The International Journal of Cuban Studies最新文献

{"title":"The Population Dynamic Challenge to Cuban Socialism","authors":"Judith Hernández, G. Foladori","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0025","url":null,"abstract":"1. the demographic transition in CubaThe theory of Demographic Transition explains those demographic changes that are the result of economic development. According to this theory, there are different stages to demographic transition, measured fundamentally - although in no way exclusively - by birth and morbidity rates.The Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (Centro Latino Americano de Demografia (CELADE) 1992) created a model adjusted to the population conditions of Latin America retaken by Chackiel (2004). The model took into account the population growth based on birth and morbidity rates, the age structure and the relation of dependency between those who are not working and the economically active population (EAP). In this study, Cuba was grouped with Argentina, Chile and Uruguay among those countries experiencing an advanced phase of increased demographic transition.Several years ago, Cuba experienced a population drop, caused by its demographic regime1 and emigration. The Annual Natural Growth Rate (ANGR) has fallen significantly. While in 1960, it was 25 per 1,000 which corresponded to a developing country with a considerable youth population and high birth rates, in 2006, the rate was less than 3 per 1,000, which is comparable to a developed country with an aged population. In less than two generations, demo- graphically speaking, Cuba has gone from an underdeveloped country with a young population to a developed country with an old population.Cuba has experienced an early and total demographic transition similar to that of developed countries. However, unlike the developed countries, Cuba has not arrived at that point as a result of industrialisation. The Cuban development model, oriented toward satisfying needs rather than the market, has undergone - in demographic terms - a similar transition to that of advanced capitalist countries, but via a different path. This in itself poses a challenge to development: Can a country sustain an increasingly aged population without a simultaneous advance in labour productivity that counterbalances the increasing weight of a part of the inactive population on the shoulders of the active workforce?2. the Population dynamic in CubaThe total population of Cuba in 1990 was a little more than 10 million inhabitants (10,662,148). Ten years later, in 2010, it barely passed 11 million (11,241,161), an increase of 5.4 per cent, which is considered a slow rate of growth. Since 2004, it has experienced a deep stagnation in the population with periods of absolute decline in the periods 2006-2008 and 2010. In 2009, the population grew by 652 compared to 2008, and 2011 reported an increase of 6,764. However, while the population appears to be in recovery, preliminary data from the Population and Housing Census (PHC) (2012) (ONE 2012) shows a drastic decrease of the population by 83,991 according to the calculation of the statistical system, the population was 11,132,934 in total.To analyse the performa","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132006717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Democracy Still in Motion: The 2013 Election Results in Cuba","authors":"A. August","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0087","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionThe elections to the Cuban Parliament, or the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP), took place on February 3, 2013. The voting trends, tendencies and weaknesses in the electoral system identified in my recent book-length study of elections from 1993-2008 have been confirmed by the 2013 voting results (August, 2013).1 This kind of detailed endeavour, although virtually unique, is worthwhile, especially in light of the disinformation and misinformation disseminated by supporters of 'regime change' in Cuba across the spectrum from the so-called 'left' to the right, who replace facts, figures and a balanced analysis with cliches and ignorance.One of the most important voting results to take into account is the 'united' or slate vote (voto unido). This refers to the voting system used in national and provincial elections, in which citizens can vote for the entire slate of candidates in their municipality, as opposed to exercising a selective vote for one or more, but not all, of the candidates in multi-seat municipal constituencies (August, 2013: 174-78; Table 7.9).2 In the elections from 1993 to 2008, the government, the parliament presidency, the party, the mass organizations and the press appealed very strongly to citizens to vote for the whole slate, for the voto unido. However, the proportion voting for the slate vote declined from 95.06 per cent in 1993 to 90.90 per cent in 2008. Ipso facto, the selective vote increased substantially from 1993 to 1998 - more than doubling (August, 2013: Table 7.9).the voto unido in 2013With regard to this trend, at the time and as part of my fieldwork in 2007-2009, several specialists from the academic world were interviewed and their views collected. For example, University of Havana political