Leonela Forever!

Leonela Relys will always be an indispensible reference in the Cuban pedagogy. Beyond her death on Saturday, January 17, 2015 as consequence of a cancer, the teacher that reached millions of people for her method Yes I Can she also had the merit to carry out into practice Fidel Castro’s idea to teach how to read and write to the most needed people worldwide by means of audio visual means.

This way she left her mark in the sister nation Haiti, a land she could never separate from although her experience and wisdom took her to service in other countries like Venezuela, where she was a member of the national coordination, in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Guinea Bissau and South Africa.

She was originally from the Cuban eastern province of Camaguey. She was naturally humble. Since she was an adolescent, she understood that teaching will pay the course of her life. So, almost hidden from her parents, she registered as a member of teachers in the Illiteracy Campaign when she was 14 years old.

The great epic was perhaps the genesis of her great love for a profession that, for sure, brought her more joy than sadness, and that made her deserve in 2014 the honorable title of Worker Heroine of the Cuban Republic.

In this occasion, she was surprised and nervous for the news and few hours before receiving such important recognition she told me and I wrote these words in the newspaper: “To be a heroine I have to do more, but the time, the years will perhaps don’t let me do it.”

“In our country there are many, and I am not lying if I tell you this decoration has gone deep inside on me. It is recognition to the job for an entire life. You work, you know when you are doing something good, and that comforts you, but you never expect something like this.”

Now, when the news has shocked the hearts of thousands of people all over the world, Cubans, mainly the teachers, are crying for an irremediable farewell.

The last good bye was at Colon Cemetery in the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) pantheon there was also Fidel’s wreath of flowers. In the funeral there were Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, secretary general of the CTC, the minister of Education Ena Elsa Velazques and the farewell was addressed by Ismael Druller, secretary general of the Education Union in which Leonela was an honorable member.