A Contemporary Cuba Reader

07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page iii A Contemporary Cuba Reader Reinventing the Revolution Edited by Phillip Brenner, John M. Kirk, William M. LeoGrande, and Marguerite Rose Jiménez ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page iv ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2008 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 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 the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A contemporary Cuba reader : reinventing the Revolution / edited by Phillip Brenner ... [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5506-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5506-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5507-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5507-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Cuba—History—1990– I. Brenner, Philip. F1788.C67 2008 972.9106'4—dc22 2007017602 Printed in the United States of America. ϱ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page v Contents Preface xi PART I. HISTORY AS PROLOGUE: CUBA BEFORE THE SPECIAL PERIOD 1 1 The Revolutionary and Political Content of Fidel Castro’s Charismatic Authority 25 Nelson P. Valdés 2 July 26. History Absolved Him. Now What? 39 Saul Landau PART II. CUBAN POLITICS 43 3 “The Cuban Nation’s Single Party”: The Communist Party of Cuba Faces the Future 48 William M. LeoGrande 4 Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces: Last Bulwark of the State! Last Bulwark of the Revolution? 61 Hal Klepak 5 On Cuban Democracy: Cuba and the Democratic Culture 72 Rafael Hernández 6 Successes and Failures of a Decentralizing Experience: Cuba’s Local Governments 77 Haroldo Dilla Alfonso and Gerardo González Núñez v 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/16/07 11:58 AM Page vi vi CONTENTS 7 Society, Civil Society, and the State: An Uneasy Three-Way Affair 90 Damián J. Fernández 8 Cuba Poll: The Findings 99 Mimi Whitefield and Mary Beth Sheridan 9 Cuba’s Catholic Dissident: The Saga of Oswaldo Payá 104 Tim Padgett PART III. CUBAN ECONOMY 109 10 Development as an Unfinished Affair: Cuba after the “Great Adjustment” of the 1990s 115 Pedro Monreal 11 The Cuban Economy: Amid Economic Stagnation and Reversal of Reforms 126 Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo 12 Cutting Losses: Cuba Downsizes its Sugar Industry 134 Philip Peters 13 The Political Economy of Leisure 144 Marguerite Rose Jiménez 14 Going against the Grain: Agricultural Crisis and Transformation 154 Minor Sinclair and Martha Thompson 15 Vale Todo: In Cuba’s Paladares, Everything is Prohibited but Anything Goes 166 Ted Henken 16 Dollarization and its Discontents in the Post-Soviet Era 177 Susan Eckstein PART IV. CUBAN FOREIGN POLICY 191 17 Neoliberalism, Global Inequality, and Irreparable Destruction of Our Natural Habitat: Message to the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 197 Fidel Castro Ruz 18 Cuba and the Pax Americana 201 Jorge I. Domínguez 19 Cuba’s Counter-Hegemonic Strategy 210 H. Michael Erisman 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page vii CONTENTS vii 20 Like Sisyphus’ Stone: U.S.-Cuban Relations in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001 215 Soraya M. Castro Mariño 21 Advancing the Day When Cuba Will Be Free 227 Daniel W. Fisk 22 Fidel’s Final Victory 233 Julia E. Sweig 23 Wanted: A Logical Cuba Policy 242 Wayne S. Smith 24 The Cuban Five and the U.S. War against Terror 247 Leonard Weinglass 25 The European Union’s Perception of Cuba: From Frustration to Irritation 252 Joaquín Roy 26 Sleeping with an Elephant 260 Peter McKenna and John M. Kirk 27 Cuban Americans and Their Transnational Ties 265 Susan Eckstein and Lorena Barberia PART V. SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 273 28 In the Shadow of Plenty, Cuba Copes with a Crippled Health Care System 279 Robin C. Williams 29 Social Impact of the Economic Measures 283 Mirén Uriarte 30 Cuban Youth: Aspirations, Social Perceptions, and Identity 290 María Isabel Domínguez 31 The Cuban Education System: Lessons and Dilemmas 297 Lavinia Gasperini 32 Early Childhood Education in Revolutionary Cuba during the Special Period 300 Margo Kirk 33 Heroines of the Special Period 307 María López Vigil 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page viii viii CONTENTS 34 The Status of Cuban Women: From Economically Dependent to Independent 309 Raisa Pagés 35 Recreating Racism: Race and Discrimination in Cuba’s