The Cuban literacy campaign (Spanish: Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba) was an eight-month long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the Cuban Revolution.

The dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by an armed guerrilla movement known as the 26th of July Movement (Movimiento 26 de Julio) on January 1, 1959. The new revolutionary government, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, immediately began a series of social and economic reforms. Among these were agrarian reform, health care reform, and education reform, all of which dramatically improved the quality of life among the lowest sectors of Cuban society.

During the turmoil of the first several years of the revolution, the flight of many skilled workers caused a “brain drain.” This loss of human capital sparked a renovation of the Cuban education system to accommodate the instruction of new workers, who would take the place of those who had emigrated from the country.

In addition to the renewal of Cuba's infrastructure, there were strong ideological reasons for education reform. In pre-Revolutionary Cuba, there was a dichotomy between urban citizens and rural citizens (who were often agricultural workers). The Cuban Revolution was driven by the need for equality, particularly among these classes. Before the campaign, the rate of illiteracy among city dwellers was 11% compared to 41.7% in the countryside.

The Literacy Campaign was designed to force contact between sectors of society that would not usually interact. So much so that the government placed urban teachers in rural environments, where they were pushed to become like the peasants in order to break down social barriers. As Fidel Castro put it in 1961 while addressing literacy teachers, “You will teach, and you will learn.” Volunteers from the city were often ignorant of the poor conditions of rural citizens until their experiences during this campaign. Besides literacy, the campaign aimed to create a collective identity of “unity, [an] attitude of combat, courage, intelligence, and a sense of history.” Politicized educational materials were used to further these ideals. Furthermore, Castro went as far as to state the need for the rural populations to take on the role of teacher, educating the urban populations. The effort was labeled a movement of “the people” and gave citizens a common goal, increasing solidarity.

The first whispers of the Cuban Literacy Campaign came about in the form of a preparatory period that lasted between September and December 1960. The efforts to prepare for the Literacy Campaign were vast and complicated while demanding the inclusion of many departments of government to ensure the success of educating and locating brigadistas, providing oversight to them, and ensuring their successful return home. Additionally, the success of the pedagogical tools and theory can be credited to Dr. Ana Echegoyen de Cañizares, a feminist Afro-Cuban scholar credited for leading the pedagogical efforts of the Campaign in Cuba and in Latin America.

Following this period, the campaign was set to be implemented through a 3-stage program. This occurred in 1961, a time also known as the 'Year of Education'. The first stage consisted of professional educators training the literacy brigade — known as the Alfabetizadores populares — the curriculum and familiarizing them with the text that would be used to teach their students. This book, which had been written specifically for the purposes of the campaign was titled, Alfabeticemos (English: Let's Teach Literacy), brigaders were also exposed to the student primer, which would help them to better educate their students. This primer is better known by its title, Venceremos (English: We Shall Conquer). This training time ran from January until late April in 1961.

Beginning in April, Fidel elected to close schools down early for the summer. He did so in order to allow students to supplement their missed class time by joining the literacy campaign and teach illiterate adults. This plan saw a number of students encouraged to join the campaign, approximately 105,664, and together they formed the Conrado Benitez Brigadistas. These students were put through a week-long intensive training to prepare them for the challenge ahead.