scientist Emilio Duharte Diaz points to weaknesses in the composition of the candidacies commissions responsible for drawing up lists of candidates to be nominated and offers some suggestions for improvement. Specifically concerning the voting pattern cited above, slate versus selective vote, he considers the election trend as a reflection of the 'critical revolutionary vote', meaning that the citizens are not going beyond the boundaries of the Revolution and the Cuban political system, but rather expressing their discontent with some important aspects of it, with the goal of improving it. If the candidacies commissions are not expanded and further perfected, Duharte Diaz points out, when it comes time to vote, citizens will feel that they are caught up in an 'electoral straitjacket'. (August, 2013: 171-73, 180). Another political system specialist, Jesus Garcia Brigos, reveals a concrete example of how the candidacies commissions, if not improved, can lead to negative consequences (August, 2013: 173). As for Rafael Hernandez, editor of the critical review Temas, he calls for a change in procedure for the candidacies commissions as well as its composition; otherwise, people will consider that the list of","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"138 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116378405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Socially responsible enterprise in Cuba: a positive role model for Corporate Social Responsibility?’","authors":"D. Baden, S. Wilkinson","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0055","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the unique institutional environment of socialist Cuba, where currently a process of controlled marketization and expansion of private enterprise is taking place. The article investigates business behaviour in Cuba with particular reference to implicit assumptions relating to socially responsible enterprise, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the term is understood in Western Liberal Democracies. It draws upon a series of interviews with business practitioners and business commentators (both Cuban and non-Cuban residents on the island). The interviews focused on the participants’ awareness of business ethics and socially responsible enterprise, and the cultural differences in assumptions and expectations relating to the concept of CSR between the Cuban and non-Cuban interviewees. We find that Cuba at this early stage of tentative marketization presents a positive role model of socially responsible enterprise. Both the highly regulated State economy and the embedded norms and values of social equity that have emerged as a consequence of Cuba’s socialist revolution facilitate business social responsibility. The relevance of this research to current debates in relation to CSR is discussed and it is argued that capitalist economies may similarly benefit from tighter regulatory control and by cultivating more pro-social business norms that prioritise ethical over economic concerns.","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133641163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cuban Migration to the United States and the Educational Self-Selection Problem","authors":"Aleida Cobas Valdés, A. F. Sainz","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0041","url":null,"abstract":"(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionUntil the early twentieth century, Cuba was considered a country of immigrants. Cuban people have been shaped by three major migration flows: European (mainly Spanish), African and Chinese, the most important being the Spanish power, involving around one and a half million people (Perez de la Riva 2000). In the second half of the nineteenth century, one-third of the Cuban population was born outside the island.From 1850 to 1899, 900,000 immigrants entered Cuba, primarily Spanish immigrants, representing 90 per cent of European immigration: mainly men working in the sugar and tobacco industry (Perez de la Riva 2000). In 1899, 10.97 per cent of the Cuban population was born abroad, 81 per cent of which were male (Demographic Yearbook of Cuba 1961 [1965]). From 1902 to 1932, 1.25 million immigrants entered Cuba, of which 800,000 were Spanish.After 1926, immigration declined until becoming insignificant in 1930. The global crisis of 1929 and the subsequent collapse of the sugar industry in the early years of the 1930s resulted in the loss of the immigration country status that characterised Cuba up until then (Aja Diaz 2002). In 1953, the proportion of people born abroad dropped to 3.95 per cent (Demographic Yearbook of Cuba 2010).Cuba's external migration rate, defined as the ratio of the difference in the number of immigrants and emigrants with respect to average population, per 1,000 population has been negative for several decades. In the last 30 years, it reached its lowest level in 1980 and 1994. In 1980, the figure reached 14.6 per 1,000 and in 1994 4.4 per 1,000 (Demographic Yearbook of Cuba 2010), coinciding with two major waves of migration from Cuba to the US, the first known as the Puente Maritimo del Mariel and the second as the Crisis de los Balseros.US has been for Cuba, and for other Latin American countries, the main destination of