Excerpts
Sampling of Student Essays
Cuba-US Relations and the Cuban Revolution
United States and Cuba Relations
The relationship between the United States and Cuba has been riddled with controversy since long before the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s declaration of the islands commitment to socialism. The United States began its quest for control over Cuba as early as the late 18th and early 19th century, when President John Adams articulated the US’s “la fruta madura” doctrine to annex Cuba as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine. For the next century, the United States made various attempts to purchase Cuba from Spain, eventually intervening in the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century to acquire it by force. The US entrenched itself in Cuban affairs through the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution in 1901 and the acquisition of the Guantanamo Bay naval base in 1903. These events signaled the beginning an era of US political, social, and economic influence that lasted until the Cuban Revolution was realized in 1959.
Almost immediately following the success of the July the 26th movement, the United States became openly hostile to the revolution and its leader, Fidel Castro. While hesitations and mentions of Castro’s assassination had surfaced in the US prior to 1959, outright antagonism and aggression began as soon as the revolutions initial reforms began. Among these reforms were the agrarian land reforms and expropriations of lands owned by US corporations, in particular the United Fruit Company. By the end of the 1960s, the US had already begun placing economic sanctions against Cuba, including the elimination of the sugar quota. In just another year, the US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and launched a military attack on the island through the Bay of Pigs Invasion, also known as the Battle of Girón in Cuba.
Throughout the 1960s, various US administrations planned and executed failed attempts to undermine the Revolution, among them Operation Mongoose to assassinate Fidel Castro and Operation Peter Pan to transport Cuban children to the US under false pretenses. The US also instituted a trade embargo against Cuba and engaged in the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly plunging the world into nuclear warfare. Multiple acts of biological warfare and covert terrorist attacks were also suspected, among them the ravaging of Cuban pig farms with African swine fever and attacks on Cuba’s tourist resorts. The immediate and rapid deterioration of Cuba and US relations represents a clear stance by the United States that it will not tolerate subversive, socialist governments in Latin America, a region historically dominated by US influence and exploitation. The Cuban revolution has remained strong in the face of constant aggression from the US and the severe economic crises resulting from it, but it remains to be seen whether the relationship with worsen or improve. This issue is especially poignant as Raúl Castro has recently proposed term limits for political and state offices, and the Castro regime seems to be coming to an end in the near future. – Rachel Gilbert
US-Cuba Relations through Fidel’s Revolution
Cuba and the United States have had a relationship with one another dating back to when both nations were under colonial rule. Colonial trading during a brief period in the late eighteenth century provided the beginnings of what would be a storied and eventually strenuous relationship between the two. When Cuba was opened to the world market in 1818, the United States immediately took advantage and many began to view Cuba as a natural addition to the geography of the United States. While the annexation of Cuba never came to fruition, United States’ economic interests nearly owned the island nonetheless. Corporations based in the United States provided an influx of economic capital to “customize” the infrastructure to transform Cuba into a major raw sugar provider solely for export to the United States. Due to the previously existing infrastructure that allowed Cuba to produce a finished sugar product, United States companies lobbied for the Sugar Act of 1861, effectively destroying the American market for the finished product. This all but eliminated the Cuban manufacturing sector and began the process of de-industrializing the country. While control of the island by the United States was continually increasing, the USS Maine incident and the Treaty of Paris to end the Spanish-American War essentially ended the possibility of annexation. However, an intermittent United States military force, including the establishment of a base on the island, coupled with the singing of the Platt Amending signaled a long-term American commitment to maintaining power in the area.
