UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Economic Change and Farmers Markets in Contemporary Cuba Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3471x2d5 Author Krumpak, Miles Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Economic Change and Farmers Markets in Contemporary Cuba A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Global Studies by Miles Thomas Krumpak Committee in charge: Professor Javiera Barandiarán, Chair Professor Eve Darian-Smith Professor Aashish Mehta December 2017 The thesis of Miles Thomas Krumpak is approved. _____________________________________________ Eve Darian-Smith _____________________________________________ Aashish Mehta _____________________________________________ Javiera Barandiarán, Committee Chair September 2017 Economic Change and Farmers Markets in Contemporary Cuba Copyright © 2017 by Miles Thomas Krumpak iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I sincerely thank my committee members, Professors Eve Darian-Smith, Aashish Mehta, and Javiera Barandiarán, for their encouragement and expertise over the course of the past two years. While my thesis evolved over time, they were consistently available for help. I express gratitude to the individuals in Cuba who formed part of this project, and who demonstrated that despite years of embargo, Cubans and Americans remain connected. iv ABSTRACT Economic Change and Farmers Markets in Contemporary Cuba by Miles Thomas Krumpak The Cuban Revolution has generated remarkable social achievements through a unique style of people-centered development. However, economic productivity has remained low, and for much of the Revolution agriculture has strongly revolved around the cultivation of sugarcane. The fall of the Soviet Union caused severe hardships in Cuba, leading to contractions in the economy and decreases in food imports. The government responded to these circumstances through measures like promoting tourism and foreign direct investment, legalizing the U.S. dollar, permitting self-employment, and creating farmers markets in which supply and demand determined prices. While during the 1990’s these were regarded as temporary actions to meet needs, President Raul Castro has sought to change the structure of Cuba’s socialist model. The 2011 Sixth Conference of the Communist Party marked a turning point in the reform process and stressed decentralization the economy, achieving higher economic productivity, and moving away from notions of egalitarianism. Castro noted that “updating” the Cuban economy could not occur overnight, and that implementing the revised model would take at least five years. v This thesis examines how recent economic reforms to decentralize the economy have affected the lives of individuals. I utilize farmers markets as a case study of these reforms and ask: What do the experiences of sellers and buyers in farmers markets indicate about the larger process of change in Cuba? To examine this question, during 2016 I conducted ethnographic interviews with market sellers and potential buyers in the cities of Havana and Santiago over a period of nearly two months. When comparing the markets where entrepreneurs sold to those operated by the state, I found that entrepreneurs consistently offered a wider range of higher quality products, but at elevated prices (three times state levels in Havana, and two times in Santiago). These prices were unaffordable for many individuals, yet particularly affected the elderly and those without remittances. While farmers markets are beneficial in terms of making produce available, not all can purchase what they need. Interviews showed that the quality and variety of entrepreneurs’ produce resulted from possessing autonomy in decision-making, feeling a sense of ownership, and knowing that their efforts would yield tangible results. While market sellers worked as entrepreneurs because it offered necessary financial benefits, at the same time sellers highlighted that socialism possessed various merits. General participants in this study utilized a wide range of strategies to fulfill their needs, and often described these strategies through the terms “invent” (inventar) or “resolve” (resolver). Although food is where the low purchasing power of the Cuban peso is most problematic, other basic necessities also result costly. However, not all Cubans face the same realities. This was demonstrated by the manner in which interviewees viewed the ration book- while some no longer used their monthly allotments, for others they continued to play a significant role in satisfying food needs. One participant went so far as to say that certain vi people would starve if rations were removed. Overall, this study finds that individuals perceive the changes occurring in Cuba to be gradual, and mostly restricted to the economic realm. While socialism remains important, some interviewees were inclined towards pragmatism. They were much more concerned with whether government policies would improve their quality of life, than if these policies were socialist or capitalist per se. Although economic reforms have produced gains for some, ensuring the well-being of all Cubans will require additional updating of the economy in the coming years. