Following in Fidel's footsteps
Cuba's children are
immersed in politics at a young age
By Tracey Eaton / The
Dallas Morning News. Saturday, October
23, 2004.
HAVANA - At the tender age of 8, Lázaro
Castro gave a fiery political speech to
hundreds of thousands of people, then unexpectedly
leapt off the stage and kissed Fidel Castro
on the cheek. More than four years and dozens
of speeches later, the precocious youngster
is a celebrity of sorts, a poster child
for the Cuban revolution. He's one of the
most famous of Cuba's pioneros, or pioneers,
young Cubans who get their political and
patriotic baptism each Oct. 9, the anniversary
of the death of guerrilla Ernesto "Che"
Guevara.
On that special day this year, 148,199
Cuban children ages 5 and 6 became pioneers
and were given their first blue neck scarf,
a piece of cloth that's sacred in this land.
They'll wear it to school every day this
fall, and on Fridays they'll stand and call
out in unison, "We will be like Che!"
Pioneers are taught to worship Mr. Guevara,
killed in 1967 by Bolivian soldiers trained
by Green Beret and CIA operatives.
The late Argentine rebel is an icon in
the Third World and the subject of The Motorcycle
Diaries, a movie released in September about
his 1950s adventures in South America.
Lázaro Castro, now 13, adores Che
- and Fidel Castro. As a preschooler, he
started learning about their revolutionary
exploits. He took their messages to heart,
memorizing their speeches. And today he
regularly travels around the country and
abroad spreading the word to millions of
people and issuing stinging criticisms of
President Bush and the U.S. sanctions against
Cuba.
But not all people are comfortable seeing
Cuban pioneers so immersed in politics.
"Getting children involved in political
problems that only adults can understand
violates what makes childhood unique,"
said Alina Sánchez, 26, a veterinarian.
"Childhood is sacred. It's a time of
innocence."
Castro loyalists counter that the pioneers'
political work underscores just how much
the government cares about children.
The debate over Cuban children and politics
erupted during the custody battle over Elián
González, a grade-schooler found
clinging to a raft off Florida's coast on
Thanksgiving Day in 1999.
His mother and 11 others hoping to reach
the United States died in the voyage. In
June 2000, a U.S. judge ordered that Elián
be returned to his father in Cuba. The pioneer's
Miami relatives had fought against that,
saying they feared Elián would be
brainwashed in Cuba.
"State control of the Cuban child
begins shortly after birth," conservative
writer William Norman Grigg wrote during
the Elián affair. "Cuban schoolchildren
are marinated in hatred for enemies of the
revolution ... and relentlessly programmed
to love Fidel."
'Communist personality'
Under Cuban law, "the family, teachers,
political organizations and mass organizations"
have a duty to help children develop a "communist
personality." And they must protect
young people from "any influence contrary
to their communist formation."
Claudia Márquez, an independent
Cuban journalist, said she once went to
her 5-year-old's class and saw his teacher
passing out plastic guns and shouting: "Go!
Shoot! Boom! Boom! We are killing imperialism!"
"Education in Cuba is free and obligatory
until age 16, but it is infused with the
ideology that rules our island," she
wrote in a December 2003 newspaper column.
"What use is education when it turns
into a weapon of mass indoctrination?"
In July, President Bush put his own spin
on the treatment of children in Cuba when
he accused the socialist government of promoting
child prostitution.
Mr. Castro and his supporters reacted sharply,
saying they were deeply offended.
It's a "vile accusation ... dreadful
and repugnant," Mr. Castro said. "No
country in the world has given children
as much physical and moral protection, as
much health and education, as Cuba."
Similar views abound in Guanabacoa, the
small town where Lázaro grew up.
The walls of his home and the fence that
surround it are covered with words and numbers.
It's a giant chalkboard where Lázaro
learned to read and write.
The letters are large because Lazarito,
as his parents call him, was born with vision
problems.
"When he was a baby, he would crawl
around and bump into furniture. We thought
he was blind," said his mother, Marta
Delgado, 42.
An operation at age 5 improved his vision
dramatically.
The boy skipped kindergarten and excelled
in grade school. Teachers noticed he had
a knack for public speaking, and he quickly
became pioneer leader.
On June 2, 2000, Lazarito appeared before
a huge crowd in Havana, demanded the return
of Elián and read a poem to Mr. Castro.
"Thank you for your faithful rifle,
"Thank you for your pen and your paper,
"Thank you for your heart,"
he said.
Something about the boy caught Mr. Castro's
attention. And after the event, his aides
whisked the pioneer and his parents off
to a five-hour private meeting with the
president.
Lazarito's parents say they were so stunned
to be sitting alongside Mr. Castro that
they could hardly speak. But their son was
completely at ease and spoke to the Cuban
leader about issues as diverse as the Big
Bang theory, the ozone layer and global
warming.
At one point, Mr. Castro put his hand on
the child's head.
"Lázaro wouldn't wash his hair
for a week after that," his mother
said. "And he wrapped up the school
uniform he was wearing, and now he won't
let people touch it. He says it has Fidel
Castro's fingerprints on it and he wants
to keep it forever."
The same goes for a book that Mr. Castro
signed. It's encased in plastic, and Lazarito
won't let anyone open it.
"He's obsessed with Fidel Castro,"
his mother said.
Whether all this is good for Lazarito is
a question she doesn't even consider. She
and her husband, Lázaro, 41, a taxi
driver, say the revolution has made Cuba
a place of justice and social equality,
free schooling and health care. They are
grateful for that. And like their son, they
worship their commander in chief.
"A lot of Cubans who can't afford
toilet paper use the newspaper instead.
We do that, too," the boy's father
said. "But if we see a photo of Fidel
Castro, we cut it out and save it. We love
Fidel with our life. And we pray for his
health every night."
Taking on Bush
In recent months, Mr. Castro and his pint-sized
mentors have been lashing out at the Bush
administration's tightening of economic
sanctions against Cuba.
"How do they dare tell us they'll
make us a free people when we've enjoyed
the fairest, most humanitarian revolution
ever known?" Lazarito told a crowd
on June 21. "Enough of these ridiculous
measures against our people and these cheap
lessons in democracy."
His speeches are so well written that some
Cubans are convinced that Communist Party
officials help him.
"A child doesn't have the ability
to analyze a topic so profoundly and so
convincingly," said Caridad Rodríguez,
48, an accountant. "These kids don't
know anything about international politics."
Lazarito knows plenty, said his mother.
He's a voracious reader, and he writes his
speeches and poems without help, she said.
"I can't keep up with him. He has
an answer for everything."
To be sure, the pioneer has captured Mr.
Castro's attention. The two have appeared
on state-run television many times, chatting,
sitting together, even playing chess.
That has helped turn Lazarito into a household
name. But the teenager remains humble and
easy-going, his mother said.
"He's a normal child. He hasn't stopped
being a child," she said. "He
likes to run around and play just like all
the other kids in the neighborhood."
E-mail traceyeaton2004@yahoo.com
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