As political unrest was blamed on weak leaders, the United States eventually chose to back Fulgencio Batista during the 1940’s who turned out to be an oppressive dictator that subjected the Cuban people to extremely harsh living conditions. Batista remained in power as a puppet of the United States to assure the economic success of American companies. However, as poverty rates and unemployment rose and living conditions became even worse, Fidel Castro established a rebel force that eventually succeeded in overthrowing Batista during their second attempt. The only way that Castro was able to succeed was due to public unrest regarding the abysmal conditions that the Cuban population was subjected to throughout the Batista regime, mostly a result of economic policies of the United States. Castro’s immediate plans to re-distribute land and nationalize United States-owned industries obviously did not fall under American interests and tensions began to rise. Although not immediately a Soviet communist movement, the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 seemingly forced Castro to sign agreements with the USSR for economic and military support in the face of an aggressive United States. The development of the Cuban Missile Crisis just a year later solidified the negative relations between the two nations as an embargo was established and made increasingly stronger over the following decades. – Joe Benz
Legacy of Cuban Revolution and fight for independence
Cuba was the last colony to gain its independence from Spain and one was one of the last countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to abolish slavery. The plantation economy, exportation of sugar and colonial system has dominated the islands socioeconomic structure and encouraged the exploitation of the islands’ wealth and natural resources by foreign corporations. The United States intervened in 1898 and defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War.
The United States did not trust the leadership within the country to govern itself and feared that US economic interests would be threatened. The US established Cuba as a protectorate, instituted the Platt Amendment, which gave the US the right to intervene militarily when the US deemed it necessary and effective control over the new nations’ foreign and economic policy. This ushered in a half century more of colonialism, where huge inequalities grew due to the exploitation and extraction of wealth from the country, leaving the general population in poverty, without adequate health care, access to a decent education, or proper housing. Unemployment soared under the US backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and was worsened due to the volatility of the global market for sugar. Fidel Castro, a young intellectual and revolutionary sought to change the repressive, failing, unequal system under Batista.
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Castro promised to address the deep social ills and inequalities that plagued the island, namely the housing shortage, the abhorrent health and education systems, redistribution of wealth and land, vast unemployment and the problem of the need for industrialization. In finally achieving independence from the neocolonial rule under the United States, Castro implemented reforms that nationalized certain industries and redistributed land that infringed on American economic interests, which led to the rapid deterioration of relations between Cuba and the United States. Castro was able to defy the great imperial power to the north and establish the strongest sense of nationalism and sovereignty that the nation has had in its history. The legacy of Castro’s reforms and spirit of service manifests itself in the Human Development Index, the high literacy rates and good education system and the free public health services that provide quality medical attention to everyone in Cuba. – Eddie Einbender-Luks
Gender and Sexuality in Cuba
Gender and Status of Women
The role of women, and, more generally, the concepts of sex and gender, are very interesting aspects of Cuban society. There are many schools of thought with regard to socialism and gender equality. Socialist feminism says socialism and feminism go hand in hand, that you cannot have one without the other (Wong 288). Socialist feminists such as Nellie Wong view the Cuban Revolution as positive for women. Many others, too, cite post-Revolutionary Cuba as a site of supreme gender equality. Women receive the same pay as men, abortion is free and legal, and the government offers subsidized day care. Women serve as doctors, in government, and in other professional fields.
How did this come to be? Some attribute much of these advances and markers of equality to the Federation of Cuban Women, also known as the FMC. Established in 1960, the FMC had an extremely broad scope and over time became a huge organization. By 1990, 80% of Cuban women over the age of fourteen were members (Smith and Padula 36). In its early years, the FMC focused on the economic, educational, and social advancement of women through countrywide literacy campaigns and by spearheading a movement for a national daycare (Smith and Padula 37). The FMC also focused on eliminating domestic service and prostitution, viewed as “degrading and exploitative,” (Smith and Padula 39). They did so by retraining women for other fields, educating them, and providing them with support (Smith and Padula 39). For example, FMC leaders would visit the homes in which domestic workers were employed to try and get their employers to cooperate with their new school schedule. Their training enabled them to get jobs as telephone workers, technicians, and health and day care providers. Former prostitutes, their old profession now illegal, were taught etiquette and “appropriate” hair and clothing styles. They were also given stipends to help support their families, and provided with childcare by other FMC members (Smith and Padula 40). The FMC was also responsible for “study circles” and “Friendship Brigades,”- educational programs that sought to educate women about socialism, foreign policy, and international relations.