migration. The US Census for 2010 revealed that 50.5 million people (16.36% of the entire population) in the US are Hispanics, and this number rose from 35.3 million in 2000 to 50.5 million in 2010 (US Census Bureau 2010). Of these Hispanics, 1.12 million were born in Cuba, representing 3 per cent of foreigners living in the US (Motel and Patten 2012).Based on this data, the aim of this article is to analyse the characteristics, mainly educational, of Cubans who have emigrated to the US and compare them with those of Cubans who have remained in Cuba. In this way, we intend to address the self-selection problem among Cuban emigrants to the US in terms of educational levels and analyse the importance of educational levels on the probability of Cuban migration.The self-selection problem means that rational agents optimise their decision to participate in different markets, work, education, migration, etc. (Hotz 2011), and therefore, the migrants choose markets that offer more attractive expectations. Roy's (1951) model was the first to address this problem,","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"445 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129434071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Older Persons and the Cuban Reform Process","authors":"D. Strug","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.6.1.0009","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionCubans are living longer, which, combined with a low birth rate, has reduced the proportion of the population in the workforce. This adversely affects the economy, which is one reason government has introduced major structural reforms that are transforming the economic life of the country (Sanchez Egozcue 2012). The reforms involve a mixed economy, a reconfiguration of the social contract, a gradual reduction of massive social benefits based on subsidies and a movement away from excessive paternalism, idealism and egalitarianism by means of official guidelines (Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution 2010).This article presents data from a qualitative study of 35 older Cubans (persons 60+ years of age) who were asked their views about the reform process and its impact on their lives. This process has important implications for the country's fast growing and vulnerable older population many of whom are disproportion- ately affected by the hardships of life, receive pensions on which they cannot live, reside in overcrowded homes and suffer shortages in food and transport (Strug 2009). Older persons receive social protection in the form of food subsidies, health-care and social assistance.The question of how older persons view the reform process emerged from a qualitative study I conducted in January 2012 and January 2013 with 35 older individuals in Havana. This article presents data from that investigation. The study questions were the following: (1) How do older persons view the reforms? and (2) What impact, if any, are they having on their lives? I wondered whether older persons might be opposed to the reform process, because it involves a reduction in social benefits and has raised the retirement age. The Appendix discusses the methods used in this investigation, the study sample and the need for future research.backgroundEconomic problems and the reform processCuba's economic problems and the attempt by its leaders to address them have received widespread attention (Chase 2011; Mesa-Lago and Vidal-Alejandro 2010; Pujol 2011). These problems include a deteriorating trade imbalance and foreign debt, low productivity and stagnation in growth of the population, reflected in the growing ageing sector (Farber 2011).Cuba's leaders state they can no longer sustain the high costs for some of the expensive services it gives to the overall population, including health-care and social services. They have reduced somewhat the share of social services in total expenditures. According to one expert on the Cuban economy, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, social expenditures as a percentage of the state budget fell from 55.3 per cent to 53.1 per cent between 2007 and 2010, and as a percentage of GDP they peaked at 36.4 per cent in 2009 and fell to 34 per cent in 2010 (Mesa-Lago and Perez-Lopez 2013: 140). The reform process involves a reconfiguration of the social contract to reduce these expenditures (Sanchez Egozcue 2012).Th","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129924475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Recent Transformations in the Cuban Economy","authors":"J. Rodríguez","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0102","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis article traces the origins and reasons for the 'Lineamientos de la Politica Economica y Social del Partido y la Revolucion' (Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution) adopted by the sixth Communist Party of Cuba Congress held in April 2011. It explains how this broad economic plan envisages a transformation of the Cuban economy utilising market mechanisms that are aimed at preserving socialism, in contrast to the former socialist countries where the reforms that were undertaken changed the system, rather than adapting it. The article uses economic data to discuss the