Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 12

the dangerous abyss of social fragmentation.
Those who were committed to the economic and
political empowerment of blacks were banished,
exiled, and condemned to ostracism.
These organic intellectuals’ dishonesty has kept
them from narrating the accidents caused by the
revolutionary hurricane. Identifying one’s self
from a position of blackness or Afro-descendancy
makes slave hunters and foremen uncomfortable.
It is seen as ideological divisiveness. And time
keeps marching on. There has been no opportunity to tell our nation’s history from a different
angle for over fifty years. The power centers marginalized those who built Cuban society, even
against their own will.
Those who defend the idea that the issue of race
is one that threatens our national security have
barely defended the growing concern there is due
to the lack of black and mestizo empowerment in
the emerging economy. Patronizing platforms
like the Jose Antonio Aponte Commission and
National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists
(UNEAC) are trying to manage the conflict. For
economist Esteban Morales, the issue of race cannot be isolated from the Cuba-United States divide. To say that we have made progress in our
discussion of the topic is not only a political fiction, but is also part of the cynical faith that is normalized and exported.
Julián Cabrera, who is self-employed as a messenger, commented to us: “The labor market is
tough for blacks and mestizos. It makes no difference that many of us are professional, studied at
the university, are Party or Communist Youth
militants. We still cannot have dignified positions
in the so-called emerging economy. We are absent from both state and private jobs; we are reliable for revolutionary work, so long as no money
passes through our hands. What we are seen as
good for is to do security work, repress improper
conduct, agitate the masses within the Party of
unions. Yet, we are still undocumented travellers
when it comes to working and sharing in the
wealth. We blacks have been left on the street.”
After trying their hand at being self-employed,
the maids of Havana have gone back to the mansions of the revolutionary elite and nouveau riche
in force. These maids tend to be black women.
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Work in positions as a cart vendor, colonial figure, shoe repairman, night watchman, doorman,
cleaning product salesman, ditch digger, recycling collector and public bathroom attendant has
been reserved for blacks; this is not counting jobs
like pimping, selling sex or begging.
Cristóbal is 61-years old and spent part of his
youth working in construction. He retired from
the Ignacio Piñeiro music company. In 1970, he
graduated as an art instructor. He worked with a
folklore group in tourist spot Varadero for 11
years. Yet, he also worked on revolutionary projects like construction development in Varadero,
on the Villa Panamericana and the Miguel
Enríquez Hospital . He achieved great praise and
respect at many of those jobs.

For Cristóbal, “all this story has been a lie, in the
end. We blacks are still trapped by poverty; the
bad life was reserved for us, as we haven’t any
right to even a roof over our heads. I have lived in