As I mentioned, some people see feminism and socialism as inextricably linked. Others, however, have criticized socialism for the way in which it uses women for labor without truly challenging patriarchal values. Such a critique can be applied to the work of the Federation of Cuban Women. While the FMC indeed did help women become educated and employed, its creation alone took the place of all other autonomous women’s groups, creating something of a monopoly (Smith and Padula 36). In fact, some view the creation of the FMC as Castro’s attempt to get women on board with the Revolution, even to “monitor an important sector of society,” (Smith and Padula 36). While women were encouraged to participate in a variety of professional fields, the FMC also absorbed many women into its own organization, with leaders on the local, provincial, and national levels. Rather than becoming engaged in the leadership of the country, these women served an organization responsible for getting women to cooperate with policies made by men.
Helpful as the retraining schools were for former domestic servants and prostitutes, an FMC official in charge of them saw the schools goal as to “get those maids away from the bourgeoisie and… capture them for the Revolution,” (Smith and Padula 39). Furthermore, the Ana Betancourt Training Schools for Peasant Women essentially served to get Afro-Cuban women from the countryside to assimilate- they were exposed to the marvels of life in the city and forbidden from practicing their religion or countryside traditions (Smith and Padula 37-39). They were taught to be on board with the Revolution so as to lessen their fathers’ and brothers’ chances of revolting. Finally, even the educational campaigns such as study circles and Friendship Brigades held a deeply ideological component, more so than one aimed at purely the educational advancement of women. As FMC chief Vilma Espin said, “keep in mind that the ideological education of women is the fundamental task of the federation,” (Smith and Padula 41). This idea remains a point of contention in discussions about the status of women in socialist Cuba. – Ana Rader
Gay in Cuba
My initial perception of the treatment of LGBTQ citizens of Cuba was informed by the Mariel boatlift, an agreement between the United States and Cuba in the 1980s which allowed Cubans to immigrant to the United States. It was argued that Castro used this as a way to rid the country of “undesirables”, this meant traitors, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ. However, Cuba has been quite progressive in terms of LGBTQ rights in comparison with the rest of Latin American and in some ways more so than the United States. The documentary Gay in Cuba illustrates this. While the gay community struggled a lot with antiquated laws forbidding cross dressing or obscene displays of affection, the documentary takes note of the hope the community has always had and the consequent changes to policy and culture. For example, sex changes are now paid for by the state and advocacy surrounding HIV and AIDS has been significant, so much so that Cuba will be testing their AIDS vaccine this week. As noted in John Hess’s review of the film, the LGBTQ community in Cuba used the values of the revolution to support their journey to equal rights, emphasizing that the revolution was for the rights of everyone and challenging the notion that revolution, communism, socialism, or any leftist ideology must function within patriarchal systems. The end of the documentary shows how they have succeeded in breaking this stereotype by showing a drag show sponsored by a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. While gay bashing is virtually nonexistent in Cuba, I wonder what other challenges does the LGBT community face and what similarities and differences it has had compared to the movement in the United States. – Daniela Castejon
Environmental Sustainability, Urban Agriculture, Food Security & Sovereignty
Food Security & Food Sovereignty
Some of the main objectives that became central to Castro’s Revolution were addressing the issues of inequality, wealth and land redistribution, attainting a level of equitable food distribution and supplying the people of Cuba with rations to adequately nourish them. This desire for self-reliance and development of food security ran into a number of problems, such as the limitations of a commodity export driven economy based mainly on sugar, the difficulty of growing wheat, grains, soybeans and other produce, which are the basis for raising livestock and are important staples of a society, and the embargo implemented by the United States that severely crippled Cuba’s economy and food security. Cuba relied previously on imports of foodstuffs from the US and later relied on the Soviet Union for food imports. Up until the mid 1980’s Cuba maintained the sugar industry and continued to export the commodity in great quantities to the Soviet economic bloc, COMECON in exchange for petroleum, machinery, manufactured goods and processed food (Koont, 15).
