The plane touched down in the middle of a Havana night and the tourists pass through the international airport terminal where dozens of Cubans offer them taxis, rooms for rent, rum or mulatas. A young man approaches a short dumpy visitor and, squatting close to his ear, asks “Mister, you like cigars?” but the answer comes with a strong and well-known accent, that tells the daring vendor the origin of the traveler. These are the new Russians, who come not for business but for pleasure, who have stopped calling each other “comrade” and who now carry their Visas or Mastercards. In short, they seem less and less like those who for decades sustained our social experiment.
It has been over fifty years since the Cuban government resumed diplomatic relations with what was then called the Soviet Union. Those who lived through that time have told me it wasn’t easy to overcome the accumulated prejudices against the inhabitants of the first socialist territory in the world, those who were seen by many of my compatriots as part of an advanced colonization. Life demonstrated that the alarmists were not entirely wrong.
In the great naivete of our collective childhood there were no differences between Ukrainians, Turks or Lithuanians, as we believed them all a single extension ruled from the Kremlin. On the other hand, the cultural abyss between the homeland of Lenin and our fun-loving Caribbean island made one scholar admit that “Cuban and Russian hearts beat on completely different frequencies.” However, geopolitics tried to match us up, without much success. Unlike other European countries, where Communism rolled in with the tanks commanded by Stalin, in our case it came with a subsidy, with boats full of oil that called at the ports of this Island every month.
“The Russians are coming!” cried some, frightened, while others responded, “Welcome to the Soviets!” Choosing between one word or the other was, for a long time, more than a linguistic dilemma, it was the taking of an ideological position. When Cubans of my generation started to be aware of the world, in the early eighties, no one was tearing their hair out to choose between these two words that history had forced to be synonymous.
So we watched Russian films and rode in Soviet Ladas. The downtown restaurant, Moscow, disappeared in a mysterious and voracious fire, and to the west of the city they raised a hideous building that would serve as the headquarters of the USSR embassy, which we jokingly christened the “control tower” both for it architectural profile as well as its political evocations. Those were the gray times, when we kids lived trapped between the teary Eastern European cartoons and the interminable discourse of the then robust Maximum Leader.
At the beginning of the nineties, with the collapse in those parts, the official discourse eliminated the references to former mentors. They erased them from the text books and removed the photos of the leaders in the fuzzy hats with earmuffs from the Museum of the Revolution, while national history was rewritten downplaying the Soviet presence in our lives.
The cultural impact of this abrupt departure made itself felt immediately, especially on movie posters, where the American productions — and it continues today — pack the theaters and only rarely are replaced with the old classics distributed in another epic under the symbol of a soldier and a peasant girl carrying a hammer and sickle.
To the surprise of many, an agreeable surprise of course, television premiered the series The Master and Margarita based on the unforgettable satirical novel of the awkward Mikhail Bulgakov. On the national scene the Bolshoi Ballet — once the flagship of Soviet culture — returned to perform again and, according to those who attended, defrauded the demanding Havana public. But nothing is like that era when the memorandums flew from the palace of colored domes to our sober Council of State.
After years of little interaction, the visitors from the other side of the Urals have returned. They are no longer seen in large groups, dressed in pants always one size too big and white shirts with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. They are no longer those foreign technicians who had the right to buy in stores prohibited to us, and who sold on the black market the trinkets they bought in those so-called diplo-shops.
We haven’t gone back to calling them “losbolos” — the bowling pins — that appellation half mocking and half affectionate, honoring the lack of sophistication of their industrial products, full of rough welds, divorced from aerodynamics and comfort. Now, the returning comrades of yesteryear compete in the discos, look like businessmen, and wear French perfumes.
They are entrepreneurs showing off their computer products, such as the well known Kaspersky anti-virus, before the astonished eyes of those who once saw them in their military uniforms. A couple of years ago they even had an exhibition area at the International Book Fair. Their shelves were filled with diverse topics, including self-help, with very few titles of Marxism and Leninism. They walk among us and no one screams in fear, “The Soviets are back!” Because it’s clear to everyone that they’ve returned and, swimming at our beaches or drinking a mojito in some tourist bar, they are — clearly — Russians.
A change that has affected me personally has been the creation of the Cuban Association for the Development of Child Education, referred to hereafter by its initials ACDEI, founded as an association on September 22, 2010. Previously it was treated as a community project called Plapliplo, with students from primary education.
One of the essential objectives of project Plapliplo was to raise the educational quality of low income children. The project aimed to become a base of support for the Official System of Primary Education in the community. It began with pre-school through sixth grade, although in practice it began successfully from first grade through fourth. On that student level, the student body had acquired sufficient abilities to be able to continue its studies without the help of the project. As a teacher, my relationship was limited to that existing between teacher, family and student. The activities were very heart warming and my task was dedicated but much simpler than what came later. The changes introduced in the project may be simplified in the following way: a new focus on how to impart lessons and create the independence necessary in the student body so that it is capable of assuming new academic and social roles.
I must mention that it was not simple to demolish the barriers that are within some Cuban parents in order to achieve what appears to be a good attitude towards the change in teaching strategy. It required an effort of all those involved, the students, their families and me. At the end of four years I discovered that my work had been monitored by education managers of municipalities of the capital. It was simultaneously a surprise and joy; I knew that inside of the group there were parents opposed to the changes although they continued in the project to the end.
No education officials could object to the lessons I imparted and the dosage used; from the beginning I focused on the official program of instruction, and the only thing that I did was change the strategy of the same with the use of technological resources. The families of the students were involved in the introduction of the changes because they had the right to participate in order to feel valued and to take on their commitment with greater pleasure.
I quickly identified the resisters in order to direct efforts especially towards them. I communicated constantly with everyone but in particular with those most distrustful. I was understanding before their fears and firm at the same time. I knew better than they what I was confronting. I always consulted other teachers and was enriched by their experiences. Debates perfect daily work; no teacher should fear them.
In a recent conversation during an evening visit to a friend of my generation (let’s call him Michael) I had a revelation that surprised me: “I’ve never been able to overcome the oppression that stirs in me on Sundays.” I inquired about the reason for the strange rejection for a holiday that’s usually shared with the family at home, and he explained. Every Sunday, from the time I was 11 until I was 17, he was forced to return to his intern camp, a kind of boarding school in the countryside. Sunday was thus engraved in his memory as the day that, inexorably, reluctantly, one moved away from home and his parents, grandparents and younger siblings, with a hanger in one hand, where an impeccably laundered uniform hung, having been washed by your mother, with a plastic garment bag over it to protect it from dust. In the other hand, the schoolbag –when you opened it, already at the camp’s ugly dorm- the familiar smell of a steak sandwich would escape, which motherly care had placed there to ease your hunger and comfort you in your separation, at least on that Sunday night.
