Maestra voluntaria

Maestra voluntaria imagines a response to a critical question during the momentous first years of the Cuban Revolution: "If the revolution is socialist, what does that mean for me?" Based on the author’s own diary during the 1961 Literacy Campaign, this novel captures the raw and immediate experience of a country in total transformation.

Awarded the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1962 but never reprinted until now, this edition edited by Barbara Riess provides a vital recovery of a voice that documented the shift from the individual "I" to the collective "We".

For students of Hispanic literature and culture, Maestra voluntaria is an opportunity to immerse themselves in the uncertainty of social change, the physical struggle of life in the Sierra Maestra, and the crystallization of a new national identity through a uniquely female perspective.