During this period Cuba developed an industrialized farming system, that along with trade with the USSR provided food security to the Cuban population, however it was not sustainable because the systems’ function was overly dependent on Soviet imports and the large state owned industrialized farms used vast amounts of petroleum, which causes pollution, compacts soil and stresses the fertility of the land, making the cost of producing food higher while simultaneously rendering the land less productive. In addition, the use of pesticides and fertilizers worsened the environment and reflected an unsustainable approach to agriculture. After the Soviet Union disintegrated with the end of the Cold War, the trade and aid to Cuba ended, causing huge shortages of food, oil and other essential goods that the island enjoyed previously. After the long period of relative prosperity and food security that Cuba obtained, once again, Fidel Castro was forced to restructure the agricultural system and implement a number of sweeping reforms to address the extreme shortages of goods and food in the country.
Cuba was forced to change and take actions that would make the most efficient use of its limited resources, such as land and labor, to produce food and provide for the population. The new system, which had roots in the later half of the 1980s, was to develop a sustainable, agro-ecological approach to agriculture, which emphasized efficiency, production and sustainability. Funded and encouraged by the state, the development of urban agriculture began to take root. An official structure was put in place for research, development, evaluation, organization and production that would permeate the whole nation. Urban agriculture as a system embodies the paradigm of food sovereignty, reflecting its tenets of sustainability, food security based on democratic decisions made by the farmers producing the goods, and the use of local and communal knowledge and inputs. – Eddie Einbender-Luks
Urban Agriculture in Cuba
Following Fidel Castro’s Revolution in 1959, Cuba and the United States quickly fell into an unfriendly relationship. With Castro’s land redistribution in place, United States companies obviously had no economic future on the island and trading with Cuba came to a halt. The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the start of an embargo on trade a year later solidified a sour relationship between the large island and the United States. It was obvious that Castro needed to find another superpower to act as a trading partner and a military ally if he was going to have any success standing up to the United States’ aggressive assassination attempts and embargo.
Although not initially aligned with the Soviet Union and its communist policies, Castro was seemingly forced into a trading, military, and policy relationship with the USSR. Through this agreement, Cuba received nearly all of its supplies ranging from foodstuffs to petroleum. These imports were one of the most important aspects that allowed Castro to continue the revolution. However, in regard to food production specifically, this endless supply of petroleum led to intensive use of fertilizer and the eventual destruction of the farming soil. While Cuba had already been considering urban agriculture since 1987 with the creation of ACTAF (Cuban Association of Agriculture and Forestry), it would take the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to completely transform the farming sector.
With no oil and a drastic drop in supplies, Castro encouraged the population to embrace a war-time state of mind during this “Special Period”. The previous disappointment of the industrial farming industry coupled with the lack of petroleum led Cuba to fully embrace urban agriculture and sustainable farming. Castro broke-up the state farms and legalized self-employment, allowing for a co-op farming initiative in which Cubans kept what the produced. Small community gardens called organiponicos were also created to emphasize the growing of organic produce within the communities it supplied to eliminate all petroleum use.
