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NEWS
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Professor forecasts the
future for a changing Cuba
BY ROBERT QUIGLEY
http://www.yaleherald.com
Carlos M.N. Eire, GRD ’79, is the Riggs Professor of History and
Religious Studies at Yale and the author of Waiting For Snow in Havana,
a National Book Award-winning memoir of his childhood in
pre-revolutionary Cuba and his experiences when Fidel Castro came to
power; Eire and his mother were forced to flee the island. The Herald
interviewed him about the significance of Castro’s supposed renunciation
of power, the shifting politics of Latin America, and his hopes for the
Cuban people.
Yale Herald: On Tues., Feb. 19, Fidel Castro resigned as
president of Cuba; on Sun., Feb. 24, his brother, Raúl, was elected
president by the Cuban National Assembly. How big a change does this
represent?
Carlos Eire: When the National Assembly met, the very first thing
was that they brought in, ceremonially, a sealed envelope from Fidel
Castro, from his hospital bed, containing a message that he would be so
thrilled if all of the votes were unanimous. They chose Raúl as
president... Raúl said something to the effect of “no change,” reminding
everyone that Fidel is still head of the Communist Party and that the
Communist Party is still the most important decision-making body on the
island.
YH: Why do you think that the Western media is hyping this up? Do
you think there’s a legitimate sense that, ‘oh wow, Fidel Castro’s
stepping down, this must make a big difference?’
CE: I think it’s a dissonance of some sort. It’s the assumption
that Cuba is a normal place, that when a ruler steps down or says that
he’s stepping down that it’s a real change. What many of these news
media fail to take into account is that Cuba is a highly abnormal place
that doesn’t run by the same rules as the rest of the world... Raúl made
it very clear yesterday that he will consult Fidel on all major
decisions. As the French saying goes, “the more things change, the more
things stay the same.”
YH: What do you think the likely possibilities for Cuba are, both
in the short term and in the long term? Do you think the Cuban people
will see real freedom anytime soon?
CE: First, there has to be a generational change. The people in
control fought with Fidel! It’s that revolutionary generation; it’s
their revolution, it’s their thing. Younger people can think of
everything differently. When a different generation takes control and
gets the power, changes happen. I think what it will take [in Cuba] is
for this generation to die out.
YH: Why do you think hard-line socialist figures like Castro and
[Venezuelan president] Hugo Chávez still have so much support in Latin
America when the rest of the world seems to be moving in a more
globalized, free-market direction?
CE: Various reasons. At the very top of the list: hatred of the
United States, anti-Americanism. Which seems unfathomable to most
Americans, but if you step outside that to talk to enough Latin
Americans... you’ll hear this vitriolic rhetoric of pure, red-hot hatred
of the United States. Add to that promises of deep social reforms,
redistribution of the wealth, and you have a nice package that makes you
look very attractive. No one wants to focus on human rights. When you
bring it up, as I have tried to numerous times, you get what I call a
post-colonial colonialism—the argument that in places like Latin
America, or Africa, or Bangladesh, the only item that counts is the
distribution of food, that everything else is a luxury.
YH: I take it you don’t believe that argument.
CE: I think it’s a rotten argument based on racist principles.
That people in other parts of the world—most of whom are
darker-skinned—are incapable of appreciating things like speaking
freely. It’s also saying that to get food on the table, you have to take
away human rights, which just is not true.
YH: What are your hopes for Cuba in the future?
CE: I hope that some day, it can join the rest of the world—that
it ceases to be a totalitarian state. I hope it doesn’t become China or
Vietnam, that it has a real transition. In a very odd way, the Communist
Revolution has taught people to be very good capitalists, because you
cannot survive in Cuba without participating in the black market,
without some kind of entrepreneurship. The place has been prepared, in a
very strange and ironic and paradoxical way, for change. I don’t know
after 50 years of total repression... but it can happen, and that is my
hope.
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