“I can’t help those sad memories when I see the students now, going, hangers and uniforms in hand, toward the pick-up stops. Every time I think about all the time they stole from me, in the compulsory removal from the family, the sacrifice that was made because they told us that if we studied hard we would have better lives, and that where you could really study was at the camp schools, with a perfect educational system, I feel an unbearable impotence. “
I was never an inmate in these boarding schools because I was born several years before my friend and was able to attend urban schools through middle and high school, tried to imagine a child’s feelings at the onset of his adolescence, separated from his elders just when he needed them the most. In my case, I had to attend the Escuelas de Campo**, but at least my stays were relatively brief, though the conditions were those of a forced labor camp, promiscuity in the dirty sleeping quarters and even dirtier latrines. Michael stayed long stretches at the academic internships of the revolution for six whole terms. My friend tells me that he spent those weeks dreaming about Saturday’s arrival –classes were held from Monday through Saturday back then- when the “pass” at noon would commence and he would soon be in his bed, in his room, finally enjoying the privacy of a clean bathroom, his mom’s seasonings and of his family’s love and protection.
I allow my friend’s mind to reminisce: “I was one of those innocent kids, still playing with toys. My uncle had brought me an electric train from the German Democratic Republic which I was never able to enjoy sufficiently because I was away at the boarding school. I spent the week among those delinquents of all backgrounds, pretending to be fearless and repeating profanities and bragging with vulgarities never uttered at home. It was a way to survive the internship because we were all a mixture of those from decent and functional families next to the ones on the edge, offspring of violent homes, of alcoholic or criminal parents. If you put it in perspective, the camp schools were jungles where the weakest perished, victims of bullying and hassling by the abusers. If you became a softie, you would be slapped around, in the best of cases. In the dorms, a prison attitude reigned, with gangs and social castes clearly established. Dorms and bathrooms were the more dangerous places, because there was less policing and control from the teaching staff.
What always saved me was this tough armor God gave me, because you had to think twice before messing with me, but, in truth I was always a quiet kid who avoided problems. I had been brought up in a harmonious family environment and was very polite. Those six years were traumatic for me. However, I never commented on it at home, because I did not want my parents to worry. While at the internship camps, I pretended to be another fearless kid. At home, I pretended to be happy at the camps. When you spend your adolescence that way, there comes a time when you don’t know deceit from truth in your life. You create a kind of armor and distance yourself from your family because you learn to survive without them and, since they are not around you at the worst moments, you make do without their help and advice. When I finally finished the internship stage and returned to bosom of the family, I had changed. It’s as if something dear from your past had broken beyond repair. That’s what I sense in me when I remember those days: a sense of uprooting, of loss, of doom.”
Miguel speaks fluently. He is a qualified and intelligent man. I have transcribed here an approximate reconstruction of his conversation, which I did not record (conversation between friends is never recorded, of course), but he can attest to the accuracy of my portrayal of his personal experiences and memories. I know many adults who received these “scholarships” in their teens, but few recognize as sincerely as he does the deep tracks that experience left in their lives. It usually happens to those who suffer from rape or assault, women abused by their husbands, or other humiliating events, whose damage victims rarely openly acknowledge, as if, somehow, they were guilty, as if talking about it constituted a sign of weakness or made them involuntary accomplices of their tormentors for bringing out memories that they would prefer to keep buried. There are even some interns who tell the story of their experience as a cheery and happy time, as the best thing that could have happened to them. Those individuals are not even aware of what they lost. Personally, I think you have to live in a very hostile or repressive home to prefer an internship; I can’t but sympathize with those who found the separation from their family their better option.
To end the topic, Miguel smiled, part accomplice, part mischief. The nature of Cubans drives them to joke even about things that cause pain: another way of coping we have learned. “You know what? I assure that there were two Pedro Pan Operations: the interim plan that separated 14,000 children from their parents to send them to the US and the one that has been separating hundreds of thousands of families for decades to send them to government camp schools. I can’t tell which one is worse, but I’m inclined to think that the one here is.”
I think I agree with him.
Translator’s notes:
*”Operation Pedro Pan” was a program by which thousands of Cuban children were sent to the United States in the early years of the Revolution, without their families, as a way to get them out of Cuba. Many of the children had extended family in the United States, and/or were reunited with their families when their parents later made it to the United States.
**Escuelas en el Campo — Schools in the Countryside — was a shorter program where students went for a small part of each year, to similar boarding schools where they studied and worked in agriculture.
Havana, Cuba- Danilo Maldonado (El Sexto, or “The Sixth”), a well-known young graffiti artist in Cuba, exhibited his work this past Friday the 25th in the afternoon at the alternative space of Estado de SATS (State of SATS).
It is the second time that this artist showcases his creation, the samples running the gamut from already known templates to new plastic works. The activity included the participation of friends and followers of the work of the one who signs his name — El Sexto — in the most unexpected places.
One of the featured pieces was an altar with a white background, which illuminated with candles the Human Rights activists that in the last few years have revived in spite its demise, a new awakening in countless groups that champion respect for Human Rights within Cuba.
Amongst the people honored in this sort of altar aromatized by incense were: the leader of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollan Toledo, who passed away under unknown conditions in a Havana hospital after suffering a respiratory infection; Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (The Student) who died in Santa Clara as a consequence of a beating fostered by agents of the police; and the (hunger) strikers Orlando Zapata Tamayo and William Villar Mendoza. On the altar there also appeared, within a frame in the superior portion, tiny images of the endless number of victims that will someday form part of the martyrology of a badly managed Revolution.
Danilo Maldonado thanked each of those present and especially thanked those who, in one way or another, made possible the exhibition of his work in the venue of the Biennial of Havana in spite of the fact that he received no invitation to expose his work in this oficial edition. The expo was animated by singer-songwriter Ciro who is part of the well known group Porno para Ricardo.
For some months now, they have spread like gun powder throughout the city: rumors about embezzlement, theft, deviation of resources, practices of nepotism, etcetera.
Old Havana has generated the most commentaries these days. The director of Puerto Carenas, the great construction enterprise dealing with the restoration of all the real estate in the historic center and some other buildings and monuments outside this area, is presently being investigated, according to commentary, for crimes against the economy of the State.
