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CUBA DURING the SPECIAL PERIOD by Suzanne Leigh Wilson

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CUBA DURING the SPECIAL PERIOD by Suzanne Leigh Wilson WHEN DISORDER IS THE ORDER: CUBA DURING THE SPECIAL PERIOD By Suzanne Leigh Wilson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Laura Nader, Chair Professor Laura Enríquez Professor Stanley Brandes Fall 2011 Abstract WHEN DISORDER IS THE ORDER: CUBA DURING THE SPECIAL PERIOD By Suzanne Leigh Wilson Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Laura Nader, Chair The fact that as of 2008 Castro had already succeeded in installing his brother as President and Prime Minister of Cuba -- and that in late 2010 he seemed poised to also hand over the final title of Head of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul (Franks 2010) -- impresses the Revolution’s supporters and appalls its opponents. How is it that socialist Cuba has endured beyond the existence of the Soviet system that shaped it? In this dissertation, I “bring people back in” (Eckstein 2004, 212) to answer this question. I focus on three specific parts of Cuban daily life—productive activity, consumption practices, and humor. Taken together, these areas of human activity provide a window into Cuban daily life and the complex relationship between citizens and the state that offer a more accurate portrayal of the relationship between Cubans and the socialist state than is often encountered, especially in popular media. This work demonstrates that many of the practices of ordinary Cubans during the Special Period and later can be seen as responses to new state policies, which were, themselves, responses to the country’s sudden expulsion from Soviet economic support and insertion into the capitalist global economy. Focused mainly on mitigating the economic crisis, Cuban leaders were unable to anticipate or control most of the social transformations that the new laws and policies of the mid- 1990s caused. 1 Acknowlegements This dissertation was made possible by the intellectual input and practical support of a long list of people, many of whom were my professors and colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley. First among them I acknowledge Dr. Laura Nader. Her unwavering belief in the value of this project was my primary motivation in completing it and sharing it with others. Through her writings and teaching, Dr. Nader has granted me an intellectual framework that I proudly carry into all of my endeavors, and I know I have become a better scholar, activist, and citizen because of the time I’ve spent in her care. I also must thank Dr. Laura Enriquez for helping steer this project to completion; her generosity, both intellectual and personal, is deeply appreciated. Dr. Rachael Stryker and Dr. Adrienne Pine each provided valuable input at different stages of the work, and helped motivate me to do more than I thought possible. My husband Dan Lawson and daughter Darla are to be thanked for letting me go do my work and for being such lovely people to come home to at the end. My parents deserve the deepest thanks for always believing in me and supporting my goals, whatever they happen to be. Lastly, though I cannot acknowlege any of my Cuban friends and colleagues by name, this book is for them. The unbelievable patience they showed in teaching me about their world has created a debt that can never be repaid, but I hope this work is a start. 1 CHAPTER 1 WHEN DISORDER IS THE ORDER: CUBA DURING THE SPECIAL PERIOD Introduction When Andres Oppenheimer published his critical expose of life in Cuba in 1993, he chose the title “Castro’s Final Hour.” This captured what many observers at the time believed to be true: given the sudden collapse of the USSR and the dire economic and political circumstances into which Cuba had plunged as a result, the end of both Castro and the Cuban Revolution were imminent (Oppenheimer 1993, Kapcia 2008b, 640). But as hindsight tells us, the “final hour” did not come. Castro did not step aside when the Soviet Union fell. In fact, his leadership remained constant until health problems caused him to begin shifting his power to his brother, Raul Castro in 2006, a few years after the worst of the economic crisis had subsided (Kapcia 2008a, 120). In response to the Cold War, Fidel Castro did not significantly change the socialist government’s structure, or even alter his political rhetoric. And no matter how bad conditions got, the people of Cuba didn’t rebel against the Revolution—during the 1990s and 2000s, there was only one significant incident of civil disorder, in Havana in 1994, which Castro ably diffused by engaging protesters and then loosening emigration restrictions (Eckstein and Barberia 2007, 268). To this day no reform movement has managed to take lasting hold of a significant portion of the island’s population. The fact that as of 2008 Castro had already succeeded in installing his brother as President and Prime