Race, Class, and Gender
Race, Class, and Gender
Old and new adventures of the revolutionary racism
Enrique del Risco
Writer Cuban resident in the United States
B
efore the heat of the economy and the statistics— in the midst of the conversion of Castroism to the capitalist faith— end up drowning the already muted cries of the ideology, we should agree on one thing: few regimes like the inaugurated on January 1 st, 1959, although frustrated in the essentials of economics, have made fashionable so many products of the spirit: from the beards and long hairs of their heroes to the image of its Guerilla Holiness captured by Korda and disseminated by Feltrinelli; from sport to educational achievements, though it was enough to put a microphone in front of an athlete to begin to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the education system. Among all these products only a few have had such a lasting impact on the universal consciousness— let’ s remember that I’ m writing from a hipster era, where the beards have returned without the long hairs— than the so-called racial policy of the Cuban Revolution. It matters little that— as noted by Sir Hugh Thomas— the programmatic text of the early Castroism( History Will Absolve Me, 1954) contain neither the slightest allusion to the racial issue nor the word " black ", not even as part of the color spectrum. Or that at the dawn of that Revolution nothing announced that the racial issue would become a leitmotif during the early years of revolutionary power. Seen from a distance, it is understood. It wouldn’ t be entirely consistent that a white son of a Spanish immigrant called a revolution on behalf of racial equality against a mestizo ruler— black in the stricter U. S. racial profiling— who more harm than good had carried out a discreet racial policy and suffered discrimination in his own flesh, as the official version has been insisting until today, by the Cuban bourgeoisie, even after having come to power. A few days after the triumph of the revolution, the very Fidel Castro said to an American journalist that the " matter of color " in Cuba“ did not exist in the same way as it did in the U. S.; there was some racial discrimination in Cuba but far less; the revolution would help eliminate these remaining prejudices” 1. Let’ s abstain from belaboring other statements by the leader of the Revolution about the same time, which insisted with persuasive vehemence on his noncommunist political affiliation. Just a couple of months later, in March 1959, he called for a campaign with the slogan:“ Job opportunities for all Cubans, without discrimination based on race or sex; let’ s put an end to racial discrimination in the workplace." 2 Whether there was too little or too much racism in Cuba before 1959, for the Revolution
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