The show must go on (part 3)
In 2011, I visited the island for the third time. After 52 years of revolution, Fidel Castro’s retirement from presidency has become official. Which way will chose Raul Castro to lead his country along after his brother stepped down? He declared that he intended to launch economic reforms, but that he would not swerve from the road of socialism whose priorities will be retained to meet the basic needs of the population through gradual progressive changes. The reforms, which began in 2008, included allowing individuals and cooperatives to cultivate unutilized plots of land, permitting self-employment in a wider range of activities, relaxing the restrictions on operating private restaurants and room rentals or allowing Cuban citizens to buy and sell homes.
For the time being, the revolution has been saved and communism can be sipped, aseptic and risk-free, in a “Cuba Libre” glass. The tourist routes on offer are full of a kind of “authentic” poverty which point to rather freedom and a joyous laziness than the real misery. Thus, Cuba is still perceived as an authentic territory where people live carelessly, under the merry leadership of a “cool” tyrant, who knows how to enjoy himself. The fact that the books, songs and the gadgets with Che Guevara, dandy of the Revolution, continue to sell in record amounts is the proof that the myth of Cuba as exotic paradise is still working and the Cuban communism remains, ironically and perplexed, a successful market product.
The show must go on (part 3)
In 2011, I visited the island for the third time. After 52 years of revolution, Fidel Castro’s retirement from presidency has become official. Which way will chose Raul Castro to lead his country along after his brother stepped down? He declared that he intended to launch economic reforms, but that he would not swerve from the road of socialism whose priorities will be retained to meet the basic needs of the population through gradual progressive changes. The reforms, which began in 2008, included allowing individuals and cooperatives to cultivate unutilized plots of land, permitting self-employment in a wider range of activities, relaxing the restrictions on operating private restaurants and room rentals or allowing Cuban citizens to buy and sell homes.
For the time being, the revolution has been saved and communism can be sipped, aseptic and risk-free, in a “Cuba Libre” glass. The tourist routes on offer are full of a kind of “authentic” poverty which point to rather freedom and a joyous laziness than the real misery. Thus, Cuba is still perceived as an authentic territory where people live carelessly, under the merry leadership of a “cool” tyrant, who knows how to enjoy himself. The fact that the books, songs and the gadgets with Che Guevara, dandy of the Revolution, continue to sell in record amounts is the proof that the myth of Cuba as exotic paradise is still working and the Cuban communism remains, ironically and perplexed, a successful market product.
