How did Fidel Castro become the most powerful man in Cuba? What happened to private land and business during the Cuban Revolution? What happened during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and why are they important? What were the different waves of Cuban exile migrations? How did Cuba respond to the fall of the Soviet Union? What is the special period in Cuba, and how did ordinary Cubans adapt to survive?
How did people flee Cuba in the 1990s? What was the wet foot, dry foot policy? And how did it affect Cuban migration? Who took over after Fidel Castro? How did President Obama change relations between the U.S. and Cuba? How do President Trump's policies affect Cuba? How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect Cuba? And what is Cuba like today?
We'll answer these questions and many more in today's episode, Cuba 101, Part 3 of 3. Welcome to Wiser World, a podcast for busy people who need a refresher on all things world. Here we explore different regions of the globe giving you the facts and context you need to think historically about current events. I truly believe that the more we learn about the world, the more we embrace our shared humanity.
I'm your host, Allie Roper. Thanks for being here. Hello, this is Matt and McKinley from History Dispatches. We are the father-son duo, bringing you the weird, the wild, the wacky, and the craziest tales from across time. From the Ice Bowl. To the Great Heathen Army. And the head of Oliver Cromwell. The same head they kept on a pike for three years? Yep. all here on History Dispatches. New episodes every weekday. Find out more at historydispatches.com or wherever you get your podcast app.
Hello, hello. I am back with part three of three on Cuba today, and I'm so happy to be here. I loved making this 101 series. I think of all the 101 series I've made, the process of making these Cuba episodes.
has probably been my favorite so far. So I'm glad you're here and listening. It probably goes without saying, but if you haven't listened to parts one and two, please just press pause now, go back and do that. Things are not going to make as much sense without all that groundwork that I lay and those. two episodes.
Just a reminder that I designed these episodes for people who know very little to nothing about Cuba. So you can walk away with a good basic foundational history, but it's not totally comprehensive. And since I try to keep these episodes relatively short.
There's plenty that we don't cover. So please do your own independent research from other sources because the history is complex. And if you need to begin finding some good options, I will be sharing many through my Patreon, which you can sign up for at patreon.com. slash Wiser World podcast. I share a lot of pictures, maps, videos, articles, books that you can use to learn more about Cuba, and it supports the podcast. Okay, let's get into the history. We ended part two on January 1st.
1959 with President Batista. the dictator of Cuba, fleeing the country in an airplane. You'll remember from part two that he ran a pretty brutal regime and the majority of Cubans were not big fans. Even the U.S. had withdrawn their support by the end. So he takes off. and Cuba begins to celebrate. A new moment for Cuba has arrived. And when Fidel Castro marched into Havana, the crowds were so big, they were overwhelming. And he gave a crazy long speech, which, side note,
Fidel Castro would become known for this, the guy could really talk. His average speech length was between four to seven hours long. Okay, I digress. Anyway, he was quick to remind them that the revolution was... just beginning. The old power structures were still standing and there was going to be a dismantling. He said, quote, the revolution is characterized precisely by its newness, by the fact that it will do things that have never been done before. End of quote.
In this moment, something unique happened. They released three white doves, and one white dove came down and actually landed on his shoulder. And at the time, well over 80% of Cubans were Christian, so this image of a white dove felt symbolic. of the Holy Ghost descending upon Jesus Christ. And so it felt to many like God was blessing Fidel Castro. And Fidel made it clear that this was not just another uprising, not just another governmental change.
And he didn't come out of the gate with communism. Most Cubans had no idea that the revolution was going to turn. to that direction. But even then, not everyone was convinced that the revolution would change anything. Cubans had seen revolution before. We talked about that in parts one and two. Corrupt leadership was not new to them. So would this time really be different? And Castro insisted that this revolution was the real deal. So let's talk about it.
As with most revolutions, there was a sense of urgency. One newspaper even wrote, quote, be quick. We have lost 50 years. End of quote. A new government was formed, mostly left-leaning or moderate lawyers, economists and rebels. Fidel was not the president. He was the prime minister. But I'm going to focus on him to keep names minimal because Fidel really was the main one calling the shots.
