Science, an essential part of the cultural sovereignty of the Cuban people.

One year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in the largest Caribbean Island there were thousands of illiterates, a good part of the classrooms without teachers and in rural areas, the most critical situation, most of the peasant children did not finish primary education.

A year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in the largest island of the Caribbean there were thousands of illiterates, a good part of the classrooms without teachers and in rural areas, the most critical situation, most of the peasant children did not finish primary education.

In spite of this difficult cultural panorama, Fidel said on January 15th, 1960, during an event held by the Speleological Society of Cuba at the Academy of Sciences, «The future of our Homeland must necessarily be a future of men of science, it must be a future of men of thought».

What these days may seem a reiteration, was nothing more than the will and vision of the future of a man who saw in the development of scientific capital the path to progress of a nation that does not have abundant natural resources.

With that determination, the Literacy Campaign was carried out, a transcendental feat that was followed by other programs and projects to give knowledge a high value in all social sectors.

For this reason, Cuban science ceased to be elitist and became a phenomenon of a cultured and ingenious people.

Thus, in the first four years of the 21st century, Cuba has more than 91,000 science workers, an estimable human resource that is joined by those who do science in universities, high-tech companies and scientific institutions in the country. All of them, in addition to their contribution in the various branches of knowledge, follow Fidel’s legacy of educating and instructing the people.

And although not just anyone can be a scientist, today the terms and knowledge in this field are part of the vocabulary and integral culture of any Cuban. Hence the possibilities of interpreting their reality, debating on a particular topic and applying the notions of science and technology with naturalness.

It is no coincidence the popular phrase that «…in medicine and meteorology, Cubans know it all». Any son or daughter of this Antillean island knows as much about medicines as about analysis and medical equipment. Likewise, when a tropical cyclone is approaching and passing through the national territory, many people describe its possible trajectory and talk about its speed and the strength of its winds as if they were experts in meteorology.

In the area of physical sciences and electrical engineering, it is common to master and use terms such as distributed generation, electrical peak, high voltage, renewable energy sources and units of measurement such as kilowatts.

In the same way, we are advancing with firm steps of the «click», Internet navigation, digital design and management, social networks, and artificial intelligence.

Agriculture and the environment are other sectors that are impossible to distance from the sciences and their popular acceptance. So much so that if in 1959 most of the children of peasants did not reach the fifth grade, today the Cuban peasantry speaks, and properly, of sustainable land management, organic fertilizers, adaptation and mitigation of climate change in agricultural ecosystems and agroecology, among other elements.

Examples such as these demonstrate that the celebration of Cuban Science Day is an ideal occasion to also recognize the formative role of scientists and the explicit intention to generalize knowledge as an essential part of the cultural sovereignty of the people.

Written by Ana González.