IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 68

He lacks a license for this sort of work
because the State authorities and
bureaucracy will not accept that such a
job, just like so many others, exists.
Meanwhile, Felipe doesn’t delay and
earns his money doing honest,
technological work. It comes with
guarantees
and
is
absolutely
undetectable by zealous inspectors,
police officials, or bureaucrats who
pursue
these
“illegal
economic
activities.” Simply put, not everyone
limits him or herself to starting just a
croquette or pizza shop, or to selling
peanuts on the corner, given the
calamitous state the national economy is
in, and with a view to a new one far
from the old, Statist model. This creates
a sense that our economic reality is still
totally controlled by the State and its
lackeys, right down to the last letter of
the law. Fortunately, it seems that will
never again be the only national reality
for Cubans, at least not so long as there
is an economic regime that is so unfair
for most.

Notes:
1- The May 16-22 edition of The
Economist believes that the State salary
in Cuba was 30% below the sum of a
real salary, in 1989.

2- The 1943 National Census registered
that 62.4% of the population between 14
and 64 years of age, was economically
active, but that people who were
employed in jobs that paid taxes to the
State were 32% of the total (about
1,700,000 in 1950), according to an
expert report by the International
Reconstruction and Development Bank
given to the Cuban government, on July
12, 1951. Given the low invalidity,
mortality, emigration, crime, and
prisoner statistics at that time, one can
conclude that most were earning a living
honestly in jobs in the marginal
economy or through small, informal
businesses.
3- Anuario Estadístico de Cuba (1952):
357.
4- Popular name that was given to these
articulated buses, which were really
trucks being used as buses, due to the
shape of the two ‘humps’ on their roofs.
5- A cynical claim stated that “whatever
is not prohibited by totalitarianism is
obligatory.
6- The names that appear throughout this
paper are pseudonyms, by request of the
folks who agreed to tell us their
experiences.

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