Immediately, the new government purged the old government and replaced the leaders, and they dissolved Batista's Congress, and they disbanded the army. But then they began to televise trials of Batista's police, military men who were accused of crimes against the Cuban people during Batista's regime. And they publicly executed many of them by firing squad. it. While some supported this, seeing it as long overdue retribution for Batista's brutality,
Plenty of Cubans and foreigners like the United States were alarmed by this. And Fidel defended these actions by giving marathon speeches to huge crowds and riling people up. He also made it very clear that he didn't think the United States had any right to criticize them. for the revolutionary justice that they were seeking.
Fidel was quickly becoming the embodiment of the revolution itself. Fidel was the revolution. And one of Fidel's unique qualities was that he didn't mind directly engaging with Cubans, like he would stand in large crowds of people without a bunch of bodyguards. or he would ask people to directly walk with him. And this made people feel seen, and he grew to have a devoted followership.
In early 1959, he announced that there would be elections in 18 months. But as time went on, he changed his mind multiple times. He finally started saying, quote, revolution first, elections later, land first, elections later. Work for every Cuban first. Elections later. Schools and teachers for all children first. Elections later. End of quote. You get the picture. Elections later. And people didn't seem to mind at first because he was so popular and changes were happening.
He also became increasingly openly anti-American in his comments as the revolution went on. And the U.S. quickly learned that Fidel was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, the U.S. Embassy to Cuba wrote Washington, quote, get used to the feeling of walking gently around the edges of a volcano that is liable to burst forth with sulfurous fumes at the slightest provocation. End of quote. Within the first nine months, the new government created 1500 new laws.
One of the biggest ones cut rent in many urban areas by up to 50%. Can you imagine if your rent was cut in half? It was a big deal since 63% of Cubans were renting homes at the time. This again endeared him to many, but landlords suddenly saw massive reductions in their income and many who had supported the revolution began to kind of second guess the way that things were moving.
Cubans in general became very invested in the revolution. Another massive change that came in May had to do with reforming the law around land ownership. If you owned a large amount of land, that was now basically outlawed. The government offered some decent compensation in bonds based on property tax values, which were low, and the government took over the land and split it into cooperatives or small plots for peasants.
This was viewed positively by most Cubans because who did it affect the most? Well, the United States, because most of the large land holdings were owned by foreigners, typically from the U.S., like we talked about a lot in part two. And American companies wanted full market value and cash for the land, and Cuba refused. So this was...
Not a great moment for anyone who owned a lot of land in Cuba. And many Americans were confused by what they saw as like sudden hostility toward them. They had been taught that they had liberated Cuba from Spain by stepping into the Spanish-American War.
also known as the Final War of Independence. But that's not how most Cubans saw it. And as a result, the U.S. became much more concerned about communist influence in Cuba, even though at the time there were still some moderate leaders in the government.
Anyway, in those first months, the revolution had high public approval. Young men grew their beards in solidarity. Even exiles of Miami began returning home. They were excited to be a part of what seemed like a new beginning for Cuba. If this is reminding you of the revolution in Iraq. Ron, well done. You're catching on to patterns here. We talked about that in the Iran 101 series too.
By the middle of the summer in 1959, the president resigned and a new president replaced him and Fidel stayed as prime minister. And these two would stay in that position until 1976. But it was clear that Fidel was outmaneuvering everyone in the government, and he was really the true leader of Cuba. He was wildly popular. In one plaza, people shouted, Fidel or death, over and over. Castro also became more open around this.
time about his communist leanings and moderate politicians began to resign. Of course, revolutions don't stay euphoric forever. On the world stage, it was the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union were in a contest of political and economic ideologies and ego, and Cuba was a part of that story. So let's talk about it. At the very beginning, Fidel tried to carve out
what he called a third way, to not have to fall into line with either capitalism or communism. Which, by the way, if you need a refresher on the economic theories, I have an episode on them. It's episode 25. It's in April of 2023. Could be helpful if... Capitalism, communism, socialism, if these words are.
landing in your brain. But the question of communism kept coming up, and some Cubans, even those who had celebrated Fidel, started to feel like the revolution was growing more radical, less democratic, and Cuban officials began meeting with Soviet officials to talk economic policy and trade diversification.