As urban agriculture has developed throughout the special period and into the new millennium, Cuba has embraced it as not only a way to produce food, but also as an environmental initiative. There are currently 28 sub-programs that make up the urban agricultural movement in Cuba along with provincial and municipal leaders throughout the country. This has led to unwavering success: since 1994, Cuba has achieved over a 1,000 fold increase in vegetable production. While this is remarkable and allowed Castro’s Revolution to continue, Cuba has plans to continue to continually develop urban agriculture with the goal of making Cuba self-sufficient one day.- Joe Benz
Urban Agriculture
The historical context in which urban agriculture arose and flourished in Cuba sets it apart from similar urban and agroecological agricultural movements occurring worldwide. As a Caribbean nation, Cuba has a legacy as a food-importing country, resulting both from the tropical climate the colonial inheritance of a forced reliance on export cash crops like sugar and tobacco. Furthermore, Cuba’s post-Revolution alliance with the Soviet Union and role in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) prior to the Special Period of the 1990s influenced Cuba’s agricultural system towards the Soviet industrial model reliant on petroleum inputs and heavy machinery. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was growing dissastifaction with the decreasing efficiency and stagnating yields produced by the industrial agriculture model. However, it wasn’t until the Soviet Union and CMEA collapsed in 1989 and Cuba was ultimately plunged into crisis that urban agriculture took off. Cuba lost the vast majority of its import-export trade, including the majority of calories consumed by Cubans that had previously been imported, a situation exacerbated by the tightening of the US economic embargo. By the 1990s, Cuba could no longer sustain this model of agriculture if it hoped to feed its population, and thus was forced to transition to an agroecological approach. This new approach necessitated production near large concentrations of the population without the use of petroleum, chemicals or non-domestic inputs. This led to the development of organic urban agriculture nationwide. However, it is important to note that Cuba’s success has come from supplementing rural agricultural lands with production in highly urbanized areas and surrounding suburban and metropolitan areas: the term “urban” encompasses land that would not traditionally be considered urban based on population density.
Many different classifications of urban agriculture exist within the broader Cuban context. Organopónicos are enclosed gardens consisting of raised-bed containers filled with compost and manure-rich soil constructed on lots that were compacted, paved, or otherwise infertile. Huertas intensivas are similar, using raised beds enriched with organic matter to cultivate large quantities of crops in a small area, differentiated from organopónicos by the lack of retaining walls. Autoconsumos are gardens owned by the state and cultivated specifically to meet the food needs of the workers associated with various state enterprises such as factories, schools and hospitals. Patios are backyard gardens cultivated for personal or family use, and have been heavily promoted by the government. Parcelas consist of land designated for individuals by local governments for what are called “popular gardens.” The individuals or groups are given rights to the land as long as it is kept in production. Granjas or empresas estatales are cultivated on state lands brought back into production to fulfill rations and other state commitments. In 1993, the break up of state farms into Unidades Basicas de Producción Cooperativa (UBPCs) transferred land to cooperative groups of individuals through usufruct, giving them access to the land for an indefinite time period to be managed and cultivated by them.
A complicated combination of centralized and decentralized power was employed to manage the urban agricultural movement. On the highest level is the Grupo nacional de agricultura urbana (GNAU), an inter-institutional organization whose members include representatives from numerous research institutions and universities. Underneath GNAU, there are 15 provincial and 169 municipal organizations that supervise local efforts and set guidelines for policies instituted on a higher level. Each municipality also has an agricultural extensionist appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG). GNAU sets guidelines and protocol, provides training and education, and carries out inspections on a yearly basis for the 28 subprograms distributed between three major areas of urban agriculture: crops, animals, and technical support. El Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultural Tropical (INIFAT) also plays an important role in leading the agricultural effort, largely through research. The granjas urbanas are responsible for distribution or organic material and other inputs necessary for achieving the high crop yields. -Rachel Gilbert
Las reformas agrarias y urbanas
Antes de la Revolución, la tierra y los ingresos no fueron distribuidos igualmente (0.6% de los terratenientes controlaron 35.2% de la tierra); entonces, el objetivo de las reformas agrarias y urbanas, que comenzaron en 1959, fue tratar este asunto (Saney 16). La primera reforma agraria (1959) estableció un límite en el taller máximo de las granjas de propiedad privada; una granja no podría ser más de 402 hectáreas (ha), que permitió que 110.000 aparceros y inquilinos de granjas ganaran los derechos a la tierra. La segunda reforma agraria (1963) disminuyó esta cantidad todavía más, a 63 ha (Koont 14; Saney 16). Esto creó dos tipos de trabajadores agrícolas: los campesinos que trabajaron en tierras privadas de una cooperativa de agricultores o en tierras privadas individuales (Cooperativas de Producción Agropecuaria o Cooperativas de Créditos y Servicios, respectivamente) y los empleados del estado que trabajaron en tierras públicas (Koont 32). Las reformas agrarias intentaron diversificar el sistema de agricultura también porque la mayoría de los campos había sido cultivados con monocultivos de la caña de azúcar. Sin embargo, esta diversificación falló y el sistema dependió de la caña de azúcar de nuevo. Pero en general, las reformas formaron haciendas enormes controladas por el gobierno, granjas cooperativas y un grupo de granjas pequeños y privadas, y la nacionalización y la redistribución de estas tierras fue consistente con la filosofía socialista de Cuba (Koont 14; Saney 16).
