Holguin Marks Anniversary of the First Agrarian Reform Law
- Written by Nelson Rodríguez Roque
- Published in Holguin
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More than 100 thousand farmers families in Cuba were benefited by the signing, six decades ago, of the First Agrarian Reform Law, promulgated in La Plata (Sierra Maestra) by the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, then prime minister, as one of the fairer measures of the nascent revolutionary process. A great number of men and women from the countryside in the eastern territory became owners of the land, which in the past was in the hands of large landowners and sharecroppers.
The poorest of the Pseudo-Republican stage could own the lands where, for many years, they had to work hard, being paid miserable salaries, at the mercy of evictions and mistreatment, subordinated even to foreign capital, mainly American.
This opened a new period in the history of Cuba because the peasantry, including those living in the mountainous regions, had never had the privilege of owning the land which fruits were collected for the consumption of the entire population.
The Revolutionary Government wanted to "remove from the traditional misery, the immense majority of the rural population." The measure led to the creation of agricultural cooperatives, labor collectives whose value consisted in working together for several purposes, without being overwhelmed by any wealthy person with feudal aspirations, without having famished and sick children, without women forced to go to the cities to prostitute, without danger of being thrown into the road with few possessions.
Later, it was created the Turquino Plan, a development program founded by the Council of State of Cuba on June 2, 1987, with the purpose of achieving a comprehensive development of mountainous areas that are difficult to access. Agriculture, which was previously concentrated in coffee, cocoa and fruits, became diversified.
"The comprehensive development of the mountainous region after the revolutionary triumph of January 1959, has constituted for Cuba a priority reverted in a higher quality of life for the mountaineers and their families", as it was established by the First Agrarian Reform Law, which provided worthy lives to the humble class, which was exploited by the landlords and sharecroppers.