Then the Cuban government began shutting down or taking control of different newspapers and publications. And in not much time at all, one single dominant narrative began to emerge. You either defend the revolution or you would be accused of betrayal. praying it. The consolidation of the media is a move that has been done in many communist and fascist revolutions, so this is unsurprising if you've studied history.
But it's also very alarming and it's an important pattern to recognize. Cuba's relationship with the U.S. fell apart. There was a lot of tension already because Cuba was continuing to take over these U.S.-owned land and sugar mills, and Cuba was being very friendly with the Soviet Union, who was the enemy of the U.S.
Fidel begins speaking more aggressively, calling the US a hostile superpower that wanted to end the revolution. In early 1961, US and Cuba broke off all diplomatic relations and closed. the embassies. So within two years, the revolution had changed quite a lot. It had gone from more of a unifying Cuba in the beginning vibe to becoming a communist project led by Fidel and his staunchest supporters.
And the U.S. didn't like all of this. After years of being heavily involved in Cuba, suddenly the tables had turned. So under President Eisenhower... the CIA trained a group of Cuban exiles with the goal to invade Cuba and hopefully overthrow Fidel and this revolution. They'd been told that there were anti-Castro fighters in Cuba that would help them, support them, and they planned an amphibious landing with tanks and heavy weapons and airstrikes.
and they chose a place for it. It was a beachhead in the Bay of Pigs, which was basically a big, inhospitable, neglected swamp. So they saw it as the perfect place for an invasion. Planning it was a struggle. In the middle of it, John F. Kennedy took office. And in the room with all the advisors, most believed that many Cubans would support them and didn't actually like Castro.
Kennedy was apprehensive. He wanted the operation to appear more covert, and he kind of scaled back airstrikes. There was miscommunication and internal issues throughout this entire process. If you want to read more about it, it really is a fascinating moment in history. There's a lot written about it. But to keep things simple, they set the invasion to be on April 17, 1961.
What they didn't know was that Fidel actually was generally quite supported by Cubans at this stage in the game, and he had visited the Bay of Pigs earlier and had started massive projects there. What they thought was a backwater area actually had a lot of roads and hospitals being built. Electricity was going in. Even a resort was opening on the beach. And Castro had been tipped off and was ready. He told his militias to be ready for what he said was Yankee aggression.
So the area was heavily guarded and the landing was a disaster from the start. The brigade expected stealth and darkness that night. Instead, what did they find? They found coral reefs and bright floodlights on shore. Several of the landing craft sank or malfunctioned. And right when the sun started to rise, the Cuban Air Force flew in, started shooting. The U.S. didn't have the air support it needed.
In 72 hours, the entire operation collapsed. More than 100 invaders died in combat. Nearly 1,200 were captured. It was shocking and humiliating for the United States and devastating, obviously, for those who were involved. It was a complete triumph for the Castro government. They called it the first defeat of Yankee imperialism. In fact, Che Guevara, who was Fidel's right-hand man at the time, he actually thanked the U.S. for the Bay of Pigs invasion because it strengthened the revolution.
Now, this was a monumental moment for both the US and Cuba. For Fidel, it allowed him to consolidate his control. I mean, think about it. The invasion validated all of his warnings about imperialist aggression. And suspicion toward the U.S. deepened throughout all of Latin America at the time. And it made Cubans feel a little bit better about his pivot toward the Soviet Union.