La Ley de la Reforma Urbana de 1960 dijo que los dueños tuvieron que vender todas sus propiedades y viviendas en alquiler para que más gente podría tener su propia propiedad. Además, el gobierno empezó a construir más casas, especialmente en áreas rurales, ofreciendo ocupación de por vida (usufructo) y alquiler controlado. Los dueños de poca importancia no sufrieron porque el gobierno les pagó cada mes para indemnizar las fluctuaciones del alquiler. También, la mayoría de los inquilinos se hicieron propietarios de una casa. Como resultado, más de un millón familias tuvieron sus propias viviendas en el fin de los años 1990, que trata la meta de las reformas a eliminar las diferencias entre vivir en áreas urbanas y rurales. A causa de las reformas, más gente podría vivir en la campiña, con más acceso a los servicios como escuelas, clínicas, y bibliotecas, trabajando en el sistema nuevo de agricultura (Saney 14-17). – Anna Farb
La agroecología y las características de la tierra
La Unión Soviética fracasó en 1991 mientras las relaciones entre los Estados Unidos y Cuba se deterioraban; entonces, Cuba entró en un “período especial,” en que había condiciones de tiempo de guerra en un tiempo de paz (Koont 16-17). Por lo tanto, los cubanos tenían que adaptar a la falta de recursos, especialmente petróleo, que fue muy importante en el sistema de agricultura industrial. Sin petróleo, la producción agrícola tenía que cambiar drásticamente porque antes del período especial, las haciendas enormes industriales dependieron de esta aportación no sólo para los fertilizantes y los pesticidas, sino también para la función de la maquinaria y para transportar la cosecha. Para tratar este problema, el gobierno comenzó a promover la agricultura urbana, que demuestra los valores de agroecología. Específicamente, en vez de usar pesticidas y fertilizantes artificiales, la agroecología usa estiércol orgánico, abono, humus de lombrices y el control biológico de plagas. Además, este método sustituye el uso de maquinaria por el trabajo humano. Situar estas granjas en y cerca de las ciudades limita el uso de los combustibles fósiles; con más gente cerca de las áreas de producción, los alimentos no tienen que viajar tan lejos (Koont 21).
El Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical “Alejandro de Humboldt” (INIFAT) fue delante del esfuerzo con sus investigaciones y ayuda con el primer organopónico (un área de producción que usa canteros elevados con paredes) que no fue construido en una unidad militar en 1991 (Koont 26). En los años siguientes, el gobierno de la Habana y el Ministerio de Agricultura aumentaron su apoyo de la agricultura urbana; por eso, la estructura oficial de esta agricultura nueva fue establecido, el Grupo Nacional de Agricultura Urbana (GNAU) manejando los aspectos organizativos de la cima y las granjas urbanas manejando los aspectos administrativos del pie (Koont 27-29; Koont 51). Los elementos fundamentales de la agricultura urbana de Cuba incluyen la unión de todos que producir alimentos en o cerca de las ciudades, la producción “en el barrio, por el barrio y para el barrio,” proveer la preparación y capacitación y la descentralización del proceso entero (Koont 32).