In other news, the La Muralla brewery, the recently appointed administrator is being detained under investigation after having had a field planted with marijuana confiscated, in the providence of Pinar del Rio. This caused the spread of the investigation to encompass the business he was administrating up to this time, situated at Muralla and San Ignacio, where other crimes on his behalf were discovered in which some of his workers were implicated, the latter of whom are also subject to investigation. Some are being detained and others are in waiting under house arrest (what we Cubans like to call “the pajama plan” — though only when it is the ’cushy’ version that is applied to high officials).
The Planetarium at the Plaza Vieja (Old Plaza) has also been investigated, due to police reports that these facilities were being offered for functions outside operating hours and administrative control, and whose dividends were ending up directly in the pockets of those implicated. There also exist strong rumors of nepotism practices on behalf of the directorship of Habaguanex. This not taking into account existing rumors as to the sale of job positions within these entities, which oscillate between $1,000 CUC and $1,500 CUC, depending on the type of job.
These rumors give much food for thought. Might it truly be as is being rumored? If so, how is it possible this has not reached the ears of the primary directors of said enterprises, when it is already public knowledge?
But sadly, this is not the only place where such criminal activity occurs. Recently on national television they showed images demonstrating the goods that were illicitly acquired by the administrator of the jam factory in the province of Matanzas; he was dismissed upon proof of illicit enrichment and deviation of resources. The president of the Havana Yoruba Society (Sociedad Yoruba de la Habana) also fell into disgrace, as we say here, for utilizing the influences inherent to his post, in order to secure trips and visas at a price of $3,000 CUC, for those privileged who were able to pay.
Apparently crime and corruption are spreading like a pandemic. It is truly very sad, even more so when, for more than 50 years, we have been hearing talk of the New Man, of revolutionary honor, of our militant Gentlemen, here on my planet, in order to occupy the post of director or administrator of an entity, you at least have to be a militant of the party and, in some cases, a member of State security.
These are the effects, those which regularly come under fire, but what of the causes? What truly are they?
A totalitarian State that monopolizes the administration of all large businesses, that pays miserable salaries, that maintains a dual currency: one with which you are paid for your work and retirement and another, that you need to acquire however you can, and with which one acquires at very high prices, all the articles of primary necessity; do you sincerely believe it can take the luxury of having, in those high positions of directorship, honest and incorruptible men? Who taught them to steal?
Everything here exposed are confidentialities and rumors that have reached me, and that have filtered drop by drop. I don’t have all of the information, that here is almost impossible, but I recall an old saying: “Cuando el río suena, es porque piedras trae.” (Literally: “When the river sounds, it’s because it’s carrying rocks.” Loosely translated: “If you hear rumors, there must be some truth to them.”)
Monday night could have ended with a roar running through the city or, instead, a silence growing from every house. The latter is what happened, because the capital’s baseball team lost the national championship to another team from the center of the country. In recent days the passion for this sport has risen from the ashes, despite the fact that among the youngest soccer is rapidly gaining popularity. The final games of the series were played to full stands and in the streets even the kids declared themselves followers of one team or the other. Even the news about the floods caused by intense rains took second fiddle to the uproar caused by hits and home runs.
However, despite a dizzying week for baseball fans, this discipline appears headed into a decline without any resolution of its pressing problems. Difficulties range from the poor state of the stadiums to the demands — whispered — of the players to be able to contract to play for professional leagues in other countries. The excessive politicization has also damaged the national pastime, as television commentators seem to intone an ideological chant more than a sports story. The illegal satellite dishes bring Cubans live games from the United States and Japan, which have become stiff competition for local broadcasts which have seen their audience eroded. The series just ended has been a warning sign. Despite the popular passion unleashed in recent games, there is also a great falling off compared to prior years. A weariness that transcends the rivalry between soccer and baseball and becomes a discussion of identity, a crisis of paradigms and reference points.
The relationship of Cubans with public transportation is intense. The interaction is produced on various levels: between the public and the driver, amongst the public themselves, and between the public and the bus. This interaction is determined by the frequency between one bus and the next; and at this time that frequency has once again become, as it almost always has been for many years now, low. The irritation and annoyance with transportation that is delayed and packed determine the violence with which “the factors” react. Now on television they chide the public for the mistreatment of the buses and for the quantity and quality of the collection made as a conception of payment. In that type of reports there is no mention of “our working people”, as if those chided didn’t form part of those same people of the official demagoguery.
So if the public decides not to pay, or prefers to hand their fare directly to the driver, or refuses to pay $1.00 CUP (Cuban Peso = national currency) for a service that costs 40 cents and tears a bill in half to approximate the price, or bangs without mercy on the back door of the bus when the driver misses a stop, or points out somewhat cryptic responsibilities but in a loud voice; I don’t know what sociologists see (especially if those sociologists don’t travel on public transportation), but I see a reaction to accumulated frustrations, and not just with the subject of public transport.
Recently, in the face of the decline of “the model,” many political scientists that deal with Cuba have been given the task of preparing projections for the new Cuba. As should be true, the opinions are varied, depending on the ideological and political slant of the speakers. But one thing is clear: the new Cuba will face several critical issues. Among these are: achieving a peaceful transition, without winners or losers, avoiding violence; establishing a democratic system with broad participation of all political and social viewpoints; creating a new state with all its institutions; and building an efficient economy.
The demolition of the ruins of the model such as it is, built on the base of volunteerism, is not a very difficult task, because by now it has practically been carried out in all material respects. The difficult task at this point is to make sure that the majority of those who have been part of it, with varying degrees of commitment, are able to understand and accept that change is absolutely necessary to insure that the nation survives. And also, that the victims of the model (here I include the exiles), marginalized and repressed for years, do not place revenge or settling accounts as priorities at the negotiating table. A compact, setting aside special interests before national, is the smart thing, which does not mean forgetting, or that those responsible for the national tragedy remain unpunished, but this should be achieved by public consensus, in the short term, and within laws enacted for that purpose, without witch hunts and mass purges. All of us, to one degree or another, for over five decades, have been involved in what has happened, and we have different degrees of responsibility, if not material at least moral. What would be impermissible and suicidal would be a fratricidal fight.
The full participation of every citizen in the political task of the nation should be a respected and protected right. This will lead to establishing the freedom to join together and form organizations of different political and social stripes for developing and proposing government projects capable of pulling the country out of the economic, political and social chaos into which the current model has sunk us. Therefore, the establishment of full democracy is an inevitable foundation.
