Rafael Simón Morales González

Cuban master creator of the literacy primer during the War of 1868 and author of the Public Instruction Law of the Republic in Arms.

He was born in San Juan y Martínez, in the western region of the Island of Cuba. His parents, Rafael Morales y Ponce de León and doña Rafaela González de la Cruz Camero, had three other children. Moralitos became an orphan while still a child. The widow and her helpless children had to move to La Habana, where they had relatives and friends.

In La Habana, Rafael Morales found people who offered him help: he completed his first studies free of charge at the School of José Fors. Because of his intelligence, determination, and excellent progress, his teacher recommended him to Professor Ramón Ituarte, who directed the Colegio Santo Tomás; here he completed his secondary studies.

This latter school served Moralitos as both a study and work center. While still an adolescent, he became a teacher, guide to students aged 7 to 10 at the school. Because of his diligence and responsibility, everyone loved and respected him, even the most experienced teachers; because of his size and build, and because of the effect his words generated, they affectionately called him Moralitos.

This teaching activity helped him develop his stature as an educator. He entered the University of La Habana when he was still under 15 years old, while continuing to teach at the Colegio Santo Tomás. By the 1860s, Moralitos was already recognized as a talented teacher. In public examinations, his students demonstrated mastery of expression and skill in relating concepts, as well as an unusual initiative in answering the examiners' questions. His students' success was so great that he earned congratulations from Ramón Zambrana, vocal member of the Superior Board of Public Instruction, who presided over official examinations. The newspaper El Siglo dedicated two articles to him, noting that he had understood the Pestalozzi method, but clarifying that the way he applied it was Moralitos' own.

The children who studied with him did not memorize definitions, as was customary at the time, but instead explained historical examples in their own words. His teaching method allowed his students to achieve learning that departed from the routine and empiricism typical of that era.

In these years, on the Island of Cuba, this constituted a true revolution in education. Moralitos was the first to experiment in Cuba with the so-called object lessons of C. Mayo, published in 1849, at the Colegio Santo Tomás.

In the Faculties of Philosophy and Law, where Moralitos studied, he obtained high grades and prizes despite his economic difficulties. To support himself and his family, he worked as an agent in the office of a very solvent lawyer and gave private lessons in the homes of well-to-do families. He was a brilliant university student, always standing out for his expressive abilities, his eloquent speech: his classmates called him Golden Tongue.

He was a rebellious student who did not accept dogmatic criteria. On more than one occasion, relying on his position as an excellent student and his brilliant originality, he refuted concepts and principles presented by professors. He made a severe critical analysis of the nomenclature in the Casares text used in Chemistry instruction. In the Political Economy class, he modified the classification of industries presented in the Carballo book. Similarly, he expanded the theory of vision formulated by English physician and physicist Thomas Young (1773-1829), the celebrated discoverer of light interference, with new concepts. Felipe Poey Aloy (1799-1891), the wise Cuban, congratulated him for this contribution and suggested that he send that work to the Institute of France.

As a university student, he enjoyed Philosophy and the sciences; in both disciplines he stood out extraordinarily. Because of his talent, he was able to associate with the best of Creole intellectuality. In the Philosophy classes of Professor José Manuel Mestre Domínguez (1832-1886), on more than one occasion he subjected the propositions of Jaime Balmes (1810-1848), Spanish priest and philosopher, author of the official text Elements of Philosophy, to harsh criticism. That classroom was a hotbed of new ideas of redemption, where young people who would later become illustrious personalities of national life displayed their gifts and intelligence. Among them, Moralitos stood out for his eloquence and profound dialectical nuance, which disarmed his interlocutors.

At the age of 23, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Civil and Canon Law, with outstanding marks from first to last, through rigorous examination in the Great Hall of the University of La Habana, in June 1868.

While in the University the privileged Creole classes could become educated, the Spanish government paid little attention to the level of instruction of the common people. Moralitos became an enthusiastic promoter of instruction among workers. At the Colegio El Progreso in La Habana, he established a free night school with an enrollment of 80 students, to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic to as many artisans and laborers as needed it. This project died in its infancy. Pressure from the peninsular authorities forced the school to close.

Another similar attempt by Moralitos never even got off the ground. To avoid being overruled, he directed his petition to the superior political government, through José Silverio Jorrín, school inspector and vocal member of the Public Instruction Board. Likewise, he was denied the possibility of teaching artisans and laborers. The denial stated that it threatened the peace and welfare of the country. The reactionary press was more precise in its accusations and stated that artisans should know nothing other than what purely concerned their respective trades.

But Moralitos did not abandon his efforts. Taking advantage of his friendship with prominent professionals, he set about accomplishing his purposes in a place far from the official bustle of the capital. In the municipal district of Santiago de las Vegas, more than 120 kilometers south of La Habana, he attempted to transform the Philharmonic Society of that place into a Scientific, Artistic and Recreational Lyceum. His true purpose was to create an institution that would unite Cubans in the struggle for their own culture and allow them to connect with the working classes. He planned to establish a Public Library, offer free classes with materials that would promote the progress of the municipality, and publish a newspaper as a spokesperson for known advances, as well as other initiatives.

At the opening ceremony, Moralitos delivered a speech titled The Powerful Influence that Association Has on the Destiny of Nations and the Progress of Men, in which he mentioned with praise the names of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. At the same event, the poet Luis Victoriano Betancourt dedicated a poem to the youth of Santiago de las Vegas, whose verses said "that if you know how to fight with hope / you will obtain the laurel of victory." The background information about Moralitos and these stirring verses alerted Spanish authorities, who discovered that behind that cultural movement lurked patriotic proselytism. Orders were given to end the celebration and Moralitos' initiative was condemned, so that under no circumstances would he dare set foot in Santiago de las Vegas. His efforts had proven futile.

When, on October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes issued the cry for independence and called Cubans to war for freedom, Rafael Morales was among the first to join the struggle from La Habana. At only 23 years old, he fought in Camagüey and in eastern lands. In the insurrection, he put his intelligence at the service of the Republic in Arms. He was part of the Assembly of Guáimaro, was elected as a representative to the Chamber as deputy for the West; he drafted the Public Instruction Law, which embodied his interest in the instruction of the Cuban people, the supreme aspiration for which he had fought since his adolescence. In the insurgent camp, he founded rear-guard schools, which soldiers and peasants attended to learn to read and write. He himself created a Cuban primer for literacy, by whose method one could learn to read in approximately 2 months.

In his activity as a soldier, he was wounded in combat at Najasa, Camagüey, on November 26, 1871. With his face disfigured, his beard sunken, deprived of teeth and molars, unable to ingest solid foods and emit certain sounds, he suffered in this state for almost a year. Attempts were made to transfer him abroad, but on the night of September 15, 1872, he died in the Sierra Maestra, the eastern extreme of the Island.

Source: En Caribe.org