It Happens Only in Cuba
In 1998, ten years after I first arrived in Cuba, I thought it was time for my first book about the island. Cuba’s history has always been shifting but the 1990s were even more notable. There was the fall of the German wall and the subsequent collapse of the entire East Bloc. The consequences for Cuba could not have been more dramatic and led to the so-called ‘periodo especial’ (the special period), often with close to unbearable conditions for the Cuban people. There was much to report about and hence, my writer colleague and friend, Henky Hentschel and I started producing many stories just for this book. One of those stories was about Daritza, a six-year-old girl from a rural province.
Amidst this deep crisis in 1992, Daritza was born to farmer parents living in the mountains of Pinar del Rio in western Cuba. When she was six and it was time for her to start school, her parents faced a problem. The nearest school was 4 km away, too far for her to cover by foot in the mountains and her parents did not feel comfortable with the idea of sending their little girl to a boarding school in the province’s capital. Without giving it much thought, Cuba’s Ministry of Education decided, “If the girl cannot go to school, we have to bring the school to the girl.” As simple as that!
© Sven Creutzmann 1988. Primary school teacher Giraldo and six-year old Daritza walk towards the school.
© Sven Creutzmann 1988. Primary school teacher Giraldo teaching six-year old Daritza in a one-room school built just for her.
© Sven Creutzmann 1988. Daritza all ears as Giraldo teaches his only student in class.
So, a school was built atop a hill just across the hill where Daritza and her family lived. Every morning before sunrise, Giraldo, a primary school teacher, would hitchhike a ride on a heavy-duty truck that took workers to a mine in the nearby mountains. He would get off close to Daritza’s home, have breakfast together with the family, and then walk along with Daritza to the other hill where the little wooden school had been built. And there, Giraldo would teach Daritza — in a school that had only one room, one chair, one table, and one chalkboard. A school built just for one child, for six-year-old Daritza.
It only happens in Cuba!
This photo was first published in the book “Salsa einer Revolution” (Salsa of a Revolution). A copy of the book can be found and ordered here