La producción de vegetales ha sido el factor más exitoso del esfuerzo de agricultura urbana, y éstos son cultivados en organopónicos, huertos intensivos, parcelas y patios. La fórmula para la tierra, especialmente en organopónicos y huertos intensivos, es muy científico, con aspectos específicos de la estructura física y química, para maximizar la productividad en espacios pequeños. Cada planta necesita acceso a aire, agua, nutrientes y apoyo físico, y la salud de la tierra determina la salud de la planta; entonces, esta fórmula es crítica para la cosecha. La fórmula está compuesto de 75% (del volumen) de material orgánico y 25% de material no orgánico. Los materiales orgánicos incluyen estiércol, abono, humus de lombrices, residuos del procesamiento de la caña de azúcar, cáscaras de arroz y café, zeolita, serrín y turba (Koont 36-37). La descomposición de material orgánico produce el abono con un período termófila, que mata la bacteria perjudicial, los parásitos y las semillas de hierbajos. El humus de lombrices, creado por la digestión de lombrices (Eisenia foetida), tiene una gran diversidad de nutrientes y microorganismos. Estos bacterias y hongos aumentan la capacidad de la planta de obtener o absorber los nutrientes de la tierra. (La aplicación de otros bio-fertilizantes como la bacteria del género Rhibozium y el hongo arbuscular micorriza ayuda con esto, también; Koont 91-93.) Físicamente, la tierra tiene que retener agua, ser aireada, tener una densidad baja y una porosidad alta y no puede ser compacta. Con estas características, la tierra no necesita fertilizantes artificiales y no degrada mucho de un año a otro. Sin embargo, 10 kilos/m2 de material orgánico son añadidos cada año para restablecer los nutrientes; por lo tanto, las granjas urbanas usan cantidades enormes de estiércol, abono y humus de lombrices, a menudo, más que pueden producir en el sitio (Koont 36-37). Tienen que comprar el fertilizante orgánico de centros o microcentros especializados; afortunadamente, hay más de 7 mil en Cuba (Koont 92). En conclusión, las características de la tierra tienen un papel muy importante en la filosofía agroecológico de la agricultura urbana de Cuba. – Anna Farb
Revolutionary Doctors
Cuban Health Care
As we learned in Steve Brouwer’s book Revolutionary Doctors and in the film Salud, Cuba has a unique and innovative approach to healthcare that seeks to serve not only the entirety of its own population, but those in other countries as well. Due to the U.S. blockade, Cuba lacks access to the high-tech medical supplies available in the United States and Europe. As a doctor explaind in Salud, the X-ray machines are very old, and availability of x-ray film is scarce (Brouwer). Cutting-edge technology, though it would be appreciated, is not the focus of Cuba’s healthcare plan, though. Rather, a commitment to providing care to everyone, regardless of ability to pay, is the goal and even the reality. Preventive care for those must susceptible to various maladies is of prime importance. Thus, whereas in the United States only those who can afford regular check-ups receive them, in Cuba the very poorest and most at risk receive regular care (Brouwer). This lowers the risk of more serious treatment later on.
One way that Cuba brings to fruition its goal of universal health care is through its education system, which is also universal. Students from all over the world are able to attend medical school free of charge, with the hope that students will return to their home countries and work in underserved communities (Brouwer). The site of such training, the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana (ELAM), creates “an army in white jackets” of doctors poised to enter poor nations such as Venezuela and Haiti (Brouwer). Not only do these doctors provide care, but they also work with and help the existing health care providers, creating sustainable and resilient practices. This emphasis on providing health care even beyond the borders of its own nation is especially evident in Haiti, where Cuba was not only the first responder after the earthquake but perhaps also the most helpful. While the United States saw 871 patients and performed 843 surgeries within the first seven weeks of the disaster, Cuban “brigades” saw 227,443 patients and performed 6,499 surgeries. Additionally, while the U.S. and others left after this seven-week period, Cuba stayed and helped establish health care centers, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers (Brouwer 38). This is just one example of the ways in which the Cuban socialist healthcare and education systems serve both domestic and foreign needs.- Ana Rader
Revolutionary Doctors
When Fidel Castro successfully completed his overthrow of Miguel Batista in 1959, he made it very clear that this movement was going to take power from the elites and foreign investors and give it back to the Cuban people. This obviously caused the upper classes and Batista supporters to be extremely worried that they would not only lose their property, but their freedom as well. This fear explains the waves of elites that left the island in the time immediately following the Revolution and with them went the overwhelming majority of Cuba’s doctors. It would take until 1976 before Cuba was able to regenerate the pre-revolutionary number of doctors on the island. However, Castro felt that the Revolution could provide more than simply adequate healthcare to its people.