progress made in the adoption of the principles contained in the Guidelines, analyses the problems that remain to be solved and offers some predictions as to the course of future developments. It concludes that the new reforms will allow Cuba to move gradually towards a sustainable socialist society without abandoning the principles of solidarity that characterise it, and which will compare favourably to the alternative that neoliberalism offers today.Keywords: Guidelines, economy, socialism, developmentIntroductionThe adoption of a new economic policy, as contained in the 2011 'Lineamientos de la Politica Economica y Social del Partido y la Revolucion' (Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution), has initiated a period of profound change in the Cuban economy (PCC 2011). This strategy represents a contemporary response, based on the accumulated experience derived from Cuba's socialist model, first adopted in 1961, to fundamental problems facing the development of the country. This is in contrast to the former socialist countries where the reforms that were undertaken changed the system, rather than adapting it as in Cuba.Recognition of the need for such changes was outlined in the speech by President Raul Castro on 26 July 2007, when he made the case for a deep examination of Cuba's economic situation, pointing out, 'There is no issue concerning national development and the conditions of life of the people that has not been responsibly dealt with and whose solution is not being worked on'. Nonetheless he went on to warn, 'I must stress however that there will be no spectacular solutions. Time is needed and above all for serious and consistent work' (Castro 2007).The Trajectory of Revolutionary DevelopmentSeeing the current economic transformation as part of a continuous process in Cuba's socialist development, it is important to recognise that during the first 30 years of the Revolution, economic policy went through various stages. There were periods when priority was given to political mobilisation, and others when special attention was paid to the use of mechanisms of economic stimulation, but whatever strategy was employed, a significant volume of external financing was indispensable to achieving the development objectives set. However, it has been argued that Cuba might have been able to rely less on ex","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126104799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cuban Civil Society during and beyond the Special Period","authors":"Velia Cecilia Bobes","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0168","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis article analyses the 'rebirth of civil society' in Cuba as a consequence of the 'Special Period' and the changes that have occurred in the last 25 years. It examines the evolution of civil society and the constitution of the discursive field in which it has been defined, to explain how and to what limit the different discourses legitimise and enable the understanding of the plurality of actors as well as their potential for action and influence in the political processes. The analysis is divided into two stages: the founding phase (the 1990s) that begins with the arrival of the Special Period; and the consolidation stage, which starts with the new century, in particular since 2007 with the 'updating model' that has begun to push deeper changes. This periodisation, in stages that are associated with different state strategies, seeks a comparison to assess the impacts of each of the challenges and proposals facing civil society.Keywords: Cuba, civil society, actors, discourses, Special Period, reformsIntroductionThe 'rebirth of Cuban civil society' is irrevocably tied to the economic crisis of the 1990s. The 'Special Period in Times of Peace' marked the beginning of a series of changes in the economic model to guarantee the survival of socialism in extremely difficult conditions. With these economic transformations, the 'mobilised society' (of the 'mass organisations', the CDR, the FMC, etc.) showed the first signs of pluralisation and heterogeneity; associations emerged based on non-state solidarity networks; some social areas started to slip away from state control and a discursive field about civil society began to surface. Faced with a (discrete) withdrawal of the state and the fracture of the all-encompassing symbolic universe, although the border between the social (civil) and the state remained fuzzy, 'civil society' began to appear as a set of social actors, more diverse and pluralistic than that described by the former vision of the 'revolutionary people'.During the last 25 years, the reforms have undergone various rhythms, dynamics and fluctuations associated with the diverse political and economic circumstances (as much in the associative sphere of civil society as in its discursive field). The aim of this work is to analyse the evolution of both spheres of Cuban civil society, from its '(re-)appearance' to the present day, and explain how and to what extent the different discourses allow us to grasp, assimilate and legitimise the plurality of actors in the current scenario, in order to evaluate their potential to act and influence political processes.The analysis is divided into two broad