It is necessary to create a new state. This is probably the most complex and difficult task. The existing model, with its institutions and organizations created on the fly, was built by systematically dismantling the existing democratic state in the Republic, and was conceived with purely ideological interests for maintaining power at all costs. For this reason, the Constitution, laws, institutions, and organizations all settled into the socialist straitjacket, inventing ponderous control apparatuses and propaganda at all levels, and even parallel governments within the government, superseding or multiplying their functions. A completely new, modern, and efficient state is required, with new laws and institutions, which continues and perfects what existed before 1959. For this new officials are needed, who are more professional than political, with a different ethic. This is not the task of a day or a short time, but must be tackled at an early stage, otherwise the rest is doomed to failure.
The establishment of a democracy is inextricably linked to the creation of an efficient economy. We must understand that without democracy there is no economy, and equally that without the economy there is no democracy. All current attempts to address these two categories have failed. A free, competitive economy is only possible in a democratic regime that respects the rights of all social entities, and where there are no obstacles to the free development of individual initiative. Similarly, a free and efficient economy strengthens democracy, facilitating the exercise and implementation of laws and social programs that provide real answers to the needs of the population.
We Cubans occupy our beds, the stairs of our houses, the piece of the table before us, the chair in front of the television, the empty refrigerator, the half open shutters we peer out of. All this and more, before taking to the streets and public squares. We talk about sex like someone shouting at a demonstration, we submerge ourselves in the black market as a cry of protest and we climb on a raft to cross the Florida Straits as our most daring gesture. We complain within, whisper our dissent for fear the keen ears of the political police might hear us. Instead of obstructing the sidewalks and the asphalt, we daily launch the cobblestones of theft and inefficiency at the State, although we call the theft “diversion of resources.” We do not practice passionate slogans to chant at a rally, rather we are experts at apathy, in the wearing of masks. Our most rebellious action is limited to practicing the double standard, and evading the excessive ideological propaganda.
The ground we occupy is not visible, it is not outside a bank, nor in front of a stock exchange where the numbers enrich some and drag others into misery. No. We have occupied only the territory that lies between our skin and our bones; the tiny esplanade that conforms to our fears and the empty park where all the paranoia and distrust we’ve been infected with since childhood hangs out. For this irritation to break out and materialize in a crowd, demanding a corner, to manage that, the occupant hidden under our skin must free itself first from the cop with whom we share our body.
By Antonio G. Rodiles, Julio Alega, Manuel Cuesta, Wilfredo Vallín
Introduction
The centralized and planned economy is closely linked to state ownership. For a process of economic decentralization to be successful, there must be a parallel process of decentralizing property.
The Cuban government has undertaken timid reforms with the objective of restarting the economy without making fundamental transformations. The lack of integrity, the rent seeking character, and the lack of transparency are the hallmarks of these timid reforms that are clearly only in pursuit of a transmutation of power. The facts are a demonstration that one year after their implementation the impact of these reforms has been very limited. Land has been delivered to farmers in usufruct as an emergency measure to end the chronic shortage of food.[1] The result, however, has not been as expected, among other reasons because many producers are wary of an offer to work land that does not belong to them and that can be withdrawn at any time. On the other hand, for years the Cuban State has preferred to import billions of dollars worth of agricultural products, and in particular American products, instead of providing greater incentives and free markets to domestic producers.
The law governing distribution of land in usufruct allows great discretion and equally great uncertainty, as we can see reflected in some of the articles of the governing statute, Decree Law 259 [1]:
ARTICLE 6: The area to be given to each person in usufruct, be it a natural or legal person, is determined according to the potential labor force, the resources for production, the type of agricultural production for which the land will be destined, and the agricultural production capacity of the soils.
ARTICLE 14: The termination of the usufruct granted to natural persons should be for the following reasons:
c) for ongoing breach of the production contract, previously determined by specialists;
f) for acts which would defeat the purpose for which the usufruct was granted;
h) revocation for reasons of public utility or social interest, expressly declared by resolution of the Minister of Agriculture or higher levels of government.
Subsequently, the Council of Ministers also approved the sale of houses and other measures related to housing properties [2]. These measures have been well below the actual needs of Cubans because in no case do they provide the ability to generate new housing stock, which is one of the most pressing problems facing Cuban society today. Also, they have recently rented some locations in a very poor state of repair to microbusinesses.
There are great similarities between the urban and rural scenarios in our country. Havana is not full of marabou weed, but there are thousands and thousands of dilapidated properties – many are complete ruins — and large areas of unoccupied land. The State alleges lack of resources to undertake restoration and construction of the housing stock and infrastructure, but these spaces constitute a wasted frozen capital that should be handed over to Cubans as soon as possible, for its fullest use. If we add to this the vacant land nationwide, we have a large number of urban and rural properties waiting to fulfill their social function.
The process of liberalizing property use and ownership should be initiated as soon as possible, not only for idle farmland but also for urban land and properties. It is essential to end the ambiguities with respect to the character of property, because this alone generates great inefficiency and corruption; property needs real owners. While the categories of owners in usufruct and tenancies may exist, there is no reason why that should be the basis for our economic structure. The existence of a legal framework that supports private property is a necessary condition for an economy that offers real opportunities to all participants.
This article first analyzes the different methods or liberalizing property ownership that were implemented in other countries, proposes an auction program that puts frozen resources at the service of Cubans, which would be extremely helpful right now, discusses the economic environment that must accompany these transformations, and offers some conclusions.
Foreign experiences in the liberalization of property ownership and their possible application in Cuba
A process of liberalization of property ownership undoubtedly touches highly sensitive fibers of the Cuban nation, inside and outside the island, and, therefore, facts and circumstances of the past and present must be carefully analyzed to achieve a broader consensus. Although it is necessary to undertake a thorough analysis of the issue of property related to State enterprises, in this paper we focus on addressing the case of idle lands and ruined properties.
In many countries, in recent decades, there have been processes of liberalization of property ownership, some with very encouraging results, while in others corruption, nepotism and patronage predominated. In the former Soviet Union, the process of liberalizing property ownership converted many members of the old government elite and dishonest individuals into new millionaires, creating great discontent and disillusionment among the population.
It is very important to understand the problems that have appeared in previous experiences and to evaluate the best options for our case. In the Eastern European countries, and in China and Vietnam, various mechanisms were applied; among the most popular were:
1) Restitution or compensation
2) Sale to the public
3) Sale to the employees
4) Sales en masse
As a first step it is essential to create institutions and rules to govern this complex process. To restart an economy in ruins, like ours, it is essential to guarantee a system of legitimate ownership. This will not be possible if a system of restitutions or compensations to the many owners who lost their properties due to unjust confiscations is not implemented in advance.
How did the process of claims function in the Eastern European countries?
