By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES

HAVANA – Writing about the issue of race relations in Cuba is like walking through a minefield. That’s because the subject of race in Cuba is a political minefield. Shortly after taking power in 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro addressed the race issue in response to a foreign journalist’s question on the subject:

“In Cuba we do not have the same problem as, for example, in the South of the United States. There is racial discrimination in Cuba, but to a much lesser degree. We feel that our Revolution will help to eliminate those prejudices and injustices that remain latent.”

Fidel Castro declared at press conference
23, January 1959 transcribed in  Revolución  newspaper.

Fidel Castro seen as champion of  oppressed for many Black Americans 

“For many of us in Black America, Castro represented the audacity that we have desired and sought in the face of imperial and racial arrogance,” writes Bill Fletcher, Jr. in Progresoweekly.us.    “While it is unfortunate that some of us have withheld concerns and criticisms out of respect for Castro and the Cuban Revolution, it is completely understandable. After all, this was the country that deployed troops to Angola that helped to smash the South African apartheid army and their Angolan allies. This was the country that has deployed doctors in the face of countless emergencies, to countries that could never afford such assistance.”

What is the status of race relations in Cuba now after the death of Castro? 

But what has actually transpired some 56 years after Castro vowed the Revolution would wipe out racial prejudices and injustices? Did Castro’s dream of a non-racial utopia die with him Nov. 25, 2016? 

Some have charged there is an intentional silence around subject of racism in Cuba:

“Racism in Cuba has been concealed and reinforced in part because it isn’t talked about,”  wrote Roberto Zurbano, editor of the government-owned Cuban Casa de las Américas publishing house, in a Mar. 23, 2013 New York Times op-ed . “Before 1990 … to question the extent of racial progress was tantamount to a counterrevolutionary act. This made it almost impossible to point out the obvious: racism is alive and well.”

 

But in all fairness, where on this earth is there a place that is in fact free from all types of discrimination? Such a racial paradise does not exist. The lighter skin folk in India discriminate against their darker brothers and sisters. Lighter skin Haitians form the upper-class elite in Haiti. And, the United States is once again grappling with the race issue after the recent White Nationalist deadly protests inCharlottesville, VA.  Also consider that some 97 percent of Cubans living in America consider themselves white, according to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s PBS Documentary ‘What It Means to Be Black in Cuba.‘ Tens of thousands of Cuba’s wealthiest whites fled to Florida after Castro took power in 1959 and established a thriving exile community. In essence, over the years, White Cubans have benefited far more economically than their Black counterparts due to financial remittances sent from Cuban Americans back to family on the island. The wealthy Cuban-American exile community has historically been a monolithic Republican voting bloc. Cuban Americans are a political power to be reckoned with and have flexed their political muscle many times to punish pro-Castro supporters.  The same policy which supported Cuban exiles as opposed to other incoming refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean tended to favor Cubans over African-American communities, writes Diana Fulger.

History of racial tension between Black Americans and Cuban immigrants 

In June 1990 Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and several other Cuban-American mayors in nearby Florida counties vehemently opposed South Africa Anti-Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela’s visit to Miami. Ignoring Black community leaders objections, the Cuban-American mayors “uninvited” Mandela due to his support of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Mandela went on to visit Miami just four months after being freed from nearly three decades in a South African prison, where he had done hard time for opposing one of the worst systems of racial discrimination in the world. Black political and community leaders swiftly reacted to the ‘snub’ by organizing a boycott of Miami until the mayors formally apologized to Mandela. The Miami boycott reportedly cost the city some $50 million in lost tourism revenues.

Black and mixed-heritage share of Cuba’s population estimated at 35 percent

Cuba’s culture is a blend of African and Spanish influence. 

‘Official’  Cuban census figures report black and mixed-heritage people are about 35 percent of the island’s population. But this figure is often disputed. “The black and mixed-heritage share of Cuba’s population is closer to a two-thirds majority, according to other sources, including the U.S. State Department (which puts the figure at 62 percent), the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (also 62 percent) and Cuban economist and political scientist Esteban Morales Domínguez (who says it may be as high 72 percent), according to a report by Al Jazeera.  

Well, according to my own eyes while walking around the streets of Havana, I observed majority black and mixed-heritage folk where ever I went.  Here’s where things get complicated. If you walk into any tourist hotel in Havana, you will observe ‘white’ Cubans working behind the front desk and the restaurant / bar staff servicing the mostly European clientele.  The Tourist industry in Cuba is very lucrative for the country as well as the employees working in it. A waiter can make more money in tips in one day than the average Cuban’s monthly salary.  However, in defense of the Tourist industry, a majority of the fancy hotels are majority owned by Europeans, who may continue to discriminate against blacks in Cuba by not hiring them to work in their establishments. 

A Black American Journalist returns to Cuba after nearly 30 years 

As a journalist, I have visited Cuba twice. My first visit was in 1989 on assignment as a young journalist working on a San Francisco weekly newspaper. 

