While Fidel Castro and Che Guevara fought in the Sierra Maestra mountains, another man was building the revolutionary network where the risks were just as high, but fame was far more elusive. Armando Hart Dávalos, a Havana lawyer with partly American roots, created the urban underground without which the jungle guerrillas would have been doomed to failure.
The Lawyer Who Chose the Underground
Armando Hart was born on June 13, 1930, into a family with a genealogy unusual for Cuba. His grandfather emigrated to the island from the U.S. state of Georgia as a child. This biographical detail gains irony when we realize that the grandson of a U.S. immigrant would become one of the architects of communist Cuba.
The young Hart studied law at the prestigious University of Havana. It was there, amidst intellectual debates and the growing opposition to Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship, that his path to revolution began. In the 1950s, the university was a hotbed of dissent, and the talented law student quickly found himself at the center of the action.
Instead of a legal career, he chose the life of a conspirator. He joined the movement that would soon change the face of the Caribbean. He even participated in the famous, failed attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953, which, despite military defeat, became the symbolic start of the Cuban revolution.
Architect of the Urban Underground
The history of the Cuban revolution usually focuses on the bearded guerrillas of the Sierra Maestra. However, the struggle in the cities—where Hart played a key role—was equally vital. While Castro and Guevara carried out armed operations in the island’s remote regions, someone had to organize supplies, recruitment, and propaganda in the nation’s major cities.
Hart became one of the main organizers of the urban resistance movement. Activity in the urban underground required different skills than mountain guerrilla warfare. Every day brought the risk of arrest; any acquaintance could be a Batista informant. In such conditions, Hart’s legal education and analytical mind proved invaluable.
His luck, however, did not last forever. Just before the dictatorship fell, Hart was arrested by security forces. In prison, he was tortured in an attempt to break his will and extract information about the underground network. He survived the ordeal, and the fall of Batista in January 1959 brought him both freedom and a new role in Cuban history.
The Minister Who Taught Cuba to Read
The revolution succeeded—but what next? Hart was given one of the new government’s toughest assignments. He became Cuba’s first revolutionary Minister of Education. He faced a gigantic challenge, as a significant portion of the island’s population was illiterate, especially in rural areas and among descendants of slaves.
The literacy campaign led by Hart became one of the early revolution’s most spectacular achievements. Thousands of young volunteers fanned out across the island, reaching even the most remote areas to teach adults basic reading and writing. In just a few years, illiteracy in Cuba was virtually eliminated.
This success cemented Hart’s position in the ruling elite. For decades, he remained one of Fidel Castro’s closest collaborators and a member of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Politburo. In 1976, he assumed the newly established office of Minister of Culture, a post he held for more than two decades until 1997.
An Intellectual in a Revolutionary’s Uniform
Hart never abandoned his intellectual pursuits. He was among Cuba’s leading Marxist thinkers, and his writings were respected across the leftist intelligentsia. Of particular note is his book Aldabonazo, in which he presented his own vision of the events leading to the 1959 revolution.
His relationship with the legacy of communism is intriguing. In an article published in January 2005, Hart severely criticized Stalinism and its practices, while continuing to defend the ideas of Marx and Lenin—and, notably, Leon Trotsky. Combining support for Castro with rehabilitating Trotsky was a bold gesture in Cuba, demonstrating Hart’s independence of thought.
In his final years, he dedicated himself to preserving the memory of José Martí, the 19th-century hero of Cuban independence. He served as director of the José Martí Program Office and president of the Cultural Society that bore Martí’s name. He died on November 26, 2017, at the age of 87, due to respiratory failure, as one of the last living architects of the Cuban revolution.
Autor
Marcus Renfell
Marcus Renfell is a historian driven by curiosity and passion. He refuses to accept the “safe,” polished versions of the past. Instead, he brings forgotten, overlooked, and distorted stories back to life. His work blends scholarly precision with the art of storytelling, turning historical narratives into vivid, page-turning experiences.
His mission is simple: to prove that history can be gripping, alive, and deeply personal.
His debut book: Women of Science. Stories You Were Never Told
In his first publication, Marcus Renfell shines a light on the remarkable women who shaped the world of science — both the pioneers whose names we know and the brilliant minds history forgot. It’s an inspiring journey through untold stories, groundbreaking achievements, and the resilience of women who changed our understanding of the world.
? Discover Women of Science. Stories You Were Never Toldon Amazon.com.