“In East Germany two million claims were filed, cluttering up the courts for years and holding up thousands of construction projects and businesses because of the uncertainty of legal claims. Some restitutions occurred in the majority of the Central European countries, particularly of land and real estate, while restitutions for medium and large businesses were avoided.” [3]
In Hungary the law did not offer restitution, and primarily used compensation through government bonds that could be used to acquire shares in state enterprises as they were sold. [4]
Poland, for example, preferred compensation over restitution. Poles living abroad were eligible for restitution or compensation in the form of state bonds only if they adopted Polish citizenship and returned to Poland permanently to administer the reclaimed businesses and/or land. [5]
Each country had its own characteristics, and in our case it is very important to evaluate the great deficit in the housing stock and the majority of the population’s lack of capital to be able to participate in the purchase process. The issue is not only to liberalize property ownership, principally ruined and underutilized properties, but that this process truly yields a clear benefit and grows the economy of the country.
The experience of other countries tells us that these sales culminate in a short period, as people realize that this will be the only way to acquire properties relatively cheaply.
Let’s analyze each of these methods of privatization in more detail and look at how they could operate in the case of Cuba.
1) Restitution or compensation
The issue of restitutions in our country is controversial and unavoidable. For years there has been great controversy surrounding the claims and devolutions of the properties to owners whose ownership predated the year 1959. Gradually, some consensus is appearing, to shed light on a sensitive and delicate point.
We can separate these claims into two groups. The first group is those properties currently occupied by families, and the second is those properties that remain in the hands of the State.
As suggested by Professor Antonio Jorge:
“The right of permanent occupation for urban residential properties should be recognized in favor of the occupants or current residents. However, the former owners, as in the cases of other property, should be compensated” [6].
Teo A. Babun similarly agrees:
“Fortunately, most expatriate groups have recognized that the return of homes or residential properties is not feasible. The discussion can be restricted to non-residential properties. Looking beyond returning the properties, this simply means that any litigation would be limited to issues concerning the validity of the claims and the value of what was lost, and the compensation, if appropriate.” [7]
The economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe recommends:
“With respect to the return of property to former owners, we believe that the Cuban reality suggests different methods. First, in the case of dwellings, we are in favor of the mass granting of property, with all the responsibilities inherent in this, to those who are either the current lease holders or the people who enjoy the use of the property today without paying rent.
“With regards to the former owners, we agree that from the moral point of view the fairest approach would be to return these properties to their former owners, but given the time that has passed and the transformations in these properties, some of which no longer in exist, the best solution would be to pay these people, which could be done with bonds that could be used to purchase legal properties.” [8]
Property on the Malecon in Havana, reduced to a facade.
For his part, the economist Jorge Sanguinetty considers:
“The restoration of property rights in Cuba has two closely related aspects, restitution or compensation of old properties to their rightful owners and the creation of new properties. Both parts of the process represent the two poles of the recreation of the private sector of the economy, which would include the opening of new businesses and privatization of the state investments created by the revolutionary government, which were never private.
“This is a highly complex problem that ideally requires good prior preparation and a large administrative and executive capacity to permit rapid resolution of outstanding claims. If this problem is not resolved, the recovery of the Cuban economy could become significantly delayed because it would not have created the right environment to attract new investment to expand the productive capacities of the country and revive its economy.
“A group of properties that presents a special challenge is that of urban real estate, especially homes that were used for rental housing or housing direct for its owners that are now occupied by other families or individual tenants. It is obvious that the transition government cannot put all these people in the street at the time when it takes over an impoverished and indebted economy, and therefore one of the solutions that could be contemplated to recognize the property rights of prior owners is to provide instruments of debt, bonds or tax exemption certificates negotiable in the financial markets.” [9]
Compensations is a very useful method through which the government can make up for the damage to many original owners. Clearly, in our country, this method cannot be implemented without delays, given the serious economic constraints in which we live. But as the Cuban economy begins to open up there will be major opportunities to realize such compensations. However, there are methods such as exemption from taxes that could be effective in some cases, particularly where the investor is a former owner stripped of their property.
2) Sales to the public
Direct selling has two basic objectives. First, to increase State revenues, which currently are strongly depressed. Second, to immediately attract investors interested in jump-starting these underutilized assets, and bringing the know-how to do it.
It’s important to appreciate that Cubans living on the Island do not possess sufficient capital to buy property at current prices. Given that at the moment when sales begin there will be a lot on offer in an environment of scarce capital, prices should not reach very high levels, enabling many citizens to become owners of new spaces.
In this situation it is essential to contemplate the issue of corruption. In the former socialist block, foreigners and other buyers with suspect capital, such as corrupt officials, organized crime and new “men of business,” had the largest sums of money to participate in such sales.
Another important issue is the efficiency of the process, because the proceeds from the sales should never report more losses than gains to the government. The valuation agency created by the German government collected DM 50 billion through sales, and spent no less than DM 243 billion in the privatization process. [3] In that case the sales were heavily concentrated in businesses in the former East Germany.
3) Sales to employees
The sale of commercial space and services to employees at preferential prices is an option that is a priori attractive. However, it can create serious problems of corruption, especially when managers or executives are associated with some group in power that allowed them to obtain these personal benefits.
From a political standpoint this variant is popular among the population. But there are also some disadvantages, as the companies often have deficient management, given that the new conditions of a market economy differ radically from those of a centrally planned economy. The property rights may become diffuse and could be usurped by the directors.
In some countries, this was an administratively quick method of sale, but on the other hand the workers and directors blocked the process.
There are different possibilities, like that applied in Russia, where 20% of the shares were given to the directors, 40% to the employees, and the other 40% sold directly. [3]
4) Sales en masse
This method is implemented through the distribution of bonds or “vouchers,” for free or for a nominal price, which can be exchanged for shares of the companies or properties sold. This allows rapid sales, not only of medium but also large-sized businesses, and offers citizens the possibility to become new owners, which was widely accepted.
This form of release facilitates a major distribution of direct sales. However, due to the dispersed ownership, obstacles appeared in the direction and management of the companies.
In countries such as the Czechoslovakia investment funds were created, which were still closely linked to the State-owned banks making null, to a large extent, the final result of the process.
This building collapse in Havana killed 3 and left one more vacant site in the capital. Source: www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com
Proposal to release idle lands and ruined properties
Our proposal seeks to make available as soon as possible spaces that represent frozen capital and that have been reduced, for years, to mere ruins, tenements full of rubble, or vacant land covered with marabou weed. These properties should have Cubans as the main beneficiaries, principally those living on the Island, although clearly they should be part of the attraction for foreign investors. Their exploitation will allow many other sectors to receive a strong impetus from the market that would be generated.
