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The Cuban writer and speaker residing in Argentina, known on social media as Yosvany GC, published a video on Facebook in which he recounts how he grew up under the ideological indoctrination system of the Havana regime, and how it was only after emigrating that he discovered what it means to live in freedom.
In the video, the author describes that since preschool, Cuban children had to recite slogans before each class, even without understanding their meaning.
Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che. "At that moment, I didn't even know who Che was. I was in preschool," he recalls.
Yosvany explains that indoctrination was not limited to the classroom. "When they turned on the television at home, the cartoons talked about Fidel's revolution. The news spoke of Fidel's revolution, the movies were Russian. So there wasn't much room to think otherwise," he states.
Among the slogans that the children repeated daily were phrases such as "Only the glass breaks, men die standing" and "If we must die, we will die like Che," as well as "Homeland or death, we will overcome" and "It’s Fidel or nothing."
The testimony includes a specific episode that illustrates ideological repression from childhood. During a physical education class, a boy named Rubén shouted "Long live Reagan!" in a joking manner, and the teacher, identified as Martín Romero, reacted by getting close to his face, almost touching his nose, admonishing him so intensely that the boy ended up crying and repeatedly asking for forgiveness.
"They instilled in you that what is right is on just one side and that anyone who raises their hand is a traitor, a dissident, and doesn't belong here," concludes Yosvany about the system in which he grew up.
The account adds to those of other Cuban exiles in Argentina who have publicly denounced the same system.
The Cuban writer Roberto Bouly recently starred in a video in which he stated: They indoctrinated us: Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che... "Like Che? If Che was a murderer, he exiled homosexuals, and established concentration camps."
Bouly also challenged those in Argentina who sympathize with communism: "Those guys who are protesting here, or burning American flags... could they protest in Cuba? No, let them do that in Cuba."
The José Martí Pioneer Organization, established for children aged six to 14, uses the motto "Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che" as its official slogan since the revolutionary era and continues to be the primary mechanism for political socialization among children in the regime.
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