Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, Third Edition

Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, Third Edition Louis A. Pérez, Jr. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS CUBA LATIN AMERICAN HISTORIES Thomas E. Skidmore, Series Editor James R. Scobie Argentina: A City and a Nation second edition Franklin W. Knight The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism second edition Herbert S. Klein Bolivia: The Evolution of a Multi-Ethnic Society second edition Louis A. Pérez, Jr. Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution third edition Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. Central America: A Nation Divided third edition Thomas E. Skidmore Brazil: Five Centuries of Change Peter Flindell Klarén Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes Brian Loveman Chile: The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism third edition Frank Safford and Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society Marco Palacios CUBA BETWEEN REFORM AND REVOLUTION THIRD EDITION Louis A. Pérez, Jr. New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2006 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 1988, 1995, 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 http://www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pérez, Louis A., 1943– Cuba : between reform and revolution / by Louis A. Pérez, Jr. — 3rd ed. p. cm. — (Latin American histories) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517911-8 — ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517912-5 (pbk.) ISBN 0-19-517911-0 — ISBN 0-19-517912-9 (pbk.) 1. Cuba—History. 2. Nationalism—Cuba—History. I. Title. II. Series. F1776.P46 2005 972.91—dc22 2004065477 Printing number: 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To the friends who gather at Café Don José: For all the years of Friday afternoons This page intentionally left blank Contents preface to the third edition ix preface to the second edition xi preface to the first edition xii 1 Geography and Pre-Columbian Peoples 1 2 Colony and Society 15 3 Out from the Shadows 38 4 Transformation and Transition 54 5 Reform and Revolution in the Colony 77 6 Between Wars 97 7 Revolution and Intervention 118 8 The Structure of the Republic 145 9 Reform and Revolution in the Republic 173 10 The Eclipse of Old Cuba 210 11 Between the Old and the New 237 12 Socialist Cuba 257 13 Cuba in the Post–Cold War World 291 political chronology 331 selective guide to the literature 347 index 427 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface to the Third Edition Post–Cold War adaptations continue to have far-reaching repercussions in Cuba. The world in which the Cuban revolution was formed suddenly disappeared, replaced by a new world order in which the ideological configurations that had previously defined the international system were replaced by the centrifugal forces of ethnic and religious conflict and the centripetal momentum of global- ization. Socialism has survived in Cuba, more or less, but at costs that remain yet to be counted. Changes introduced in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, mostly in the form of improvised and pragmatic responses to the immediacy of the crisis, have cast a long shadow and have pro- duced, in turn, outcomes that are themselves portents of problems to come. These were the years of the “special period” (período especial), and will no doubt be remembered as one of those temporal divides by which people experience the momentous transitions of a historical epoch. The período especial has served to demarcate the life of a generation, to persist hereafter as the reference point by which people often make those profoundly personal distinctions about their lives as “before” and “after.” The most substantive changes in the third edition of Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution are thus to be found in the last chapter, that is, the material deal- ing with facets of the most recent Cuban past. But prudence also requires aware- ness that excursions into the realms of recent history are not without hazards. The changes that have overtaken Cuba in the last ten years have originated from many sources and assumed many forms. Change often arrived in ways that were unexpected, sometimes with effects that were dramatic and apparent immedi- ately. On other occasions change was wrought gradually, almost imperceptibly, from sources that were unseen and with consequences that will not reveal themselves until many years from now. It is often difficult to employ useful analyti- cal frameworks for events whose consequences are far from apparent. Nor is it any less difficult to take measure of the long-term impact of an event or set of events—and especially those sensational events—that often consume public attention in a manner that may later prove to be well out of proportion to its importance. How then to assess the saga of Elián González, for example, that for the better part of six months during late 1998 and early 1999 aroused pow- erful passions, deepened hostility between Cuba and the United States, and pro- duced mass mobilizations in Havana and street riots in Miami? Do these events warrant the status of a watershed moment, or are they to be relegated to the obscurity of a passing footnote? ix x / CUBA The third edition is designed to integrate the developments of the last decade into the larger narrative flow of Cuban history. It aspires to draw the attention of the reader to the proposition of historical context as a central cir- cumstance of the Cuban experience, as a means to understanding the ways in which Cubans have confronted the weighty issues of their times, past and present. The goal is to make recent developments comprehensible within the larger setting of the Cuban historical experience, a way to take measure of recent events as a function of a process possessed of a discernible logic. That outcomes are not readily foreseeable should not minimize the importance of understanding antecedents, for it is within the context of the past that knowledge of the present is necessarily derived. I appreciate the many helpful suggestions made by friends and colleagues in the preparation of the third edition. The comments and counsel offered by Ale- jandro de la Fuente, Ada Ferrer, Sherry Johnson, Luis Martínez-Fernández, K. Lynn Stoner, and James Woodard were especially useful in the final prepara- tions of this edition. I am also indebted to Peter C. Coveney at Oxford Uni- versity Press. His assistance and support in the preparation of this edition has been vital to its completion. L.A.P. Chapel Hill, North Carolina January 2005 Preface to the Second Edition The years since this book was first published have been a time of momentous change in Cuba, with far-reaching consequences, the effects of which will continue to reverberate through the 1990s and well beyond. The changes of the 1990s were no less dramatic than developments of the 1960s, and no less unpre- dictable. The world became a very different place during these years, and the effects of these changes inside Cuba called into question almost every assump- tion upon which socialism had evolved. Cuba had to adapt, often grudgingly, to new global realities, largely because it had few alternatives. The crisis of the early 1990s forced the government of Fidel Castro into the world market, and once there Cubans were obliged to modify internal economic organizations to international capitalist structures, changes that were themselves only the prelude to more change. While international circumstances changed dramatically, regional condi- tions changed hardly at all. Cuba and the United States remained estranged. Indeed, the divide deepened. North American policy hardened against Cuba even as hardship in Cuba increased. These were complex issues, and not always rational ones. Clearly the improvement of the Cuban condition was directly related to improved relations with the United States, but it was not at all clear how or when or if relations would improve. The completion of the second edition was aided by many of the same per- sons who gave unstintingly of their time and wisdom for the original edition. They know who they are, and they know too of my gratitude. Carole L. Ren- nick at the University of South Florida was enormously helpful in the preparation of the additional bibliographical material. I am also grateful to Rosalie Radcliffe in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her preparation of successive drafts of added text. L.A.P. Chapel Hill, North Carolina March 1995 xi Preface to the First Edition I It happened quite suddenly, and so quickly, all quite improbably: a revolution overthrew a repressive regime, to the general approval and acclaim of all. Within the space of twenty-four months, Cuba had been transformed into the first Marxist-Leninist state in the Western Hemisphere and the first New World nation to align itself totally and unabashedly with the Soviet Union—all this occurring ninety miles from the United States, in a region traditionally secure as a North American sphere of influence, in a country historically secure as a North American client state.

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