He also began to declare the revolution as socialist very openly. He invited the Soviet military onto the island, and he also increased arrests of anyone who opposed him. From the U.S. perspective, it showed flaws within the CIA intelligence system. And if you've ever taken a psychology course and studied the concept of groupthink, professors often use the Bay of Pigs as the case study.
about that in depth in my next episode. But groupthink is basically when a group puts consensus over critical thinking, which leads to poor decision making and a failure to consider. alternative viewpoints, it's now a very common word and largely because of the Bay of Pigs. The U.S. had underestimated Cuba's popular support for Castro, and anyone who had reservations were swept up in the thinking of the group.
Sadly, many of the Cuban exile community felt betrayed. They had hoped for victory and had been let down. It was a major blow for the U.S. and Cuban Americans. And during this time, American tourism obviously disappeared from Cuba. A year and a half later, things got even stickier. In the fall of 1962, Soviet soldiers and big trucks with tarps covering equipment began rolling into some small Cuban towns. And what was under the tarps? Soviet nuclear missiles.
Each of these missiles had a range of up to 1,400 miles, which means that they could not only reach Miami, but all the way up to New York or even beyond. Dr. Farah writes, quote, a nuclear warhead on each. could pack 75 times more power than the U.S. atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. End of quote. Okay, so this is a big deal.
Why? Why have missiles in Cuba? Well, there are a few reasons. First, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time, and Fidel Castro believed that because the Bay of Pigs invasion had been such a fiasco, the U.S. was going to try to invade Cuba again. And this time they believed the U.S. was going to plan it better. And so.
That was part of it. The other reason was that the U.S. had missiles in Turkey and Italy, which could also strike Soviet territory. So it was kind of like the Soviets saying, if you're pointing missiles at us, we're going to point missiles at you.
The plan to have missiles in Cuba was top secret, but it didn't take too long for the U.S. spy planes to notice ships bringing in military supplies. Missiles of this size require installation and operation, which brought in men and equipment tricky to hide. This time, JFK was not messing around. When he found out for sure that there were missiles in Cuba, the White House went into nonstop deliberations. They knew the missiles would be fully operational in just a few weeks.
Again, remember, they had to be set up. So they circled around and around with their options. Naval blockade, airstrike, direct invasion. What do we do? They knew that if they directly attacked Cuba, it was likely that there would be retaliation that would lead to war. Nobody wanted nuclear war. By October 27nd, quietly... All U.S. military forces worldwide went on DEFCON 3. U.S. long-range B-52 bombers began flying around the clock. These guys could literally take out the whole island of Cuba.
President Kennedy got on the TV. He addressed the entire world saying, quote, the purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western hemisphere. end of quote. Then he warned Khrushchev that a missile launched from Cuba would mean war, and he implored, quote, move the world back from the abyss of destruction, end of quote.
In Cuba, Fidel was defiant and furious that U.S. planes were flying so low over Cuba, and he said, quote, Cuba has the right to obtain the arms we want for our defense, and this is what we have done, end of quote. Also, he put his military on high alert. Four days later, by October 26th, all 24 missiles were operational and pointing north toward the U.S., and Kennedy had a choice to make. He could negotiate with Khrushchev, or he could do an airstrike or an all-out invasion.
Most of his men leaned toward an invasion, and most Cubans thought the U.S. was going to do that. Fidel even wrote to Khrushchev, quote, if they attack Cuba, we should wipe them off the face of the earth, end of quote. Fidel slept in a bunker. The rest of Cuba looked up at the sky in panic. Hospitals were ready. Blood drives were organized. And the radio told people to, quote, keep a small piece of wood handy to place between teeth when bombing begins. End of quote.
They felt like it was a sure thing. However, Fidel didn't know that Khrushchev and Kennedy had begun talking. And Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles from Cuba. if the U.S. promised to never invade Cuba and if they withdrew their missiles from Turkey. Kennedy was under massive pressure by many of his team to invade Cuba.
But he really didn't want that chain reaction. And in the end, the two decided to make a deal. If the U.S. did not attack and if they quietly took their missiles from Turkey. The Soviet missiles would be taken from Cuba, and then the UN could come and inspect the sites in Cuba. And the whole world took a deep breath. But here's the thing. Fidel was not included in the negotiations.