What I remember most vividly after stepping off of the shuttle bus in front of the Habana Libre Hotel, where our group of foreign journalists stayed, was the smell of diesel fuel wafting through the air while walking the streets of Havana. You could see clouds of the diesel smoke in the air. Many of the vehicles on the road were old vintage U.S. cars with old diesel engines. It was in the early stages of the Special Period caused by the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union.  In 1989, 85 percent of Cuba’s trade relationships were carried out with the Soviet Union and the rest of the socialist world. Cuba lost 80% of its export market and its imports fell by 80%—from $8 billion to $1.7 billion—practically overnight. There were long lines of Cubans waiting to buy everything from clothes, milk, or other essentials. There was even a long line to buy something as simple as an ice cream cone.  On May 13, 2017, I returned to Cuba as a journalist to report on changes since the death of Castro. As I walked out of Jose Marti International airport I noticed the same stench of diesel fumes in the air. And many of the same vintage U.S. cars I saw in 1989 are more than likely still on the road running like new money. Covering Cuba is a challenge for any journalist, Black or White. No matter what you write, you will be criticized for either romanticizing Castro’s Revolution or being a dupe of U.S. imperialism for your honest, or what others consider negative, observations. There seems to be no middle ground.

It is difficult to get Black Cubans to talk about the subject of race in their country 

I struck up a conversation with a Black Cuban man after I he told me he spoke English as I strolled near  La Plaza de la Revolución in Havana one early morning. He was a musician who played the saxophone. We talked with passion about such American jazz greats as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzie Gillespie, and Billy Holiday, as we walked toward Plaza de la Revolución. Then I hit him with the big question: “Is there racism in Cuba?”  He suddenly became quiet, and pensive. He did not answer me yes or no. Rather he said: “Well, you know here in Cuba, Blacks and Whites have always mixed together with no problem. As a child, I went to school with Blacks and Whites. There was never any separate schools for Blacks and Whites. Look around in the neighborhoods, Blacks and Whites live together.”  Fair enough answer, I thought to myself. So I tried again: “Is there really racism in Cuba toward Blacks,?” I pressed him. He suddenly stopped walking, looked around us. “You know, they have spies everywhere who listen and watch everything,” he said. Then he steered the conversation in a new direction:  “Hey, are you hungry?,”  he asked. “Are you thirsty?”

Food and money more important than issue of race in Cuba?

My new Cuban friend, his wife, and I had walked about 2 miles in the sweltering heat and were now in the heart of Old Havana. We sat outside on the terrace of a tourist bar/restaurant. He ordered Mojitos for us. “You pay,” he said. As we sipped our drinks, the conversation never got back to race in Cuba. My new Cuban friend savored his Mojito with great satisfaction. “That’s good,” he said. “It has been so long since I had a Mojito. I can’t afford to buy one.” We spend the next hour talking about the economic condition in Cuba. “It is really about money in Cuba,” he said, suggesting that money is a bigger concern to Cubans than the issue of race. He explained how the average Cuban’s income is only about $35 per month, and luxuries like a Mojito, which costs about $5, or beef, is a rare treat. “You get very small rations of rice, eggs, beans, cooking oil, for example, and have to make them last the entire month, which is very difficult” he said. But I looked around and saw several stores with no long lines outside full of fresh beef, eggs, other meats, and most things we get in America. “Oh those are Black Market stores” he said. They are where Cubans can get food unavailable in the state-owned subsidized markets, if they have access to the Cuban Convertible Currency used by tourists. Most Cubans are paid in Cuban Pesos, worth about 25 times less than the tourist currency.

For now, it appears the debate on race in Cuba will go on with no real resolution

Cuba officially states that its country is based on class and not race, and proudly points to the progress made in educating all citizens equally, and providing access to free quality health care to all regardless of color. “We are all Cubans,” is the official line. However, critics continue to point out that the majority of professors at institutions of higher learning such as the University of Havana are overwhelmingly White. They also make note of the fact that Cuba’a political leadership is also majority White. And, I could not help but notice that the majority of Cubans working in its tourist industry were White.

For many, Fidel Castro was a tyrant, methodically cracking down on any form of dissent in Cuba. For others, Castro was a tireless advocate for racial equality in Cuba and abroad, especially in Africa. History will be the final judge.

Despite Raul Castro stepping down this year, and a new President of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel  taking over, it is no secret that Fidel’s younger brother, Raul still is in control of Cuba. Raul is head of the powerful Cuban Communist Party until 2021, which retains influence over the military and the economy, and wields power behind the scenes. Most Cubans don’t see much change after the death of Fidel. Raul was pretty much running the country along the same hard line as his brother Fidel. Raul Castro became Cuba’s leader when his elder brother, Fidel, stepped down in 2006 to undergo intestinal surgery. The ailing Fidel had been mostly out of the public eye during the past decade. The biggest concern in Cuba continues to be salaries that have not kept pace with the cost of living. 

Former President Obama made a historic trip to Cuba March 2016 as the first sitting US president to visit the the socialist island since Calvin Coolidge did in 1928. Obama dropped some words of encouragement:

“We want our engagement to help lift up Cubans who are of African descent,” Obama proclaimed, “who have proven there’s nothing they cannot achieve when given the chance.”