In November, 2006, the President of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, responded to a question about the lack of an independent press in Cuba by pointing to the existence of the magazine Vitral. “Read the magazine Vitral,” Alarcón suggested, “unlike the moderate posture of the Catholic Church, the magazine is harshly critical of the Revolution. […]
Balseros in Alabama: Refugee Resettlement Experiences and the Divided Fates of Cuban Rafters in the New South
In July of 1995, I began an assignment as a social worker for Catholic Social Services’ Refugee Resettlement Program in Mobile, Alabama. I was hired for the specific task of receiving and resettling Cuban refugees from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in southeastern Cuba, where over 20,000 Cuban balseros (rafters) were still being […]
Entrepreneurship, Informality, and the Second Economy: Cuba’s Underground Economy in Comparative Perspective
In developing countries much of the teeming mass does not consist of oppressed legal proletarians but of oppressed extralegal small entrepreneurs. —(De Soto 2000: 216) Instead of the Trojan Horse that will ultimately break down the fortress of “mercantilist” privilege, the informal sector represents part of the routine operation of capitalism as it is presently […]
Between Ideology and Pragmatism: The Revolution and the Private Sector before the Special Period, 1959-1990
It is not in devising a system, That the fearful dangers lurk; It is not in devising a system, But in making the system work. For the working out of the system Is not in the hands of the great; But rests on the shoulders of poor little clerks Like Mary and Jane and Kate. […]
Santiago vs. Havana: Cuba’s Underground Economy in Comparative Perspective
El socialismo además de justicia, es eficiencia y es calidad. 1 This celebratory motto can be found plastered on the walls and storefront windows in dollar-enterprises all across today’s Cuba. Whether in retail dollar-stores, cafes and restaurants that cater to a dollar-paying clientele, or in the many newly-built or renovated tourist hotels, the declaration is […]