Propaganda?

Both De Pucho a Cucho and Bijirita were important publications for La Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas. The former encompassed a significant portion of Cuban revolutionary history, tracing the developent of a comic during and after the revolution, while the latter represents an entirely new endeavor to instill Cuban children with certain revolutionary values. 

Both Pucho and the Bijirita are meant to represent Cuban youth and are therefore rebellious and full of life. In the early days of De Pucho a Cucho, the frustrations of a Cuban community suffering under a dictatorship are represented in Pucho's ferocious anger towards America, imperialism, and tyranny. In Bijirita, the pages are meant to build a foundation for young readers, using simple language to help them learn to read, as well as promoting values of kindness, activeness, hard work, and respect. Even among those values, however, are inserted images of boys with guns, defending their beloved Cuba against its enemies. 

As with any cultural object that is heavily ideological, the question arises whether these items might amount to propaganda, and if they are, whether that propaganda is good. The campaign to wear seatbelts is propaganda, after all. Insofar as these pieces of art are meant to represent certain ideas and values to young, impressionable people, they are definitely propagandistic, but it's up to us to decide its worth.

For modern activists today, these publications could help show the importance of communicating concrete values through popular forms, offering a prescient reminder of when one should represent anger and frustration and when one should emphasize positive values, as both are key components of any social movement.