64
Negative image of United States
Montaner continues, "When the U.S. is mentioned, it is done only
to talk about its gangsters or its crimes in Vietnam" (1981, p. 130).
In all the speeches and pronouncements by Castro, Guevara, and other
officials this research reviewed, there was a continuous thread of
denunciation of the U.S. in general, and specifically, Yankee im
perialism and the blockade. For example, in a 47-page speech which
Castro made at the Second Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women
(1974), six pages were devoted to the problems caused by the U.S.
blockade.
In reviewing Cuban childrens literature and reading texts available
in the U.S., the constant stream of negativism toward the U.S. is highly
visible. In one book designed for very young children, the U.S. is
represented by an eagle dropping bombs on the heads of the Cuban people.
Another, written for older children, glorifies the "war" of the Playa
Giron (Bay of Pigs) and describes in detail the shooting down of U.S.
planes. Wald and Bacon (1981) find that while politics do not intrude
in the nonpolitical literature books they reviewed, "there is a social
point of view in the very air that writers breathe and they cannot
help transmitting it" (p. 255). They also find that historical books
are definitely political. All books are used to express a spirit of
cooperation and to inform children about many cultures and races.
Wald and Bacon believe that it is regretful that because of the U.S.
blockade, Cuban children are deprived of many good English language
books. The negative effects of the U.S. blockade of Cuba is a con
stantly recurring theme in most publications sympathetic to the
Revolution.