Special Period 314 Alejandro de la Fuente 36 The Status of Gays in Cuba: Myth and Reality 324 Larry Oberg 37 Civil Society and Religion in Cuba: Past, Present, and Future 328 Margaret E. Crahan 38 There Is No Homeland Without Virtue 334 Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino PART VI. CUBAN CULTURE 337 39 A Black Woman from Cuba, That´s All 342 An Interview with Nancy Morejón, by John M. Kirk 40 Living and Creating in Cuba: Risks and Challenges 346 Leonardo Padura Fuentes 41 Visions of Dollars Dance before Cuban Artists’ Eyes 353 Maria Finn 42 Ballet: Split with Cuba Still Brings Pain 356 Enrique Fernández 43 Cuban Cinema 358 Michael Chanan 44 Two Songs 363 Carlos Varela 45 From the Heart of Cuba, a Love Song for the Crescent City 365 David Cázares 46 Rap and Revolution: Hip-Hop Comes to Cuba 367 Margot Olavarria 47 Home-Grown Virtuosos 371 Howard Reich 07-417_00_FM.qxd 7/14/07 11:54 AM Page ix CONTENTS ix 48 The Dual Role of Sports 377 Paula Pettavino and Philip Brenner 49 The Cuban Media 384 María López Vigil Appendix: Chronology of the “Special Period,” 1986–2006 391 Index 397 About the Editors 000 07-417_Pt03.qxd 7/14/07 10:07 AM Page 166 15 Vale Todo In Cuba’s Paladares, Everything is Prohibited but Anything Goes Ted Henken INTRODUCTION As we went through the makeshift front door of Central Havana’s Paladar Las Doce Sillas (The Twelve Chairs Restaurant), I noted the owner’s exasperated expression. It turned out that Gregorio, my resourceful street guide, had brought in four Span- ish customers not ten minutes earlier and the owner would now have to fork out another $5 commission on top of the $20 he already owed Gregorio for his services. Playing the fool, I inquired of Magalis, the waitress, how it was that I did not see lobster on my menu, yet noticed a large red shell lying empty on a plate nearby. She lowered her head and whispered, “You know we can’t put that on the menu?” Turn- ing toward a small, improvised service door that opened to the kitchen, she asked in a clear, confident voice, “Hey, is there any more ‘L’ back there?” She returned to me with a hot plate of ‘La la plancha’ and continued, “If they catch us with lobster, they can confiscate all our equipment, close the paladar, and charge us with ‘illicit sales’.” After counting the 12 chairs that filled the cramped dining room, I inquired about the name of the restaurant. Magalis admitted that it was the owner’s way of poking fun at the ridiculous restriction against having more than 12 chairs in any paladar. She then proudly showed me a hidden room behind the kitchen that could seat another 12 diners. Before leaving, I spoke briefly with Orestes, the owner, who claimed, “Through this experience, I realized that I was born an entrepreneur. The only problem is that I was born in the wrong country!” This article draws four lessons from the world of Cuba’s private, speak-easy eateries—the island’s infamous paladares. First, the policy of “legalization” of the island’s private food service sector inaugurated in the summer of 1995 has been ac- companied overtime by such a thick web of legal restrictions that, by design or de- fault, the original aim of expansion has been lost. In fact, restrictions on private restaurants are so great and their taxes so high that they often overshadow the ben- efits of legal status itself, prohibiting the full development of these legal micro- 166 07-417_Pt03.qxd 7/14/07 10:07 AM Page 167 EVERYTHING IS PROHIBITED BUT ANYTHING GOES 167 enterprises and forcing them to utilize informal strategies or into outright clandes- tine existence, to make a living. Second, every legal restriction put in place to control and limit the growth of these private enterprises has given rise to a corresponding (and often illegal) sur- vival strategy. For example, restrictions against intermediaries, advertising, and em- ployees have provoked the development of an extensive underground network of jineteros and fictional cousins. Menu and size restrictions have led to the prolifer- ation of hidden rooms and forbidden foods. Third, while often described as “islands of capitalism in a sea of socialism” (Pérez-López 1994; Jatar-Hausmann 1999), in practice these restaurants are anything but isolated from the rest of the Cuban economy. Deep and functional linkages ex- ist between these well-known manifestations of Cuba’s private economy, connect- ing them in various direct and indirect ways with other parts of the economy.

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