The 70th anniversary of Olga's birth is celebrated on February 18: Olga Alonso, arts instructor and true example of persistence and artistic creation. She was born in Havana, in San Miguel del Padrón neighborhood and since the first years of the Revolution she became a member of the Asociación de Jóvenes Rebeldes (Association of Young Rebels) and other emerging mass organizations.
In 1960, after the call by the revolutionary government to the youth to teach arts in farms and cooperatives across the whole country, Olga started to study at the National School of Arts Instructors, where she specialized in Theatre in September of 1963.
Soon after that she started teaching rural workers and their families and was very happy when she was assigned to the Mártires de Fomento farm in Villa Clara. There she created amateur groups of children and young people, discussion groups among peasants, helped with the creation of the Popular Councils for Culture and founded libraries, among other things.
Unfortunately, she died in an accident on March 4 of 1964 when the tractor in which she was travelling overturned. The passion this 19-year-old young woman transmitted while teaching arts to the peasants and the results of her work are her best legacy for the new generations of instructors who have ahead of them the challenge to teach others those artistic and cultural aspirations.
Since 1989, in her honour, the former National Centre of Community Culture (known as the National Council of Houses of Culture today) and the Ministry of Culture, established February 18 as national Arts Instructor Day, to stimulate and to recognize the work of those that with the important mission of teacher participate in the formation of men, helping to develop their artistic abilities towards the best use of their free time.
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