stages: the foundational phase (the 1990s) which begins with the onset of the crisis and the economic reform of 1992-95, and the consolidation phase, which started with the new century (particularly from the last five years), the transfer of power to Raul Castro and the 'updating of the model' which has begun to push deeper changes. This d","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"53 26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126612985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The 'Cuban Spring' Fallacy: The Current Incarnation of a Persistent Narrative","authors":"Lana L. Wylie, Lisa M. Glidden","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0140","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis paper explores the role of communications technology in the U.S.-Cuban relationship. It argues that the idea that anti-government dissidents will use the Internet, cell phones, and social media to foment a popular uprising on the island, modelled after the 'Arab Spring' is flawed because it fails to take into account the uniqueness of the Cuban situation. The paper then explores how it has become possible for this idea to have gained such traction in certain discourses in the United States. In doing so, the paper considers the history of paternalism and imperial hubris that has dominated U.S. policy toward Cuba, with an emphasis on the relationship during the Castro era. The paper demonstrates that current U.S. policy rests on fallacious assumptions about Cuba, the Cuban state and the relationship between the Cuban state and the Cuban people. The belief in a 'Cuban Spring' and in the idea that the United States could engender revolution in Cuba via communications technology is part of this larger narrative.Keywords: Arab Spring, Cuban Spring, communications, technology, social mediaIntroductionWhen Republican primary candidate, Newt Gingrich, called for the United States to provoke a 'Cuban Spring' in January 2012 he was echoing a popular idea that technology, especially social media, could ignite revolution. This idea was popularised by the revolutions in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt in the spring of 2011 and somewhat earlier by the use of digital media in the protests in Iran after the 2009 election, known as the 'Green Revolution'. Appeals for the United States to help start similar uprisings in Cuba, now dubbed a 'Cuban Spring', have been heard ever since. This paper will explore the role of communications technology in the U.S.-Cuban relationship. In particular, it argues that the idea that anti-government dissidents will use the Internet, cell phones, and social media to foment a popular uprising on the island, modelled after the 'Arab Spring' is flawed for a number of reasons. This belief rests on a popular though problematic link between technology and revolution that has since been shown to have been overblown even in the 'Arab Spring' cases. Although this idea makes for interesting headlines it rests on a number of problematic assumptions about Cuba and does not take into account the uniqueness of the Cuban situation, in particular the state of communications technology in Cuba, the presence of civil society, the strength of the opposition movement, and political opinion on the island.The paper then explores how it has become possible for this idea to have gained such traction in certain discourses in the United States. In doing so, we consider the history of paternalism and imperial hubris that has dominated U.S. policy toward Cuba, with an emphasis on the relationship during the Castro era. Since the earliest days of the Cuban Revolution, American policy has been guided by the conviction that the Cuban state is near collapse ","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"145 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133873264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond Essence: Performing Gender and Sexuality in Ena Lucía Portela's Cien Botellas En Una Pared","authors":"Karen S. Christian","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0184","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractSet against a backdrop of the chaotic, crumbling Cuban capital and the multiple crises of the Special Period, Ena Lucia Portela's 2002 novel Cien botellas en una pared portrays both consequences of economic collapse and the breakdown of traditional paradigms of gender and sexuality. In the text, the connection between biological sex and gender performance appears to be arbitrary; virtually all of the female characters are lesbians, while the male characters are either gay or emasculated heterosexuals. This essay argues that Portela's novel problematises the (hetero)sexist norms that have persisted in Cuban society, dismantling patriarchy in favour of a fluid, amorphous social structure in which power itself becomes ephemeral. While the image of La Habana presented in Cien botellas en una pared is far from utopian, the text nonetheless questions rigid hierarchies of gender and sexuality to a degree that is trailblazing in Cuban fiction of the Periodo especial.Keywords: Special Period, Cuban fiction, gender, sexuality, heterosexism, powerThe second half of the twentieth century in Cuba was marked by political, social, and