No one had talked to him. He found out about it on the radio, and he was, to put it nicely, very angry. It was humiliating. All of this was happening on what he saw as his island, and yet these two massive superpowers... talked over his head. He rejected the agreement of having the sites inspected. He wanted more from both nations. And he stuck to this.
He was not happy. And in the end, they were able to compromise a bit, but Fidel remained deeply resentful and bitter about being sidelined in these negotiations. That's a short story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is highly studied. It is intense. Go look it up more if you'd like more information. But it is one of history's closest brushes with nuclear war. It led to a gradual thaw of the arms race.
It did not stop the CIA from going back to the drawing board and coming up with other ways to assassinate Fidel. There were lots of ideas, poison pens, exploding cigars. Really, you should look it up. It's very fascinating. And even though Fidel was angry at Khrushchev, they did maintain an alliance. And after 1962, the Soviet Union militarized Cuba without nuclear weapons until it was the second most militarized state per capita behind.
North Korea. It's not quite as militarized today in 2025 as it was back then, but it's still a highly militarized country in Latin America. Creating a happy, healthy, safe future for all depends on our support for the very best science That support can only come from a well-informed public that is prepared to make wise decisions. Yet there have never been more forces attempting to dilute science facts and education with mis- and disinformation.
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in their position. Vengeance felt good. Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous. True Spies from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts. So now that we've talked about Cuba on the world stage, let's step away from that and look at Cuba boots on the ground. during and after this. The Cuban Revolution was still very young in the early 1960s. And like many revolutions, the new government had made significant changes in a short amount of time. And the old Cuba was...
was gone. It was leaving. So let's talk about the new economic order in Cuba. Then that will lead us into the new social order. First, at the beginning, large private companies, large farms and investment properties were confiscated by the government and owners were offered bonds. We talked about this. But as things became more radical, landowners and business owners stopped being paid or were never offered payment in the first place, even if their owners still lived in Cuba.
Basically, the government took what you had and you got nothing for it. Private renting was no longer allowed. And usually if someone was renting a house from you, the renters became the recognized owners of the house. So Americans and Cuban elites started to leave Cuba in droves, leaving behind empty buildings. And the regime took these properties and often split them into multiple quarters for families to live in.
was not awesome and there were no building codes. Castro was very popular with everyone who moved into these vacant houses and apartments. The bigger houses with more amenities were given to those who aligned themselves with the government by joining their local communist party. Over the years, the state built tons of Soviet-style five-story apartment blocks.
And then they would use workplace assignments and government programs to house Cubans. Generally, if you owned your own single family home at the time, you were able to keep owning it and living there. But buying and selling property became... tightly controlled at the beginning cuba made fast strides to level out cuban society especially focusing on raising the standard of living for the poor
This also meant that no one could earn more than others. The feeling of the revolution was that if you were wealthy, you were an enemy to the state. And after taking over the larger assets, the government moved on to taking smaller private businesses and merging them into state cooperatives. all nationalized. Economic activity was all under state control. So let's say that you were a private restaurant owner. What would this look like for you?
Government officials would arrive, sometimes with little to no notice. They would inform you that your business was being expropriated. They would get an inventory of all of your equipment supplies, and basically they would take over the premises. with little to no compensation. And then you would transition into the state workforce where you'd receive a standard government wage.
The social system provided you with health care, education, but you would also likely receive a much lower wage than you had in a free market. Many business owners left Cuba. and moved their businesses elsewhere because of this. And Cuba lost a lot of talent during this time. In 1962, the US imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba. The embargo prohibited virtually all trade between the US and Cuba. It was designed to isolate Cuba economically and politically.
Again, the hope was to pressure the Cuban government to abandon its socialist policies. By the way, side note, the embargo is still in force, though it has changed a bit, but it is one of the longest standing trade restrictions in history. So the Soviet Union filled the economic void by purchasing Cuban sugar at above market prices and supplying essential goods like oil and machinery. They stepped in.
