Political process
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Suffrage is universal for Cubans age 16 years and older, excluding citizens who have applied for emigration. Voting in elections in Cuba is legally mandatory, as it is throughout Latin America, and voter participation is invariably high. The government usually admits to a small proportion of spoiled ballots. Women’s suffrage was instituted in 1934, and women have taken on major roles in the political process since the revolution. A sizable minority of women are members of the National Assembly, and some occupy policy-making positions in the government, although men dominate the highest government and party offices.
In the early 1960s the government dissolved political parties and transformed three revolutionary organizations (the 26th of July Movement, Popular Socialist Party, and 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate) into a single national party, which was officially designated the Communist Party of Cuba in 1965.
The government also created several mass organizations, notably the ubiquitous Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which maintain vigilance against ideological “enemies” and intimidate dissenters and are organized in every city, factory, and workplace and in many rural counties. Other organizations include the Federation of Cuban Women and the National Association of Small Farmers, which is composed of independent farmers, outside the system of collectivized state farms, who own a fraction of the total cultivated land. An important task of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution is to choose municipal delegates who, in turn, select provisional delegates and members of the National Assembly.
In 1992 modifications in the electoral law permitted direct elections of members of the National Assembly. About half of the elected members now also serve on municipal councils, while the remainder serve at large and are therefore not beholden to a designated constituency. There is no party slate and candidates need not belong to the official Cuban Communist Party. Delegates receive no compensation for their political service. There is considerable competition for elected office, despite the low opinion that many Cubans hold for delegates and government in general.
Health and welfare
Cuba has one of the more successful health care programs in the developing world. Health care is state-operated through the Ministry of Public Health and is available free, or at nominal cost, to the entire population. The availability of hospital beds and physicians has greatly increased since the 1960s, when most physicians left the country, and infant mortality and mortality rates overall have declined. Social security (old age, disability, and survivor pensions, and other monetary benefits) covers the vast majority of the labour force.
The government controls (and rations) the distribution and pricing of foodstuffs, medicines, and other goods, although there are some independently operated markets (especially farmers’ markets) and state-operated stores where merchandise can be obtained using hard currency. Homes for the aged (nursing homes) are under the direction of the Ministry of Public Health, but the círculos infantiles, institutions for the day care of children under seven years of age, are run by the Federation of Cuban Women. The institutions are intended to free women to work. Physical education and sports, under a national body, are an integral part of Cuban education.
Housing
The government closely oversees home ownership and real estate transactions. Few people can easily change their places of residence because the government’s system of enforced home “exchanges,” or trading, prevents housing sales. The Urban Reform Law of 1960 prohibited landlords from renting urban real estate, and families soon began buying homes by paying the current rental sum for between 5 and 20 years. Many families have acquired titles to houses and apartments in this fashion, and the rest pay a small percentage of their salary as rent to the state. Many rural families have achieved free use of formerly rented lands, and traditional rural bohíos (“huts”) are being slowly replaced by more modern housing units. However, a decline in home building during the 1960s and ’70s, combined with the destruction of old housing through neglect, induced a severe housing shortage. The government later experimented with housing brigades, but the shortage has continued. In August 2011, however, the nature of housing in Cuba appeared headed for a sea change with the announcement that the buying and selling of private property would be reintroduced at the end of the year.
Education
Education is nominally free at all levels, with supplementary scholarships to cover living expenses and medical assistance. Primary education is compulsory for children between 6 and 11 years of age. Courses involving technology, agriculture, and teacher training are emphasized. Only a small minority of Cubans are illiterate. In 1961 the government nationalized all private schools and introduced a state-directed education system. It includes a combination of programs in preschool, 12 or 13 grades, higher education, teacher training, adult education (notably literacy campaigns and continued study by working people), technical education (which is parallel to secondary education), language instruction, and specialized education. Women are guaranteed equal educational opportunities and account for more than half of university graduates. Education expenditures receive high priority, and the number of students enrolled has increased sharply from prerevolutionary days. Nevertheless, the economic upheaval after 1991 strained the state’s long-standing efforts to ensure access to quality educational services.
Cultural life
Cuban culture has undergone a major transformation since the revolution, and the government has come to play a leading role in it. Since the creation of the Ministry of Culture in 1976, this role has expanded to include a network of professional and amateur cultural organizations throughout the country. Cultural institutions before 1959 were generally limited to Havana (and, to a lesser extent, the provincial capitals) and were almost entirely privately endowed. Before 1959 Cuba had some 100 libraries and a half-dozen museums; today it has approximately 2,000 libraries and 250 museums located throughout the country. The Ministry of Culture directs a program of education in music, visual arts, ballet, dramatic arts, and modern dance, culminating in the university-level Higher Institute of Art. More than 200 neighbourhood cultural centres (casas de cultura) offer workshops in all branches of the arts.
