Before 1959, if you were rich and white in Cuba, you were likely doing very well. Even if white and middle-class, with not much ownership in anything, you would have been faring far better than nonwhite Cubans and immigrants who came from China, Mexico, or any other country represented in Cuba’s history, to work the fields. Despite chattel slavery being abolished in 1886, indentured servitude was introduced by Spain in response to the abolition of slavery, and segregation, brought to the island by the U.S., persisted until the Revolution led by Fidel Castro.
That Revolution would not have been possible without the support of the vast majority of the Cuban population, the U.S., which allegedly denied the then-dictator Fulgencio Batista weapons to fight back, and even some wealthy elites, such as the Bacardi family. While the Cuban people maintained their support for Cuba’s new government, the Bacardi family and the United States would inevitably turn on Castro when he began returning Cuba’s assets to its people.
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Despite the talk of “stealing” private assets, Cuba has settled with every foreign nation whose citizens’ assets were seized after nationalizing its resources, except the United States, despite all its efforts to do so for more than 60 years. The U.S. and the corporate interests it represents have for decades rejected any offers by Cuba to settle the dispute. Instead, the U.S. passed the Helms-Burton Act in 1996, allowing Cuban Americans to sue Cuba for “seized” property.
The Revolution also ended segregation and exploitative labor practices, but it failed for many years to properly address racial issues. Castro admitted as much in 2000. There were many things Cuba’s revolutionary government got wrong at its onset. But Cuba has been ever-evolving, and after elections in the last decade that were regarded as “remarkably democratic,” it now boasts rights for marginalized groups, seniors, and children that you don’t see in many countries, including the United States.
“I am not claiming that our country is a perfect model of equality and justice,” said Fidel Castro in 2000. “We believed at the beginning that when we established the fullest equality before the law and complete intolerance for any demonstration of sexual discrimination in the case of women, or racial discrimination in the case of ethnic minorities, these phenomena would vanish from our society,” continued Castro. “It was some time before we discovered that marginality and racial discrimination with it are not something that one gets rid of with a law or even with ten laws, and we have not managed to eliminate them completely in 40 years.”
Under Batista’s government, and the many before his, indentured servitude was a major issue on the island. Black, mixed-race, and Chinese Cubans were subjected to massive debts owed to their employers in various sectors, leaving them to live in squalor on the fringes of society. The little money they made during harvest season was offset by insurmountable debts accrued during the rest of the year. Meanwhile, the country’s wealth was hoarded by a handful of wealthy white landowners and various criminal organizations.
The Trafficante family from Florida, Sam Giancana and Tony Accardo from Chicago, and the Genovese and Luciano families from New York were all part of illicit operations coordinated by Meyer Lansky, the “Mob’s Accountant.” The group became known as the Havana Mob and operated with impunity. Lansky, the architect of their operations, maintained a friendship with Batista and managed the island’s luxury hotel-casinos and its gambling, money laundering, drug smuggling, and sex trafficking operations.
The culture of corruption extended to the military, police, the courts, and political positions at every level of government. But it didn’t start there. The mafia control of the island was the result of decades of U.S. interference surrounding elections, the corporate exploitation of labor, and the allocation of resource ownership, robbing the island nation of its wealth. Every president before Castro was either installed by the United States or it meddled in elections to ensure its preferred candidate would win, much like Trump is doing now in Latin America.
No, Castro wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But he wasn’t the murderous and exploitative dictator Batista was. The Revolution made healthcare, education, and housing a human right while freeing nonwhite Cubans from lives in bondage to rich, racist white men who saw themselves as superior to the majority of the population. The Revolution marked, for the first time in hundreds of years, that neither Spain nor the United States controlled Cuba.
Arturo is an independent freelance journalist. He has written hundreds of articles on policing, immigration, race, and Latin America. His work has been featured in outlets such as Unicorn Riot, Latino Rebels, Capitol Press, Momentum, and abroad. He is the Editor-in-Chief at the Antagonist Magazine and is a co-leader of the Writers and Editors of Color.
