Reflections on Cuban socialism
A people’s anti-imperialist revolution with conservative values
There is a great line in a Robert Redford movie, set in a casino in Havana on December 31, 1958, shortly before Batista fled. A gambler was lamenting that Cuba was about to become socialist, and a Cuban responded, “Yes. But it will be socialism cha, cha, cha!”
Indeed, Cuban socialism responds to its own rhythms; it has characteristics that reflect its history and culture. It has very little in common with the former socialisms of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Yet, U.S. public debate about Cuba is influenced by assumptions and beliefs concerning the characteristics of socialism that were formed during the Cold War. These beliefs, shaped during a multidimensional superpower conflict of four decades, are not accurate depictions of the Soviet Union. But they are even more inaccurate as portraits of socialism in Cuba. We must work to free ourselves from these ideological distortions, by encountering the Cuban revolution, that is, by listening to its discourse, t…