difficult stage since the revolution) is this one. It’s the one we’re living in because not even during the times of the Special Period, when the Soviet Union collapsed… we had Fidel, and people followed him. They followed him for everything… Fidel’s ideas. He stood up, he spoke to the people, and he brought everyone together. ‘We are going to overcome this, we are going to achieve this…’ But he had a vision, an intelligence”

  • “All this generation that is coming of age now knew of the revolution was the benefits of it. They are people who knew the benefits. They went to school, never lacked a pair of shoes, had food, had an education. They had education… I see people who graduated from schools have left and are leaving.”

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    Cuba, 01.01.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:28:20
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memoria de la Nación Cubana / Memory of the Cuban Nation
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They never lacked shoes or food, and they are leaving

Consuelo Toledano Salazar, 2023
Consuelo Toledano Salazar, 2023
zdroj: Post Bellum

Consuelo Toledano Salazar was born on September 3rd, 1942 in the province of Guantánamo. Her father was a tobacco worker, and most of her free time was dedicated to the production of homemade cigars that Consuelo’s siblings sold on the streets. This helped sustain the household, which, besides Consuelo, included ten other siblings. Despite the large size of her family, there was never a shortage of food at home. However, it was a rather humble feeding. More elaborate meals were only prepared on holidays. Consuelo’s father was a member of the People’s Socialist Party, which meant that they faced the constant risk of repression by General Fulgencio Batista’s regime. This affected the atmosphere at home. Meanwhile, her mother was especially worried about the boys spending a lot of time on the streets, while the girls did not stay home. Consuelo studied to become a teacher, which eventually led to her participation in the literacy campaign that began after the triumph of the Cuban revolution. In the early 60s, she taught peasants in, among other places, the Sierra del Escambray, where she directly witnessed the soldiers’ clashes with rebels against Fidel Castro’s newly established regime. After teaching in various places throughout Cuban territory, she moved to the capital with her husband. There, she continued working as a teacher in schools until 1992, when she retired due to health problems. She has two children and four grandchildren. Throughout her career, she had the opportunity to observe the change in the mentality of young people, and she is concerned that despite experiencing all the benefits of the revolution, today’s youth do not want to continue living in the country and prefer to go into exile. To this day, she lives in the former vacation of President Carlos Prío Socarrás and considers herself a staunch supporter of the revolutionary process in Cuba.