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: 1.1 Introduction……………..........…………………………………………….1 A. Project Background……………………………………………………………………1 B. Research Questions……………………………………………………………………5 C. Thesis Outline…………………………………………………………………………7 D. Research Methods……………………………………………………………………10 E. Significance and Relevance………………………………………………………….13 Chapter Two: Overview…………………………………………………………………...…15 2.1 Shifting Towards a more Holistic Development……………………………………16 2.2 Development in Cuba……………………………………………………………….24 2.3 The Bigger Picture: Cuban Involvement on an International and Global Scale…….38 2.4 The Macroeconomic Context of Cuba………………………………………………43 2.5 The Supply Side: Agricultural Productivity……………………………………...…56 2.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..61 Chapter Three: Overview.……………………………………………………………………64 3.1 Changes in the Cuban Model………………………………………………………..65 3.2 The Battle of Ideas (1999-2006): Re-Instilling Traditional Values…………………83 3.3 Reforms Under Raul Castro (2008-present): Emergence of a New Model…………88 3.4 Conclusion: Promoting Self-Employment and the Broader Worldview……………98 Chapter Four: Overview……..……………………………………………………………..101 4.1 Recent Trends in the Sale of Food and Field Work Overview………………...…..103 4.2 The Case of Mercados Agropecuarios…………………………………………..…115 viii 4.3 Close-up View of Buyer Experiences and Responses to Difficulties……………...144 4.4 Reforming “La Libreta”………………………………...………………………….154 Chapter Five: 5.1 Conclusion………………………………………………………………164 A. Markets in Relation to the Larger Process of Change……………………………...165 B. Seeing the Fruit of Your Work and Socialist Capitalist Futures……………………178 C. Perceptions of Change in Cuba: Gradual and Economic…………………………...182 D. Situating New Cuban Realities with the Outside World……………………………187 E. “Normalized” Relations under Economic Embargo………………………………...190 F. Cuba in the Global Context: Understanding its Relevance Now…………………...194 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………...202 Appendix A: Guidelines for Interviews: Vendors and Workers……………………………216 ix 1.1 Introduction “Cuba is not a fashion, Cuba is a country that is going to exist.” A. Project Background In the United States, views of Cuba have often been biased and polarized. Historian Louis A. Pérez Jr.’s work Cuba in the American Imagination demonstrates that throughout the 19th century Cuba was commonly depicted as a ripe fruit, which by the laws of nature would gravitate towards the United States (2008, 30). Shortly after the defeat of Spain, in 1900 a former secretary of state remarked “the pear was ripe and ready to fall into our laps” (Ibid, 282). Yet following the Revolution, Cuba was imagined through a different metaphor, this time a type of cancer which according to a senator in 1960, “is growing on our underside, 90 miles from our shores” (Ibid, 254). Policies enacted by President Clinton in the late 1990’s allowed U.S. citizens to engage in “people to people” travel to Cuba, contact which gradually “demystified Cuba for Americans” (Sweig 2016, 175). President Bush ended nearly all of these exchanges, yet U.S. citizens who had gone to Cuba reported finding it more like other tropical islands in the area and less “the archenemy of Bush’s rhetoric” (LeoGrande 2015b, 241). In the words of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, “They say they have been to hell, but hell is not as hot as it had been depicted” (Ibid, 242). Steps taken to normalize relations and lessen travel restrictions in 2015 and 2016 signal an opportunity to end this outdated thinking. According to one journalist, “For decades, Cuba and the United States have framed their relationship as a conflict of opposites: Communism vs. capitalism; Cuban loyalists vs. Cuban exiles; the state vs. the individual. But last week’s visit by President Obama… made clear that the old lines of battle are breaking down” (Cave 2016). This new environment provided unprecedented opportunities to conduct research in 1 Cuba and understand how Cubans interpret their own realities. While the Trump administration has sought to re-impose some restrictions, the desire for a different future remains strong amongst Americans and Cubans alike.