Life
Black in Cuba
Race Still Divides
Patterson said he believes that while Castro has kept the lid on the race issue by squashing past attempts by Afro Cubans to organize or speak out, a post-Castro Cuba won’t be able to contain the frustrations.
“If the Cuban government were to permit Afro Cubans to organize and raise their problems before [authorities] . . . totalitarianism would fall,” he said.
Look beyond the white, brown and black faces in government propaganda murals plastered throughout this island under the slogan Somos Uno — We Are One — and race still divides. Today’s Cuba is more racially and socially integrated than the United States, but it is far from color-blind.
White Cubans are clearly preferred in the government controlled and highly profitable tourism industry, from taxi drivers to waitresses and hotel maids. Meanwhile, Afro Cubans in Old Havana are continually stopped by police for I.D. checks on suspicion of black market activities.
Television programs overwhelmingly show most blacks in menial jobs, and Cubans, like other Latin Americans, still use a cutting expression for a black they admire: El es negro, pero . . . ” — He is black, but . . .
“Just look at the cab drivers lined up in Old Havana,” Cito, 52, an Afro Cuban doctor whispered so his neighbors would not overhear his complaint. “You rarely see someone who looks like me.”
Nearly three years ago, Cito, fed up with his paltry government salary and what he described as the racist attitude of his white supervisor, left his post. He now makes his living on the black market, buying meat from farmers in the countryside and selling it in Havana.
