Racism in Cuba.

Roberto Zurbano

Roberto Zurbano, Cuban intellectual and editor and publisher of Casa de las Americas (a cultural government organization and editorial that gives grants and prizes and is the bigger promotion center for artists and intellectuals in Cuba), wrote an article in the New York times on March 23^rd of this year stating that the Cuban Revolution had not yet begun for Afro-Cubans. This former vice president of Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), contested the claim that Cuba has rid itself of racism. The Cuban Revolution sought to destroy social, gender, and racial divisions; however, according to Zurbano racism permeates delegation of jobs and delineates geographic boundaries. Yet this obvious inequality is denied pointblank by the government. I read this article just before my own trip to Cuba, so I was intrigued to find if these accusations were merely anti-revolutionary propaganda or if indeed racism persisted 54 years after the revolution that fought to wipe out the prejudicial relic of colonialism.

            Understanding racial relations in Cuba means going back to the 19^th century plantation society. It means going back to Spanish imperialism. It was that system that created the notion of different races based on skin color in order to maintain a steady, cheap supply of black/African labor. It is both this hierarchical racial dynamic as well a compulsion to maintain control of labor and its resources and products that has remained consistent from colonial times though independence (1492-1898), and is still visibly at work in post-revolutionary Cuba. It is the opinion of this author, that regardless of revolutionary rhetoric, racism is alive and well in modern-day Cuba. The following paragraphs explain my position. After ten days in Cuba I can tell that racism is alive and well, and here´s why.

"From my neighboor defending socialism" -CDR

            The first thing a foreigner might notice upon arrival to Havana is the massive amounts of propaganda in government buildings, in graffiti, and in media – even their currency carries the faces of the new heroes of the nation that freed Cuba from the Batista dictatorship and the Spaniards. These “Founding Fathers” (no mothers to be seen…) share a common aesthetic – they’re mostly white. Che was an Argentinean doctor, Fidel and Raul are children of a Spanish soldier and plantation owner, and José Martí who was a first generation creole, or a son of Spaniards. Racial order was fundamental to many of their lives with a working class supporting the possibility of their privilege and power. 

A billboard in the airport featuring the "Authentic Cuba" slogan

           

The Cretins

 My first experience with these images was coming from the airport to my hotel in Havana. Every sign seemed to give quotes from these heroes showcasing their determination and ultimate victory, and others that touted the “Authenticity” of Cuba as unique in culture, ambience, and resistance to Yankee imperialism. If one is uncertain of who Cuba’s enemies may be, a mural in the Museum of the Revolution (the Presidential palace before the revolution – nice irony) entitled “The Cretins” features four individuals: Fulgencio Batista, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., and George W. Bush. These images are not just small roadside billboards or graffiti of Che; huge structures have been erected to visibly portray these revolutionary heroes. A landmark that cannot be missed is the Plaza de la Revolución. It features an obelisk 109 meters tall with an observation tower. Below is an 18 meter tall statue of José Martí below. From anywhere in the square you can see outlines of the faces of Che and Camilo Cienfuegos that adorn the façades of two buildings. There is obviously an investment in the power of daily visual reminders.

             Within these images of Cuba’s national heroes it’s easy to forget about Antonio Maceo Grajales. Maceo was a popular mulatto general in the War of Independence. An unofficial history states that he died waiting on ammunition that never arrived- left unsupported by the independence army, uncomfortable having a dark skinned hero entering Havana. While he’s in the pages of every history book I’ve ever read on Cuba, and rightfully so, images of this hero are almost hard to find, certainly in comparison

 Antonio Maceo, present on the five peso bill

to Che, Camilo, and Fidel (whom we all know on a first name basis). This is indicative of a larger trend/strategy that I found over and over again in Cuba: racial tokenism. By including a few blacks within the revolutionary pantheon, and giving some blacks access to good government jobs, the government is freed from accusations of racism, as they always have reliable examples. But if one looks at the larger picture – how neighborhoods are overwhelmingly racially divided, percentages of those with good government jobs, and by trying to find an Afro-Cuban icon (that’s not on the Buena Vista Social Club) it’s quite obvious that the aforementioned racial hierarchy is still in place.

