Megan Cox Gurdon tells a story of a man in 1865 named Saturnino Martinez who published a newspaper expressly for cigar factory workers; it was an educational and informational paper, but most were illiterate, so Senor Martinez arranged for public readers who would read to them while they worked, and the workers even chipped in to pay him. Eventually the Spanish government outlawed this (Cuba was a colony), afraid of the spread of "dangerous" ideas.
Some years later, Cuban immigrants in Florida in the 1870s, hired somebody to read to them while they rolled the cigars. In the mornings, it was from a newspaper brought by boat from Havana, and from noon till three he read from a novel; The Count of Monte Cristo being a favorite. Their inability to read wasn't going to keep them in ignorance.
Wonderful!
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