The cornerstone of the proposal is to auction all the vacant lands, as well as dilapidated or underutilized urban properties. The auction process can be planned in three consecutive steps:
a) Sale to nationals living in the country
b) Sale to nationals not living in the country
c) Sale to foreigners
Note: This method ends up being a mix of mass and direct sales.
Let’s look at some of the practical procedures it will be necessary to define:
1) Create the appropriate committees, charged with organizing and executing this auction process.
2) Develop a clear definition of the properties to be auctioned.
3) Prepare a census of all the properties, tenements and land that may be subject to auction.
4) Publish the properties and lands with their characteristics and minimum prices.
5) Establish periods for each one of the three stages.
6) Establish a limit, for the number of properties to acquire, and their dimensions and values.
7) Publicize the date, as well as all the information related to the auctions. They will be hosted by municipalities and announced a minimum of 30 days in advance.
8) Offer a special price to all those who now hold lands under usufruct.
9) After the sale a database must be prepared with all the information regarding the sales and final price at auction. All this information should appear in physical copies as well as on the Internet.
10) The entities responsible must keep control of all the income derived from the sales and the use of these funds in their communities.
Once citizens have the title deed of the property in their possession, they can sell the property acquired if they wish. This will allow them to obtain some capital immediately, which can be reinvested or used at their convenience.
Compensation must be established for all those whose were deprived of their properties unjustly, and the most effective methods for this process must be considered, assessing the economic conditions of the country. This compensation, as suggested by some experts, could range from cash to the granting of bonds and shares.
Environment for the full operation of the process
The creation of an enabling economic environment is a key factor to ensure that the process of releasing property has the desired effect. A new system of property ownership does not, in itself, constitute a guarantee of success for such transformations. Other factors are needed to guarantee that the market mechanisms function efficiently. To mention some of them:
1) Legal framework
The first aspect that must be prioritized is the creation of a legal framework that guarantees full rights of ownership. It should create mechanisms for the quick transfer of property titles. Another aspect that should be given special attention is not to allow the process to become, in one way or another, a piñata used by influential groups, such as government officials, leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), or chiefs of the Cuban military apparatus.
Laws must also be established that guarantee a competitive market. It is important that the new entrepreneurs can fully develop the potential of the newly acquired properties.
2) Financial market
The creation of a financial market is an essential element for the development of a modern economy. It is important to create an agency charged with the sales process that displays each transaction in a transparent way, as well as the final destination of the funds received by the government.
It is necessary to begin with the granting of credits to new microenterprises. State companies should not provide soft credits, which hinder the growth of the incipient private sector. The use of soft credits could encourage alarming levels of inefficiency and corruption.
3) Infrastructure
The State must free up the issuance of licenses for manufacturing, and end its monopoly on the production of construction materials, which would ensure that the real estate sector would take off. It must end the monopoly on imports and exports and liberalize these sectors. This would allow a new market to be supplied with products lacking in the national market, materials which are indispensable to jump-start construction.
On the other hand, it is important to stress that this entire process must be undertaken with due respect for the norms of urban planning.
The liberalizing of these resources would be an initial step to begin to reverse the state of deterioration suffered by an immense number of buildings throughout the country. There is an urgent need to at least halt the advanced state of destruction of the national infrastructure. The resources acquired by the State in this sales process should be used immediately for this purpose.
4) Transparency
Transparency has become an essential element of contemporary societies. It is vital that citizens have full knowledge of and participation in a process of such transcendence as a change in the structure of ownership. Mechanisms should be created so that citizens have all the data on the properties and lands sold.
The use of new technologies is a recourse that can play a very important role in this transparency. Unlike 20 years ago, when there was no Internet, today it is possible to consult, from a private computer, all the data pertaining to governments and their institutions; this, without a doubt, greatly reduces the levels of corruption.
5) Tax system
A modern tax system is an essential element that guarantees not only that the State can receive the necessary resources to maintain its social obligations, but also that it will not put the brakes on the growth of the new entrepreneurial sector.
The taxes must be reasonable and easy to pay, and tax evasion must not become the norm. An interesting example of a tax system was implemented in Estonia after its separation from the former Soviet Union, when it adopted a uniform tax of 26%.
Conclusions
The cornerstone of any reform in our country should be the transition to a democracy and the reestablishment of all individual rights. The economic transformations should be directed to stimulate private initiative. It is essential to prevent small corporate groups from being able to exercise a monopoly on the Cuban market, which would accentuate the exhaustion and pessimism within Cuban society, risking a worsening of the grave social problems already facing us.
Every entrepreneur should be able to use the tools of a free market economy, otherwise the failure of the reforms is predestined. To think of a transformation in the style of China, in which political rights are of no importance, makes no sense in our country. Cuba should not be seen as a maquiladora – a country of off-shore factories employing low cost labor.
The new "self-employed" in Cuba. Source: www.primaveradigital.org
The economic transformations should be directed to create a new sector of micro, small, medium and large enterprises. It is unacceptable to continue to live in conditions or penury and ruin, when the country has the necessary potential to be a prosperous and thriving nation. The economy has to be immediately open to the productive sector and to make this happen the property ownership system needs to be fully implemented.
To ensure a greater distribution of wealth it is essential that Cubans hold their respective titles, which creates the possibility of granting credits among other benefits. In parallel, it is necessary to create a financing system that allows taking advantage of the process of liberalization. This, by itself, does not guarantee economic growth if the appropriate economic environment is not developed.
If Cubans do not have the opportunity to acquire these dilapidated properties, empty tenements and idle lands, we can expect that in a not-too-distant future they will be negotiated in a non-transparent way with large businesses without any bidding process. In this case we will see a vast majority of Cubans playing the role only of spectators, left completely outside the scheme of property ownership. Experiences elsewhere show that in these cases the bribery of state officials ends the legitimate yearnings of the population to possess some capital or property, to enter the new market reality, and this can lead directly to a failed transition.
The new "self-employed" in Cuba. Source:blog.mycubanstore.com/
On the other hand, the type of social dynamic that the current government is generating in the short, medium and long terms should be looked at with particular concern. The currently authorized forms of “self-employment” only allow Cubans to participate in marginal third-world-style activities such as street hawking, food preparation, kiosks selling schlock goods, and other micro-enterprises. With the exception of bed-and-breakfasts and small family restaurants – which do serve tourists, but at the margin – none of these activities link to any of the profit centers of the economy, nor are they supported by wholesale markets, and they do not have connections of any kind to global commerce, all of which remain in the hands of the State and, significantly, in the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Furthermore, street vending and similar “professions” are an extension of the existing informal sector – i.e. black market – already overdeveloped as a survival strategy in our country. It is important to bet our future on well-developed fully established businesses that can support an entrepreneurial class and a broad tax base, rather than grow an army of tax evaders.
