Abstract
The 19th Century pedagogical congresses carried out in Cuba and Central America were led by teachers and officials involved in the educational policy of primary education, and aware of the need to adjust the education’s foundation in order to react to the moment’s reality. This piece analyses the special conditions in Cuba and Central America that cause the reform of the primary education grounds that prevailed in schools during the Colony in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It also describes the protagonists in the educational practice elite that influenced the restruturing of the school system, knowledge and learning techniques, as well as the teachers’ educational or occupational profile. In addition, it outlines the economic circumstances and the political view of the groups of intellectuals trained in a context that inherited the legacy of the colonial conditions of racism and defense of agricultural and industrial work, and defined by abolitionist and pro-independence struggles. The study was conducted from the UNESCO Memory of the First Central Pedagogical Congress and current research that relate to the Cuban Congress 1884, to identify educational activities and careers of influential intellectuals in shaping Cuban and Central American educational systems at sundown nineteenth century.