Minister of Cuba -- and that in late 2010 he seemed poised to also hand over the final title of Head of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul (Franks 2010) -- impresses the Revolution’s supporters and appalls its opponents. How is it that socialist Cuba has endured beyond the existence of the Soviet system that shaped it? Isolated in an increasingly hostile hemisphere, how did Fidel Castro maintain his power for so long, and then manage to pass it down along family lines? To answer this, one must look not only at state policy and the international context, but also the role that ordinary Cuban people play in fostering the values and structures of Cuban socialism. Unfortunately, much of the writing on Cuba is highly polemical and provides rather one- dimensional answers to questions like those above. Some accounts portray Cuban people as the satisfied beneficiaries of a perfectly just society. They are naturally willing to defend the socialist system and Castro’s leadership. This “literature of enthusiasm” peaked in the early 1960s and returned again in the 2000s (Kapcia 2008b, 628, 642). Other accounts posit that an oppressive regime holds down Cubans through violence that keeps existing structures in place. The epicenter of such writing is Miami, home to the largest group of Cuban immigrants, some of whom still strongly oppose the system they left behind. Depending on which account is considered, Cuban society is either perfectly egalitarian or rigidly hierarchical, its state economy 1 satisfies the needs of all or creates intense deprivation for many, and its education and medical systems are examples for the world or chimeras for the world media. So great are the contradictions between accounts, in fact, it is hard to believe people are speaking of the same island. Each side has refused to acknowledge the complexity of ordinary life during the Special Period, the name Cubans use for the era that began in September 1990 (García Molina 2005, 29), when the Soviet Union collapsed, and ended in 2004, when the GDP and other economic indicators had returned to pre-1989 levels (Núñez Sarmiento 2010). Instead of offering nuance, nearly everyone presents a highly selective view of Cuban life during this time that best shores up his or her political position. The point of this dissertation, then, is two-fold. The first is to use ethnography to capture some aspects of ordinary life during the middle part of the Special Period (1999-2001). The second is to offer a more accurate portrayal of the relationship between Cubans and the socialist state than is often encountered, especially in popular media. While economic shifts and policy changes of the post-Soviet years have been well documented by Susan Eckstein (1994) and others (Bengelsdorf 1994, Brundenius 2002, Alvarez and Mattar 2004, Kapcia 2008b, García Molina 2005, Mesa-Lago 2003, Mesa-Lago 2007, Pérez-López 2005, Spadoni 2004a, Spadoni 2004b, Torres Vila and Pérez Rojas 1997), fewer have written about the profound changes in daily life that accompanied the economic shifts. This dissertation takes that task seriously, considering a detailed description of life in Cuba during the Special Period a worthwhile project in itself. In addition, only through understanding ordinary lives can one accurately explain the endurance of the Revolutionary government and evaluate its effects. As Eckstein writes, “Only by ‘bringing people back in’ to the analysis of state socialism can developments in Cuba (and, by implication, other states that restrict overt challenges to authority) be adequately understood” (2004, 212). In this dissertation, I “bring people back in” with a focus on three specific parts of Cuban daily life—productive activity, consumption practices, and humor. Taken together, these areas of human activity provide a window into Cuban daily life and the complex relationship between citizens and the state. But it is important to note that the dissertation moves beyond description to analyze the relationship between ordinary people and the state. One thing is clear—the Cuban state endures not only because citizens obey its laws, internalize its norms, believe its leaders’ proclamations, and follow the life course laid out by its institutions in a consistent and reliable manner. Most Cubans violate socialist laws and values as often as they uphold them. The same Cuban citizen who steals from his workplace, sleeps through his shift, plans to emigrate or escape from the country, buys everything on the black market, tells Castro jokes, or trades sex for hard currency, will also march behind Castro at a government rally, attend the neighborhood committee meetings, and passionately defend aspects of the revolution to outsiders. This said, I argue that Cubans are not “faking it” when they operate within the norms and forms of the socialist state, nor are they exposing their “true selves” when they work against them, despite what some critics claim.
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