Thus, the current track is an extremely negative policy, designed to keep Cubans permanently at the margins of the country’s economy. Studies in other countries demonstrate the deleterious impacts of this type of economy.[10]
We should all be very aware that whatever path is followed at the current moment will generate the economic structure of our economy for years to come. We have the resources and the human capital to have a “first-world” economy, why shouldn’t we create one?
Bibliography
1) Decree Law 259. Official Gazette No. 024. 2008.
2) Decree Law 288. Extraordinary Official Gazette No. 035 of November 2, 2011.
3) Aslund, Anders. Building Capitalism. Cambridge University Press.
4) Property Compensation Law to take effect in Hungary, BNA International Business August, 1991.
5) Sariego, Jose M and Gutierrez, Nicolas J. Righting Wrongs Old Survey of Restitution Schemes for Possible Application for a Democratic Cuba to. April 2, 1989, p.1.
6) Jorge Antonio. Privatización, reconstrucción y desarrollo socioeconómico en la Cuba post-Castro (Privatization, reconstruction and economic development in post-Castro Cuba).
7) Babun, Teo A. Preliminary study of the Impact of the Privatization of State-owned Enterprises in Cuba.
8) Espinosa Chepe, Oscar. La situación actual de la economía cubana y la posible utilización de la experiencia eslovaca en el tránsito a una economía de mercado (The current situation of the Cuban economy and the possible use of the Slovak experience in the transition to a market economy).
9) Sanguinetty, Jorge. Cuba realidad y destino (Cuba reality and destiny). Editorial Universal.
10) Perez Calderon, Rebecca. Algunas consideraciones sobre el comercio informal en la Ciudad de México (Some thoughts on informal trade in Mexico City).
Talking some months ago with a friend the polemic centered around the selective prohibitions maintained by our government against all common sense and that directly damage the Cuban people. Then my friend maintained that the last to be lifted, in his judgment, would be the prohibition against travel, but I maintained then, and I still believe it, that the last card of the deck that they will give up will be free access to the internet.
The strict control maintained during the revolutionary phase about all kinds of information, the iron censorship over all kinds of press and the absolute monopoly supported against all slogans over how much radio, publishing, writings, contests, magazines or pamphlets saw the light of day, and finally the more recent odyssey suffered by the ghostly fiber optic cable launched from Venezuela, which has been shrouded by a dense cloak of mystery — a topic officially excluded from our press — are elements that convince me of this.
The right to freely access information without censorship is inherent to the liberty of modern man, and opposing it is something like a confession of guilt by a retrograde power opposed to the most elemental rules of democracy. In the case of the Internet, that matter of touching a key in the morning while still in pajamas and having before your eyes as much publication as has been launched in the world — an unthinkable luxury within Cuba for the average Cuban — is a very serious matter.
I won’t fall for the naiveté of saying that in cyberspace everything is peachy and absolute transparency reins, free from the impurities of a tendentious press, but it is undeniable that, as never before, it offers opportunities to civil society to spread the truths that are contrary to the interests of the powers that be.
Internet censorship has been instituted as one of the crown jewels with respect to limiting our liberties.To oppose now in the second decade of the 21st century what has been one of the most ingenious creations of man, what has turned into a depository of his knowledge and spirituality like nothing else, is simply and plainly a crime. It is a duty of the Cuban people to demand tirelessly this right because from the very moment that it is won we will be much freer.
Although the final labor of censorship continues yielding its fruits. During the last weeks I have had, and I will have in the future, serious difficulties updating my page. Citizen Zero, like other blogs, will enter into a brief, involuntary silence, all for not having a site to connect us with the Internet. This makes me repeat once more the big question: if the Cuban government says it is in possession of the absolute truth, then . . .what does it fear? If the big world press publishes on its web its versions, instead of ours, so “ethical and objective,” publish theirs. It happens that I am an adult, university graduate and I know how to read; I want to access both with my own eyes, and I do not see the sense, now overwhelming me, that a reader on the National News on TV should go to the trouble of doing it for me.
The mystery has been solved, the enigma of the fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela has been cleared up because of an indiscretion. The Venezuelan Minister of Science and Technology affirmed a few days ago that it “is absolutely operational,” and what it is used for will depends on the government of Raul Castro. Just when we thought that the tendon lying in the depths of the sea had been eaten by sharks and turned into a home for coral, comes a sign that it is working. For now, it is just about words because there is no evidence that kilobytes are running through the cable, circulating data. No office has opened offering a domestic connection to anyone who wants to contract for it, and the prices of an hour’s navigation from a hotel continue to be prohibitive and abusive. In workplaces and schools the monthly quotas to peek into cyberspace continue scarce and supervised, while the official press makes no allusion to an immediate three thousand times increase in our bandwidth. The cable is, but it doesn’t exist; it exists, but not for us.
Between La Guaira, Venezuela, and Santiago de Cuba runs an umbilical cord that should turn us into a 21st Century country, remove our technological and communications handicaps. When it arrived at our shores in early 2011, not even the most pessimistic calculated that a year later we would remain in the same poverty of connectivity. There is not a single valid argument to delay any longer the mass influx of Cubans on the Web, other than the eternal fear of our authorities before the free flow of information. Every day that they delay our initiation as Internauts, they compromise the professional and social capital of this nation, they condemn us to the caboose of modernity. On the other hand, so much control only opens the door to a million and one illegal ways for people to get content from digital sites, blogs and on-line newspapers. Like the satellite dishes that are a reality which neither police operations nor threats from the newspaper Granma can eradicate, something similar will occur with access to the great WorldWideWeb. Pirate accounts, resold in the black market by State institution network administrators themselves, are already a preview of this cyber underground.
Amid so many calls for information transparency, it is paradoxical that one of the most pressing issues in our national life continues to be steeped in secrecy. Also too painful for the official journalists is that an official of a foreign government is the only person who has alluded to the actual state of such an expensive link. But even more sad is that the Internet is the new battlefield of the Cuban government and the fiber optic cable is the weapon — selective and hidden — in its media war.
To be happy in Cuba is a life style. It means to renounce many things but nothing comparable to renouncing true solidarity.
