José Ramón Plasencia Cruz refuses to stop teaching

With over five decades spent at the blackboard, generation after generation of students in Sancti Spíritus has drawn from his vast wisdom. His masterclasses captivate you with the sheer power of his communication. The teacher and creator I speak of is José Ramón Plasencia Cruz; for the 2026–2027 school year, he returns to primary education—a field he never truly left, as he believes it is there that the first seed of knowledge is sown.

In 1974, after completing a rehabilitation course, he began working at the small Punta de Diamante primary school in Cabaiguán. He later moved to the Julio Antonio Mella school in the city of Sancti Spíritus, where he spent some 40 years, and has now revived his teaching days at the Héroes del Moncada Primary School—accompanied, as he puts it, by children, the world’s greatest treasure.

Parents and relatives of his former students know this well. For more than fifty years, he has dedicated himself to each of his students with admirable passion. When they have fallen ill and were admitted to the José Martí Pediatric Hospital, he even made vows to the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre for their recovery—and kept them—teaching by example the importance of honoring one’s word.