In these three years, the revolutionary government began to take control

of the economy, to use the resources of the country for the people. It gave land to the peasants; slashed rents and utility prices: regulated foreign-owned industries and when they refused to comply, nationalized them. Cuba refused to accept U. S. dictates about foreign or domestic policy, and began political and economic relations with socialist as well as capitalist countries. With each new revolutionary law, it became clearer that the only road to freedom and economic development was socialism.

The U.S. grasped this lesson as quickly as the Cuban people. The forces of U.S. imperialism which had supported Baustia, which had controlled the Cuban economy for a hundred years, prepared the counter-attack: economic blockade, political pressure, massive propaganda, and finally in the beginning of April 1961. Cuban cities were bombed by U.S. planes supplied to the counter revolutionaries by the C. I. A.

Juan was in the process of joining the militia. "We knew the U.S. was planning something, and by then I had gained enough consciousness to get an idea of what was going on." Pedro was too young to join the regular forces; once again he was entrusted with carrying messages. Alberto was already in a militia unit, which was later called to active duty.

The Bay of Pigs invasion came on the morning of April 17. Alberto's unit like much of the national militia, got to the battle zone on the night of the 17th. By the 19th, the invasion had been smashed. Alberto's unit stayed another month for cleaning up operations in the nearby swamps and to await another attack. The Revolution had demonstrated its determination and ability to survive.

At the same time, the Revolution defined its political direction. On April 15, two days before the invasion, Fidel spoke at the funeral for the victims of the CIA bombings. He declared for the first time that Cuba was a socialist country. Alberto was part of Fidel's guard at the speech. "We stood below the podium where he was speaking. What he said was not a surprise. We already considered, ourselves socialist. For most of the Cubans it wasn't a surprise."

In the U.S. this speech was reported as one more step in Fidel's process of selling out the Revolution to Russia and communism, one step away from the people who had supported him.

Lazara says, "That is a lie. At the beginning, our people, like all the people of Latin America, didn't know what communism was. In the first year of the Revolution... nobody would have said it was communism, but the people felt that something different was happening. We didn't know what name to give to that thing, but we felt it was good. Later, when Fidel said, 'Okay, we are communist,' we said, 'Okay, that's good!' The people understood. First we have the communist activities, then we say 'That's communism.'

Work, Study, Defense

During the period of the invasion and Fidel's speech, Lazara, Juanito, and Raul were still in the countryside working on the literacy campaign. The end of the campaign, like the other big events of 1961, marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the Revolution. Raul describes the end of the campaign:

"After the campaign we had a big rally where Fidel spoke to everyone who had participated. Fidel told us we should keep on studying, and proposed to us a scholarship plan. This became the general study and scholarship plan for everyone, but we were the first to implement it."

The new stage was the one of actually building socialism, of developing the technology, the economic base, and the organization of work necessary for Cuba to fight its way out of underdevelopment. That fight is still going on. Batista had been defeated. Now, as Fidel said, "Our enemy is underdevelopment."

For a whole generation that fight has meant three main activities. One of the first things Juanito told me in the camp was the slogan of the Young Communists: "Work, study, and defense." Everyone works, in regular jobs and in voluntary labor. Everyone studies, to acquire more advanced skills and to raise their cultural and political level. Everyone defends the Revolution, in the army, the militia, and the neighborhood committees, and everyone is ready to defend the people of other countries against imperialism as well.

What has this meant for the members of this generation? The Cubans in our brigade are sons and daughters of barbers, truck-drivers, mechanics, farm workers, and factory workers. Through study, they have all become technicians and teachers. Raul became a radio technician, Carlos an administrator, Lazara a Russian teacher, Alberto and Juanito history teachers, Hugo was sent to Russia to study economics.

Moreover, the process of study and gaining new skills never ends in Cuba. Lazara has gone back to school to become a journalist, Alberto to study literature and art. They will help to create the new communist culture, what Che has called "the culture of the twenty-first-century man." Juan will begin studying political science after the harvest.

These are not exceptional cases, individuals rising "above" their class as they would be in the U. S. Literally everyone in Cuba studies. At the in adjuration of a new own in the countryside we met a peasant woman and her daughter, a sixteen-year-old chemistry teacher. The older people study too-workers who were illiterate before the Revolution reach sixth grade or even secondary school graduate level through adult education.