It’s always possible to shut yourself in like a turtle or a snail or a selfish and irresponsible human being. You can be happy if you fall in love, if you have a nice little house, some money, a paradise lost in the weeds. Possessions that kill our hunger to be alive. I am not annoyed with the tranquility, I just know there is something more beyond love.
The world of the human soul is so great that you can be happy or unhappy, regardless of the limitations your freedom constantly suffers… if you can learn a style of permanent renunciation, perhaps of evasion, even of survival, and forget about others. If you stop being responsible for yourself, for the future of your children, for your friends, for the desperately poor and villainous that the dictatorship of the State engenders in man, you will be happy in Cuba. If you renounce your freedom out of fear. If you accept the threat and withdraw, take cover, you will come to swell the sea of the anonymous people. In how many ways do the man and the woman lose their innate desire to be free?
I will emerge from the uterus one more time… I will be born into real life.
A drunk, off duty, enforcement agent, white, justified the racist Cuban police archetype that turns a black or mestizo into a presumed delinquent with an old refrain learned from his mother: “Not all blacks are thieves, but all thieves are black.”
The guy is not a bad person. He is a good father, a high caliber criminologist, and he does not consider himself racist. But it was what he learned in his childhood. Racial prejudices abound within Cuban families. Then they are carried into to real life.
The Havana agent’s attitude becomes that of the National Revolutionary Police on operation and raid days: of every 10 citizens that they stop on public thoroughfares, 8 are black. It is a mentality problem.
A couple of years ago, a friend who worked in a foreign firm told me that he was considering buying skin whitening creams. I did not believe him. “According to a market study, the cream would have great acceptance among Cubans,” he told me.
As I never saw them for sale in the foreign currency stores, I thought I had heard a joke of bad taste. In the book Afrocubans, the historian and anthropologist Maria Ileana Faguagua says that in 2009 a Spanish firm studied that possibility.
Several consulted persons, who are dedicated to the treatment of hair for women of the black race, said that those creams would sell like hotcakes. “One can think what one likes. But I have spent 20 years straightening ’kinks,’ and I’m telling you that many black and mixed women would give anything to lighten their skin and become white,” said a white Havana hairdresser.
Certainly, black pride on the island is not at its best moment. What has happened to black people has not been slight. It is always good to review history.
And it is that since 1886, when slavery was officially abolished in Cuba, blacks were left at a clear disadvantage with respect to whites. They had no property. No money. No lineage. And much less social recognition.
Years later in the Republic, their decisive support in the fight for independence was barely taken into account. In spite of that support, they only got work as stevedores, cane cutters or construction workers.
Many black families did not tranquilly accept their fate to live at the bottom. And some managed to climb the steep and difficult social ladder.
But they were few. Then, as is known, Fidel Castro came to power. And he decided to resolve racial differences by means of decrees and encampments where blacks and whites were mixed and would become “comrades.”
At first it was not bad. But racial prejudices in Cuba were very subtle. They were — and are — very deeply rooted in the minds of the majority. And that cannot be legislated. If you really try to demolish barriers, you need a systematic educational effort, in the long run, and to include blacks and mulattoes in the power structure.
That was already most difficult. One thing was that the personal bodyguards or soldiers sent to the Angolan civil war were the color of petroleum, and another, that they formed part of the status quo.
Although after 1959 blacks gained spaces, and shared carnivals, ball games, scholarships to study at the high schools in the countryside and university studies with whites, later no matter how much talent they had, they remained shackled within the mediocre professional group that retires without having been able to climb socially or politically.
From time to time a black man lands himself a high ranking government or party job. A matter of image. But blacks continue on the lowest social rung.
Of course, they are mostly in jail and on sports fields. With the exception of chess or swimming: according to old racist concepts, blacks are a failure in those disciplines.
Similarly, the dark skinned are good for playing musical instruments beyond the drums. Or singing boleros, Cuban folk songs, salsa, rap and reggaeton.
Now if they aspire to join the company of Alicia Alonso, they are looked at with suspicion. Almost with sadness, an old teacher told me: “I have nothing against blacks, but their anatomy causes them many problems in classical ballet.” She overlooked the triumphs of Carlos Acosta, a black Cuban ballet dancer in the London Ballet.
If in music and sports black usually have the one, also they have known how to get a slice of prostitution. Looking for something different or because of the myth that they are good in bed, many Europeans travel to Cuba to satiate themselves sexually with those of dark skin. Cheap pleasure.
But while the prostitutes are offered in clubs and night zones of Havana for 20 dollars,some black men keep seeing their future in the distance, above all in Europe.
The worst of the worst in Cuba today is to be a black, dissident woman. Ask community activist Sonia Garro. Graduated in nursing with brilliant grades, she suffered the racism in her own flesh from some creole mandarins.
One afternoon, proud of being the first professional in a family whose members had been dedicated to the worst paying jobs, with her best dress and pair of shoes, she went to the Astral theater to get her diploma. When it came time for the group photo, a provincial director asked her to move away: “Those of your color don’t turn out well in photos.”
Years later, Sonia told me that her anger was such that she left without getting her diploma. In a short time, she became a dissident.
Some days before the arrival of the Pope on the island, last March, forces of the political riot police entered her house as if they were terrorists. Using rubber bullets and excessive violence they charged Sonia and her husband, Ramon Alejandro Munoz, also an opponent. They awaited proceedings in harsh prisons. She was in a women’s jail, he in a punishment cell in the Combinado del Este because he refused to put on the prisoner’s uniform.
Blacks in Cuba cultivate their destiny with the few opportunities they have to triumph. Their failures are triple their successes. A high percentage live badly and eat worse. Their patience is exhausted. And they have decided to leave behind being culprits of their race. Like Sonia Garro.
Ivan Garcia
Photo: President of Citizens for Racial Integration, Juan Antonio Madrazo (on foot in the center, with pink shirt) with relatives, friends and members of the Mystery Company of Voodoo, during a celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, last March. They are all proud of belonging to the black race. The woman on foot on the left, with the pink dress and blue handkerchief, is Teresa Luna, Madrazo’s mother, who has received threats from State Security, according to what Leonardo Calvo has denounced.
The plane touched down in the middle of a Havana night and the tourists pass through the international airport terminal where dozens of Cubans offer them taxis, rooms for rent, rum or mulatas. A young man approaches a short dumpy visitor and, squatting close to his ear, asks “Mister, you like cigars?” but the answer comes with a strong and well-known accent, that tells the daring vendor the origin of the traveler. These are the new Russians, who come not for business but for pleasure, who have stopped calling each other “comrade” and who now carry their Visas or Mastercards. In short, they seem less and less like those who for decades sustained our social experiment.
