Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.6.2.0230
• Pages: 230152-231
• Published date: 01 December 2014
• Date: 01 December 2014
• Author: Rosa García-Chediak

230 BOOK REVIEWS

I J  C S 6.2 W 2014

Yoel Cordoví Núñez, Magisterio y nacionalismo en las escuelas públicas de

Cuba (1899-1920) (Havana, Cuba: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2012) 152pp.

ISBN: 9789590614132

Reviewed by Rosa García-Chediak

There seems to be a broad consensus among historians in setting the revival of

Cuban nationalism in the second decade of the twentieth century. From that

starting point, the usual answers given to the question of how the nationalist

movement arose again in the island are focussed in the reaction to North

American inf‌luence over the country, an issue that becomes especially dramatic

after the crisis of the sugar economy of 1920. Even when these arguments

highlight crucial elements of structural and political order, the building of

nationalistic feelings demanded another kind of perspective, and Yoel Cordoví

Núñez’s latest book, points in the right direction.

Based on a thorough research of the f‌irst generations of teachers during the

early days of a new-born republic, the author tries to identify the contributions

of public schools to the building of a common sense that identif‌ied what being

Cuban meant. In this aim, the f‌irst step is to analyse the pedagogic programmes

developed to train the future teachers in their specif‌ic duties. Due to the lack

of government budgetary support for education policy, the book recognises

the very limited training offered to the f‌irst Cuban teachers, which was based

mostly on short courses during the summer and self-study. All this used to end

in an annual evaluation, which enabled the aspirants to work as a certif‌icated

teacher; that is, it allowed them to teach at elementary level. As Cordoví puts it,

even when a group of distinguished professors and intellectuals obtained better

resources, pedagogic preparation remained low until the institutionalisation

of the ‘Escuelas Normales’ in 1919, f‌inally offered an appropriate model for

teacher training. But although it was sparse, of the more interesting f‌indings of

the book are the contents that the Cuban educational authorities selected for the

teachers’ training. The central role of Cuban history in the curriculum challenges

the thesis that has considered it as a pro-North American programme and places

it very far from the experiences of Puerto Ricans teachers at the same time.

Another aspect that makes Cordoví’s research very recommendable reading

is the thoughtful analysis of the different means used by educational authorities

and teachers to create patriotic identif‌ications in their students. The book gives

special relevance to public activities related to historical events in the Cuban

independence process, in which schools and children participated. One of them

– described in great detail – is the promise of loyalty to the Cuban f‌lag that

preceded every academic course. In the event, teachers and functionaries shared

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