That any moral human being, and specifically any person of color, would support what America has done to Cuba for over 60 years misses the point. There was nothing good about the pre-Castro Cuban government for most. Thanks, Arturo. Your voice is important on this issue, among many.
I was in grade school when adults talked about Reagan and Castro. People here said he was a communist and apparently that was a very bad thing according to most adults. My mom is English. Her whole family moved to the states before I was born, before she even met my dad. I grew up learning that there were places where everyone had access to healthcare, a place to live and food. Not perfect... but better than here in the states. As a grade school and middle school student in the '80s, in the news... socialism was a dirty word. God forbid you bring up communism. SO many people arrogantly believing America was #1, while marginalized people everywhere were going without, looked down upon, dieing younger, living unprotected by the law and basically getting the shaft. And all the conservatives pointed fingers at the marginalized, faulting them for not having what these same conservatives were keeping from these folks in the first place. America is not #1, we never have been. The very first people who came here from England may have been fleeing an intolerant and unjust king, but they didn't learn anything. They stayed mired in their racism and greed and used it against the native people of these lands. Apparently, if someone is different from you, "they must be feared, they must be less, they deserve less, harming them not so bad."
As a new country, our beloved new constitution did not include people of color or women. Even today, the amendment that legally gives people who are assigned female at birth, (simply women to most) as equals has never been ratified. I cannot tell you all the legal ramifications of ratifying equal rights for women, but I have heard that when an amendment is ratified, it is much, much harder to change or reverse. Even before Roe v. Wade was reversed, I never had equal rights. Maybe on paper, for some things. But not in real life, where it really matters. When I worked, I got paid less because of my perceived gender, if I want to walk in my urban-ish neighborhood at night or to the store, there is no guarantee that I will be safe. Honestly, I would consider myself lucky if men didn't harass me. Male people can do so in my neighborhood, well, white males. But not me. When will I get to go outside and enjoy a moonlit walk alone with my own thoughts, beneath the stars in the place where I live? And what about Trevon Martin, a black teen/young man (not sure of his age) who was shot down. He went to a corner store, bought skittles, candy... and he died because of the racism, the ignorance, fear and hatred of a total stranger. I don't believe he got justice in life, and I don't believe he or his family got it after his death. So many others...
It wasn't until the 90s, I believe, that if a husband forced sex on his wife that it was legally rape. The 90s. Even now when a female person is raped, they delve into her background, present and past relationships that may have included sex, her mental health status going back years and even if she was drinking, using drugs, what she was dressed like and if she had gone out alone.... None of that really matters. I had thought as a college student in the early to late 90s that this bullshit would change. 30 years later and we are no better for it. We have a convicted rapist for a president. Another rapist who eluded conviction sits on the supreme court. And there are all these folks out there wondering why women don't bother filing charges... unless you have a decent chance of winning and in an area where the perpetrator gets sentenced, not just 6 months of jail time, or probation or community service, why the hell would you want to put your private pain out there so that you can be sliced and diced and picked apart and receive little to no justice for it?
I never knew that Cuba had put all of these rights and protections under the law for marginalized peoples including race, gender and children and so many, many years ago. That they were put in place after the revolution, when Castro became the leader or some time after. All anyone here in the states talked about in the 80s was how he was a communist and how awful that was. Was he a dictator like I was told as a young kid? Now I am wondering and not sure where to look to research. I will say, the fact that a grown-ass, high profile person, who is the leader of their country can help put all these laws and legal protections in place, and then stand before their country many years later and not only admit, but actively point out that the laws were not enough, that the racism, sexism, etc was still there, that people were still not getting a fair shake.... If that ever happens here in the states at all, the person saying it will inevitably blame other political parties or other groups of persons for this inequity, lack of restoration. Almost always. But it is everyone's responsibility as a society to see that a society changes. Not only on paper, but in real life.
I would like to learn more about Cuba and it's history, politically and culturally. I could go on, about inequalities, government policy, social issues, etc., but I have rambled perhaps a bit too much already. I don't agree either, about what the U.S. is doing to Cuba and it sounds like this has been going on in vary degrees and ways for a long long time too. I need to learn more, where do I start?