Daily life and social customs
In general, Cuba is a country short of everything, though its people exhibit extraordinary resilience and inventiveness in the face of hardship. So skilled are they, for example, at keeping automobiles from the 1950s in good running and cosmetic condition that Cuba has become a destination of choice for vintage-car collectors from the United States and Europe. Still, the constant food shortages, electricity blackouts, and telephone breakdowns affect people in different ways. Most problems and opportunities are relative and constantly changing, except for the staples of life in Cuba—the inescapable control of the government, the Saturday-night movies on one of the two local television channels, the Monday-night telenovelas (soap operas) imported from Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, or Colombia, and the unavoidable preoccupations of work, home, and family. Socialist ideologies notwithstanding, lifestyles are not equal for everyone, and how one perceives Cuba varies considerably depending on one’s individual situation.
Groups with access to hard currency—mainly U.S. dollars—enjoy a level of comfort not markedly different from that of middle-class residents elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean. From two-fifths to half of Cubans have access to dollars. This is a varied group indeed, comprising recipients of foreign remittances from their families, workers in service industries who receive gratuities, tourist enterprises catering to foreigners, members of the armed services, workers in some industries who are paid partly in dollars, and even those working in the sex trade. There is also a group, locally called mayimbes (bosses), who appear to enjoy a good life without the benefit of obvious employment. These people form the faithful local clientele at the upscale paladares, the family-style restaurants officially licensed since 1994; they also frequent elegant state-run restaurants and the international dining rooms, expensive boutiques, and disco clubs of some first-class hotels, as well as the Caracol and Cubalse “dollar stores” scattered throughout Havana and other resort towns. Dollars also enable ordinary Cubans to ameliorate, however slightly, the monotonous routine of their lives. They can supplement the inadequate supplies of their ration books—not only in quality but also in quantity and variety—from purchases in the mercados agropecuarios (general food markets) and creative private sources (including the black market).
The typical cuisine makes wide use of pork, fowl, and rice—cooked with a scarcity of spices—and tropical fruits. Popular dishes include moros y cristianos (black beans and rice), ajicao (a stew of meat and vegetables), and lechón asado (roast pig), consumed with dark coffee and locally produced lager.
For family and personal entertainment, the cinema remains extremely popular, and Havana hosts one of the largest film festivals in Latin America each year. In Havana and Santiago drama groups have regular performances. A small number of clubs, like the Casa de Amistad (“Friendship House”) in Havana, cater to tourists and Cubans of modest means by supplying good food and a lively ambiance. Music and dance remain an important part of Cuban life. A variety of classical and popular musical groups offer weekend performances, and many kinds of music are heard on the streets, especially along the Malecón, Havana’s seaside promenade that remains a magnet for youths, especially in the evenings and on weekends. Music is also an integral part of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería, which has contributed much to the culture of the island.
The arts
Literature
A recognizably Cuban literature first began to emerge after the end of the 18th century. In the early 19th century several writers gained prominence espousing intellectualism and the concept of freedom. These ideas gained perhaps their greatest intensity in the writings of José Martí, a Cuban of modest Spanish background who led the Modernist movement in Cuban literature. He inspired an entire school of writing devoted to winning freedom from Spain. Writers whose works reflected social protest in the pre-Castro period include Nicolás Guillén, a leader in founding the Afro-Cuban school of literature, and Jose Z. Tallet, both activist poets. In the 20th century short stories became the predominant prose form, but exceptional novels were also produced, such as Alejo Carpentier’s ¡Ecué-Yamba-Ó! (1933; “Lord, May You Be Praised!”), which is a tribute to Afro-Cuban life and culture, and El siglo de las luces (1962; Explosion in a Cathedral, 1963), which portrays the violence and chaos wrought on the Caribbean during the French Revolution. The works of the poet, novelist, and essayist José Lezama Lima have also been influential. In addition, the works of the American writer Ernest Hemingway are deeply admired on the island, which was his home for many years and the setting for The Old Man and the Sea (1952) and Islands in the Stream (1970). Cuban writers such as Reinaldo Arenas, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, and Ronaldo Menendez have earned international attention in the postrevolutionary era; however, many such writers have been exiled after falling afoul of government censors. By the early 21st century, Cuban writers had published large numbers of major novels and literary magazines.