With public health indicators already higher than before the Revolution with the same number of doctors, Castro wanted to export this model and train doctors from the poorest areas and then have them return to their communities to practice medicine. In 1984, “Basic Health Teams” were created by the Cuban Ministry of Health and were dispatched to rural areas to provide care. Although the Special Period did limit funds and resources that the Cuban health care system had, the shortages did not stop this process. The rate of graduating doctors tripled during the 1990’s and a green medicine initiative encouraged breast feeding, increased portions of vegetables in the Cuban diet, as well as an increase of natural remedies. Furthermore, ELAM was founded in 1998 and was designed to train massive numbers of both Cuban doctors, as well as foreigners. Set up to be free of cost, ELAM provides a six year degree of both academic study and field training in communal medicine. After graduation, new doctors are required to return to their communities and administer care. The establishment of ELAM was immediately followed by the Comprehensive Health Plan in Cuba, which opened the doors for bilateral agreements to have medical students come to Cuba, while Cuban doctors provide free health care abroad in the interim. Through this program, Cuba has pledged to educate 30,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 other Latin Americans, and 10,000 from Asia. Beyond the educational capabilities, Cuba has also sent relief teams all over Latin America and the world in response to natural disasters or epidemics, furthering the Revolution’s reach.
Following Che’s model, these revolutionary doctors come from some of the poorest areas and therefore take pride in being able to return there to assist their communities. This revolutionary system prospered through the Special Period and has developed into an extremely successful example of what Cubans can accomplish. – Joe Benz
The spirit of the Revolution, Cuba’s revolutionary doctors and its effect on the world
One of the most significant concrete manifestations of the Revolutions commitment to service is the selfless dedication of Cuban doctors to help impoverished and under developed communities around the World. It is amazing that even during times when Cuba was undergoing much economic strain, Cuba maintained its commitment to sending doctors to teach and take care of people in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. One of the main goals of Castro’s revolution was to provide quality, free public health care so that no Cuban would be in need of this essential human right. This declaration did not stop at Cuba’s borders and around 1963 the first medical brigade was sent abroad to serve people in the Algerian revolutionary war. This boundary-less ideology is revolutionary in itself- seeking to provide aid to others in a selfless manner based on the belief that health is an inalienable right that no person should be denied. As Steve Brouwer discusses in his book, “Revolutionary Doctors”, Cuba has provided an alternate model for international relations and relief in the global atmosphere. He expresses this through a number of examples, the central one being the Cuban involvement in Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro program. This program seeks on a number of levels to address the failing public healthcare system to first develop on a community level a sustainable health system, which acknowledges the contextual factors and specific issues of the area. Cuban’s are trained extensively on community health and pediatrics before pursuing further specialization in that field or another medical focus.
This is a revolutionary approach because it advocates an integral grass-roots strategy that incorporates the community and the specific problems of the area, as well as educating Venezuelan doctors to sustain the effort for future generations to come. In Venezuela they added a sixth star to the “five-star doctor” concept created by Dr. Charles Boelen at the WHO- that sixth star was teacher in addition to caregiver, decision maker, communicator, manager and community leader. This ideology of service and sustainable development reflects Cuba’s history of dealing with a scarcity of resources and providing for their people (and others) as well as they can. The positive and exemplary HDI of Cuba as compared with the rest of Latin America reflects the attitudes of some of the characters in the film “Salúd” that health care is a universal right and represents Castro’s ideology that private health care and capitalism is harmful and contrary to peoples basic human needs such as education, health care, housing and food security. – Eddie Einbender-Luks