economic transformations with wide-ranging consequences. The first of these transformations was initiated by the 1959 Revolution; the second, by the 1989 collapse of Cuba's principal trading partner, the Soviet Union. In one of his official proclamations, Fidel Castro named this crisis El periodo especial en tiempo de paz. The devastating implications of the Special Period for the Cuban economy - and the Cuban people - have been the subject of volumes of writing since the early 1990s. These publications, both scholarly and creative, include a significant body of literature devoted to the deterioration of Havana. Odette Casamayor Cisneros' 2004 essay on 'las ruinas habaneras' is exemplary of this focus on the decaying capital and the transformation of its social structure as a result of the crisis. Casamayor Cisneros asserts that in novels of the Periodo especial, the image of the city in ruins serves as a reflection of the social and ethical changes that began to permeate Cuban society (73). Likewise, in an essay on fiction produced by Cuban women writers during and immediately after the Periodo especial, Maria del Mar Lopez-Cabrales (2007) highlights the recurring portrayal of 'una Habana decadente y deprimente' and of characters 'que tratan de subsistir a diario con el estomago vacio... y buscando a diario con una jaba cualquier cosa para conseguir la alimentacion basica' (181).While such widespread shortages affected virtually all Cubans during the Periodo especial, Cuban women arguably bore the brunt of the catastrophic economic adjustments occurring in the 1990s. Economic restructuring caused many professional women to be redirected into part-time, temporary, low-paying service sector occupations with limited opportunities for mobility, and in general 'many of the gains women made in the labor force as a result of the","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116872822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Lot Done but Much More to Do: An Assessment of the Cuban Economic Transformation So Far","authors":"C. J. T. Cordoví, S. Wilkinson","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.5.2.0117","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThe aim of this paper is to provide a brief summary of the last two years of the process of transformation in Cuba from a primarily economic perspective. It consists of five parts: an introduction, which makes it clear that the changes are not merely economic; a first section that deals with the urgent needs of economic development; a second section that seeks to highlight how the process has been gaining in depth and scope and now focuses more on how to define the paths of development than on survival; a third section that evaluates the results in two perspectives, from the dynamics of the process of change and from the country's economic performance in recent years (although with restrictions due to data availability); and conclusions.Keywords: economy, Guidelines, results, performanceIntroductionTwo years after the Lineamientos (Guidelines) were approved as the programmatic document of the changes being made in Cuba it is time to take stock, however brief, of their meaning and what has been achieved.The transformation undertaken has undoubted precedents that cannot be ignored, but it responds to a reality that is qualitatively different from that which pertained during previous processes, just as it has references to the international situation, but neither are they exactly the same.The scope of the changes (which the Guidelines have caused) is holistic and has not only led to changes in the economy, but is accompanied by the deepest, and possibly the most questioned, institutional changes that have occurred in the country since the mid-1970s. In fact, these transformations challenge the Cuba of the present and introduce logical questions about Cuba's future. They are not only associated with a form of economic operation, but also the political and ideological superstructure that must promote and legitimise it.They are totally legitimate in the sense that the country that is becoming transformed sustains a society built from a socialism (that of the 1970s and 80s) that replicated patterns generated in Europe and that, after 30 years, failed to generate the means to eliminate the structural deformations of underdevelopment. This society is now moving towards a different socialism, one that is Cuban, to be built upon national conditions that are very different from the European, without a theoretical framework, that closely fits those conditions, and it is doing so at a time when an unquestionable generational transition is taking place. All this implies a paradigm shifteven though in essence what is being attempted is to keep alive the socialist ideal.To draw the contours of this new socialist ideal is not a simple task, and to define the details of its operation is perhaps a difficult goal to achieve due to the very dynamic nature of the changes to be made.After two years of implementation, it is time to review the progress and the way forward in the coming years. The work below is intended to contribute to that purpose.1 From the Conf","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128796997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}