IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 16

praxis of the revolutionary racism— did
not diminish the idea that any criticism
had its origin in the CIA headquarters.
If in the present living conditions of
Afro-Cubans show no signs of improving, the local Ministry of Truth will
always worsen the past as a last resort.
While in January 1959 the "question of
color" did not exist for Castro "in the
same way as in the United States" and
there hardly was "certain racial discrimination" and "remaining prejudices" that
the revolution would eliminate without
difficulty, the official digital encyclopedia Ecured notes nowadays, despite all
the evidences to the contrary, that "in
the Havana of the 1950s, the university
studies were practically closed to blacks
and mestizos". It also states "politics
was a business of the whites" and that
"only political party in which blacks
could develop their leadership qualities
was the Socialist People's Party [Communist]." Thus some details like Fulgencio Batista becoming president
being neither blond nor communist
were simply ignored. In the past managed by Ecured, black men worked in
agriculture, construction, trade and
crafts, while women worked as housemaids [sic]. The police was mainly
composed of whites, like the armed
forces, especially the officers. Apparently the difficulty to transform Benny
Moré and Celia Cruz in Caucasians
forces to slip that music was "the only
sector that maintained the existing
tradition since the eighteenth century
with broad participation of blacks and
mestizos." 12 But Celia Cruz was a
certified schoolteacher before becoming
a professional singer, so this would be
another tall tale by the “worms” in
Miami, as it would be her entire career.
13
While the Cuban past is not difficult
to modify, the present of the AfroAmericans complicates this idyllic and
baronial view of the Castro racism.
Partly because the images of German
shepherd dogs attacking black protesters

seems a bit old- fashioned; partly because the current situation cannot be
summarized with the deaths of African
Americans at the hands of the police, as
the Cuban press promptly informs.
Despite the efforts of the efficient Castro propaganda machine, it is more
difficult to transform the outside world
than the Cuban past in order to convince
the captive Cuban audience that the
entire U.S. black male population is
doomed to work in agriculture, construction, trade and crafts, while the
females have only the job option of
being maids if they don’t possess musical talent. Watching Hollywood productions for decades has served to find out
that being black in America is not incompatible with being a lawyer, judge,
police chief, or actor. If Cubans pay
attention to the news, they will also
realize that being black is not incompatible with the post of Secretary of State
and even, occasionally, of President.
Obama's visit
And precisely the two-day visit of the
U.S. President Barack Obama to the
"first socialist territory in America" has
put the revolutionary racism against the
ropes. At the same time, as it happens
with a cornered boxer, the visit forced
it to do its best. Trying to recover from
the