Cuba began its trends of oppressive society
in the beginning. The Indigenous population was almost entirely killed by disease
or the greed of Spanish conquerors. Many died of illness and ultimately leaving
no indigenous heritage to Cuba. The Island began to be populated by Spaniards,
others of European descent, or African Slaves. Much like America, Cuba’s economy
relied on the work from slaves to produce a cash crop. Cuba’s greatest export
was sugar. When the American South wanted to claim Cuba as territory to be a
slave state, the North refused. The North and the South came to the compromise that
Cuba would become a De facto Territory. This meant that Cuba was supposed to abide
by U.S. Law. When the United States outlawed the formal slave trade, Cuba turned to
China for slaves to create a loophole. Chinese were desperate for work and were
coerced into working in Cuba. Today, Cuba has a one percent Chinese population,
which is likely decedents of the over 100,000 Chinese slaves that were brought
to the Island in the 1860s. It wasn’t until 1886 that Cuba abolished slavery, twenty
years after the United States. Many Slaves, before the abolishment, would flee
to the mountains on the East side of Cuba. This migration created a large
population of what is now called Afro Cuban. This is a subpopulation of Cubans
who are of European and African descent. There is a significant disconnect with
African Heritage due to Cuban society and the repression of minorities.
More recently, Fidel Castro came to power in 1959
after leading a revolution that toppled the corrupt and abusive, American-backed
government of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro’s five-decade rule shows the
continuation of repression in Cuba. During Castro’s control, there were
improvements in health and education. Still, these gains were undermined by
economic hardships that riddled the island, along with thousands of incarcerated, harassed,
and many people denied fundamental political freedoms. In the movie “Cuba and the
Cameraman”, there is a better understanding of the personal effects of Castro’s The government as the film follows three families over 45 years. Luis, one man that’s life, is
followed, at one point is put in jail. Many of his family and friends do not
know why he is incarcerated. Luis later explains that he had to spend three
years in prison for working in the Black Market. Like Luis, there are many people
in prison for medial crimes. In 2015, Cuban Authorities arrested over 1,500 human
rights activists for protesting.
In 2008, Fidel resigned from being president, passing the
power to his youngest brother Raúl Castro,
who led until the Cuban government elected Miguel Díaz-Canel. Raúl Castro had decadent
to declare that presidents can only serve two five-year terms. As the new
President has come into office last April, he has mentioned, delivering on many
much-needed reforms. It seems like the nation is steadily improving. Though, he
is still a leader in the Communist Party and has been “tight-grip” on several human
rights subjects. It will be interesting to see how Cuba develops and what the
sentiment of the government is now and whether it will continue its oppressive trends or become more progressive.
Discussion Questions:
Do you think that without pressure from the U.S., Cuba
would have had slavery be legal for much longer?
Why do you think there were such polarizing opinions about
Fidel Castro and his rule?
Do you think Cuba will always be communist, or will the party eventually overturn?
Do you think we will see that the Cuban’s will have much
resentment towards the US while we are there?
Jana,
ReplyDeleteI also see several similarities with how Cuba has struggled for independence and how the US did. The slave systems and being controlled by an outside nation are the two aspects of their formulation that stick out the most to me. Although Cuba has had a corrupt government longer than we ever have, hopefully Fidel's brother won't continue to treat their communist party as a dictatorship. To answer your first question, I do think that Cuba would have allowed slavery to be legal for much longer. I believe this because they went out of their way to continue to get slaves from China, even after they knew it was looked down upon. Eventually I think that they would have abolished slaves on their own, but I'm not sure how long that would've taken them. I believe that there were such polarizing opinions about Fidel Castro because he abused his power. If you went against him, he would have you put away or lash out in some way. Therefore, I believe that those who remained loyal to him only did so out of fear. I don't believe that a good leader uses fear to control his people, but it's hard for me to look at Castro otherwise since so many of his citizens felt the need to flee.
I think slavery may have continued for longer, but eventually it would take a turn much like it did in America, where the population of slaves would be too great to handle and they would rise up. I would agree with Molly that the polarizing opinions were due to clear abuse of power. I would like to add that Cubans had a very different idea of what they wanted to get out of socialism. While some Cubans may have stayed loyal out of fear, others truly felt that putting everything they are able to into the state will create a better life for themselves. With education, food, and healthcare, some Cubans truly felt that Fidel was trying to allow them to live their best life. However, others saw the opportunities and materials other countries had, and began to long for them. Some must know that the very basics are provided, but there is more in other countries. In the film, many who are leaving Cuba have decided they have no freedom in Cuba, and I think these people are the ones who believe communism is oppressive and that they will never get the opportunity for a great life.
ReplyDeleteJana,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do think we will see that the Cuban’s will have much resentment towards the US while we are there because we are from the US and that is where a lot of tension is between Cuba and the US. Although Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on 20 July 2015, there are many people that live their lives through Cuban history and may still be upset with the past which can likely lead to the slightest resentment. However, we are very informed with the history of Cuba at this point and nothing should be a surprise for us.
I believe that without pressure from the U.S. Cuba would have kept slavery for as long as they could since they had such a successful sugar export. The more they could produce the more there would be to sell and they so desperately needed the money. Also, if they tried to find a loophole around U.S. law by bringing in Chinese slaves, that leads me to believe that they saw nothing wrong with how they produced and tended to their crops and would have continued to do so. To answer your last question, I do think we'll see some resentment towards the U.S. while we're there because of the lasting tensions between the countries. However, tourism is a major part of their economy so I don't believe we'll see a lot of that resentment since we are the ones coming to their poor country with money to spend.
ReplyDelete