East of Havana – Another Political Whitewash?

By Ignacio Gutierrez

 

Published in Metro NY February 20, 2007

 

In the documentary East of Havana, Magyori, one of the film’s subjects, comments on how good she’s become at making meals from a single banana. Certain reviewers have taken umbrage with this particular comment as an example of political whitewashing, stating the film doesn’t hold the US embargo accountable for Cuba’s economic woes. But what these reviewers won’t mention, or may not even be aware of, are the capricious and disastrous policies undertaken by Castro’s regime which have made such meals a fact of life for most Cubans.

 

As unjust and futile as the US embargo has been, solely blaming it doesn’t take into account how and why Cuba’s problems such as food shortages came to be. Even before the “special period” of the early 1990’s which the documentary touches upon, there was needless scarcity and rationing of food. The abolition of the “Mercado Libre Campesino” (Farmers’ Free Market) back in 1986 is one of many examples. When the government deemed farmers were gaining too much economic independence, it became illegal to grow one’s own crops and sell them directly to the market. All the sudden domestic food products such as cheese disappeared entirely from store shelves across the country. Even nowadays it’s illegal for farmers to kill their own cattle without government consent.

 

And yet it is odd that there would be a food shortage considering the regime’s policy of requiring school children to work 45 days a year in labor camps for its commercial agriculture. With most Cubans’ salaries averaging little over $10 a month, it becomes increasingly difficult to cook up more than one banana per meal, let alone save any money. That coupled with the government’s insistence on restricting private business, much less hiring employees, and fines or jail time for having internet access at home, it’s no wonder Cuba has stagnated into its current third world status.

 

But there will always be the Harry Belafontes, Robert Redfords, Sydney Pollacks, and Oliver Stones who find it politically chic to wax romantic about Castro as a justified David fighting against an imperialist Goliath. Perhaps when their properties rights are abolished and their children are made to work in labor camps among a sleuth of other senselessly absolutist policies, will they and other champagne-socialists understand the ultimate embargo of living in the totalitarian farce many know firsthand as communism.