            But these are merely the perceptions of a traveler. I knew I had to go deeper and see how Cubans themselves spoke about race, gender and the economy, so I set out on foot to traverse as many neighborhoods as I could and speak to whomever I met. I started out walking along the Malecón (the waterfront avenue, where most people from the poor neighborhoods hang out), and was immediately approached by two incredibly skilled street musicians.

Street musicians

Puente de Hierro, between two of Havana's most wealthier zones

            When I asked them how they made money, they each listed off four or five jobs, but agreed that playing music by the ocean was the most lucrative option. When giving them a tip, they showed a preference for CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso, which is needed to purchase “luxury” items and is “equal” to a US dollar) rather than CUP (Cuban Peso, which can only purchase limited domestic goods; the local currency is 20CUP = 1CUC). The CUC is inflated and carries a higher value, so mainly rich Cubans and foreigners trade in CUC, while middle and working class Cubans trade mainly in Cuban peso. This difference delineates where one shops and what one buys – seeming to reinforce class divisions, which reveal the racialized nature of society. Visually, I can easily say that there is a direct correlation between skin color and residencial geography. Most Afro-Cubans live in Havana Vieja, San Isidro, Centro Havana, Puente de Hierro and other neighborhoods to the south, and most light skinned Cubans live in Miramar and Vedado. Crossing the lines between one neighborhood and the other is often visually striking.

            While walking along the Malecón and other of the more urban and touristy areas of Havana, conve

A young mulatto being arrested for offer his "services" to the turist

rsations with all walks of life almost assuredly seemed to turn to sex within a matter of minutes. A common segue repeated often was “When you come to Cuba you have to smoke a cigar, drink rum, and sleep with a Cuban.” One bold young gentleman explained the need for the latter as “Cubans have 39 moves and never repeat one.” Another guy a few days later repeated the same thing but with “69 moves.” ;-) But the sexual imperative I found also to be incredibly racially charged, especially with the rampant and inescapable prostitution found in the dark corners in the Malecón as well as the quite affluent bar at the Hotel Nacional.

Prostitution is prevalent in the city - and can racially distinguished

Several guys explained to me how prostitution was organized racially according to the clients’ taste – Europeans wanted black women and Latinos tended to want white, blond women. You can basically have any kind of sex you want, with any color and size person you want, for whatever you want to pay if you care to look. That said, in most of the places I could afford you’re much more likely to find Afro-Cuban than light-skinned Cuban “jineteras.” This is the official euphemism used to refer to sex workers in order to avoid calling them prostitutes- because, just as with racism there is no prostitution in Cuba.

Sign on a "bicitaxi"- "If you want sex, smile!"

Sexual imagery is also projected in the art I found in the main tourist market. Pictures of naked women abound and it seems that the darker the skin of the women the more erotically they are portrayed. However, this only goes so far. I never saw a picture of a naked black woman (although I’m not saying they don’t exist necessarily). The black women in the photos were old women with rags tied around their heads smoking cigars – smacking of the poverty during and after colonial slavery. This image was everywhere.

            In the Plaza de Catedral, a beautiful colonial area in the city to have a coffee (or a Cuba Libre), black women are dressed in colonial garb selling flowers and offered pictures of themselves pretending to smoke oversized cigars for a tip. Afro-Cuban men dressed as 1940s musicians reminded me (as I’m sure it was intended to) of Benny Moré.  Both performed scripts that tourists could easy recognize and consume. Both performances seemed to mollify images of poor black people of Cuba’s past. These characters acting out their carefree roles also helped to mask the extreme poverty of

A Benny Moré impersonator approaches a tourist

contemporary Afro-Cubans. Speaking with these independent performers taught me something about the formal and informal markets in the Cuban economy. Based on what I gleaned from our conversation as well as from my own observations, these performers served a role in the Cuban government’s plan to market a new revitalized Havana tourist center, that will include a marina, hotels, a seaside road, and a brewery.

