La Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas

Ernesto Che Guevara, a key figure in the Cuban Revolution, gave a speech entitled Qué debe ser un joven comunista ("What should a young communist be?") on October 20th, 1962, the two-year anniversary of the integration of Latin American Young Communist groups. 

In it, he explains the history of Cuba's own Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, praising their essential role in the revolution. The group's name, for Guevara, is future-oriented, emphasizing the children and young adults who will help "arrive finally at a society without class." Representing fundamental revolutionary values, like "education, work, and the rifle," the group is the revolution's "vanguard," organizing Cuban youth around the visions of a socialist revolution. 

In 1985, a key part of this mission became the education of children. The group published a collection of comic strips collected from 1955-1985 by the artist Virgilio Martínez Gainza entitled "De Pucho a Cucho," which was meant to reflect the attitudes of young Cuban activists. In the same year, they also published a children's magazine entitled "Bijirita." By offering a deeper look into both of these publications on the following pages, one could begin to outline the revolutionary values the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas hoped to promote in young people.