This is part of a larger plan led by Eusebio Leal, one of the most powerful men in Havana, to turn the city into a major world tourism site based on the improvement of the historic and most marketable part of the city. z The government limits the amount of people allowed to engage in this (in)formal business by requiring them to purchase licenses and belong to cooperatives. Furthermore, these tourist areas are zoned in ways that keep the tourists away from the poorer, more

Cruise Ship "Delphin" at the Havana docks

Afro-Cuban areas, and give poorer Cubans incentives to stay away from the tourist areas (also achieved through the division of currency mentioned earlier and old fashioned policing). Regardless, the government is supporting independent businesses, but, as Zurbano has noted, the support is overwhelmingly for “white” or lighter skinned businessmen who have always had more claim to such economic power.

This inequality has forced those unable to gain access to this government support to resort to informal, illegal business practices that have created a sophisticated network of corruption. Poor Cubans often run clandestine private businesses, selling their bodies and stolen goods, often having to pay bribes to police or other whistleblowers to stay out of jail. That said, even the informal “businesses” are still controlled (or allowed) by the state. Ultimately, regardless of where the money goes or how it gets there, it all circulates back to the government. This is yet another mechanism through which racial inequality is constructed and maintained on the island – by refusing support to Afro-Cubans and forcing them into an informal, unsteady market furthering their dependence on the state and decreasing their social legitimacy.

 

A private storefront

            This lack of social legitimacy not only limits Afro-Cubans economically; it also influences the ways other Cubans view Afro-Cubans creating pejorative stereotypes. Several of the people I talked to seemed to have a “pero” (“but”) syndrome. “Here in Cuba, we’re not racist, but….” “Well, I’m not a racist, but…” – “they are lazy,” “their men have the biggest penises,” “I won’t date black women because they’re always asking for things.” So, while no Cubans, black or white, believed that Cuba had a race problem, per se, all of them acknowledged and repeated racial stereotypes based on sex, work ethic, and intelligence – they’re hypersexual endowed lovers, lazy, and unintelligent (except for an unusual talent for manipulation and thievery). As the white Cuban saying goes “the truth is that not all blacks are thieves but all thieves are black.”

            While these stereotypes are just broad generalizations, they help to sustain racism that seems to remain invisible to the Cubans with whom I spoke. It makes sense right? If racism was produced and perpetuated by colonial powers that 1) codified race, and 2) used that codification to maintain a continuous labor force that benefited a particular, European elite, AND the revolution eliminated racism and the need for the previous

 Beyoncé and Jay-Z make waves in their visit to the city

model of capitalism, then racial inequality couldn’t possibly exist 54 years later... unless racism didn't actually go away, and capitalism has managed to survive in some form. From what I saw, racial division is evident: geographically, socially, economically, and even in the image the Revolution chooses to perpetuate. It is also apparent that there are still huge class divisions in Havana which seem to be inextricably tied to skin color. Yet, how is it that Cubans don’t call a spade a spade? Is it because the state is the moral authority – equipped with its own new pantheon of deities embodied in the heroes of the Revolution, who unequivocally succeeded in their mission to level the racial and social playing field? Is it because there is a contingent of Afro-Cubans among the upper echelons of society and in Cuba’s heroic history?

A restaurant sign displaying the accepted and dominant discourse of racial equality

            The week I was in Havana Zurbano recanted his former statements made in the New York Times, the controversial Django Unchained was released in Cuban theaters, power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z vacationed in Havana, and Fidel made a rare appearance to an elementary school with a photo op with dark-skinned students and teachers. Zurbano said the NYT had manipulated his statement that “The Revolution has not yet begun for Afro-Cubans” to “The Revolution is not finished for Afro-Cubans.” 

Fidel Castro visits an elementary school with predominantly Afro-Cuban students

His retraction came ironically after he was demoted from Editorial Chair to “analyst” of Casa de las Americas. Perhaps Zurbano thought he could acknowledge this failure of the Revolution after Raul Castro had already recognized the persistence of racism in Cuba in the speech announcing he will step down from office in five years. However, his demotion, and the huge controversy following his statements, speak otherwise. So, has the revolution begun for Afro-Cubans, or are they still waiting after 54 years ago? Was the warm welcome of Beyoncé and Jay-Z part of government initiative to improve the nagging persistence of racism that Raul referred to, or is it just tokenism to obscure larger racial injustice? You should see for yourselves, except Americans….you lot have to wait for them to lift the embargo (unless you’re Beyoncé or Jay-Z). ;-)