If you combine the U.S. embargo with inefficient centralized planning, what do you get? You get rationing. And by March 1962, the government created a ration booklet called the Libretta. And each Cuban household would get basic stables like rice, beans, sugar, cooking oil. Based on your family size and ages, finding certain ingredients at the store became impossible.
Rationing has continued in some way or other in Cuba ever since. We'll talk more about that in a second. But rationing started in 1962. So keep that in mind. The whole reason for these economic changes was because the regime believed that collectivization would remove the past and hopefully usher in a new socialist future with new socialist people. people across class, race, and gender. In fact, Che Guevara said that they wanted to create quote, the new man and new woman.
End of quote. And this person would use their abilities to improve all of society. The idea was to rid themselves of the old capitalist and elitist models and to do this was to change. each person's mentality about their role in society. So let's talk about these social changes and what they looked like in terms of daily life for Cubans. First,
Cuba had a new approach to education than before. They opened early childhood centers where children as young as a few months old could attend up until primary school, which is also now mandatory. In primary schools, they were taught revolutionary mottos. They would sing songs, participate in activities that instilled collectivist values. And lessons in history and civics taught a lot about anti-imperialism, Cuban identity, loyalty to...
the socialist state and Fidel. Where English had once been taught, Russian was now taught. And as kids got older, they were pressured to join the Pioneer League, where they dressed in white shirts with red and blue neckerchiefs, and they chanted daily in a morning assembly. Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che.
Despite Fidel being very popular, Che Guevara was the true model that they put forth about a perfect communist. And joining the Pioneer League meant that you were a true revolutionary and would have a better chance at better jobs. Many parents were concerned about these changes and the communist indoctrination as they saw it that was going on. They worried their children would be taken from them and sent to Soviet-style schools far from home. So a Catholic priest in Miami and the U.S. state...
Department helped provide visa waivers for unaccompanied Cuban children. The parents could send their children alone to the U.S., trusting the church to care for them in orphanages or foster homes until the parents could get out of Cuba. and reunite with their children. From 1960 to 1962, there was a mass exodus of over 14,000 Cuban children, and this is called Operation Peter Pan.
Sadly, because of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 62, U.S.-Cuba flights were cut off, and many never reunited with their families again. In general, there were a lot of slogans used in Fidel's Cuba. And he would use them with adults in rallies to teach the revolution. The most common one was patria o muerte, venceremos, which means homeland or death, we shall overcome.
used in speeches all the time. Adults were also pressured to join the Communist Party, be a true revolutionary. And those who did join received favorable treatment to those who did not, including more promotions, better and bigger housing, cars given to you by the state. State-funded vacations. Better medical care.
The theory was to replace the old moral codes with revolutionary collectivist values. If this is reminding you of China 101, then again, well done. You're picking up on patterns. As kids got older and moved into the workforce, they were directed or... signed jobs based on the needs of the state's economic goals. And many young adults in the early days were sent off to Soviet bloc nations like Ukraine for training so they could come back and add to the revolution with their new skills.
This especially benefited women and people of color who were given more opportunities to learn skills than ever before. More and more women also began working outside of the home, and there was a new family code that required marital equality. Some of this went well, some of it didn't. Many men resisted doing what they considered women's chores.
into a job that involved them. They just wouldn't show up. So absenteeism became a problem. This early upward momentum for minorities and women was positive for many. Many adults benefited from more education as well. In 1961, the government started a literacy campaign where thousands of urban youth were sent out into the countryside to teach rural Cubans how to read and write and also to politically educate them.
However, if you were counter-revolutionary in any way, you know, you questioned the revolution or... You were considered pro-Yankee or you were homosexual. You were sent to labor camps to be re-educated. Che and Fidel saw homosexuality as upper-class degeneracy. and counter to the masculinity and discipline needed for a revolution. And sometimes homosexuals and counter-revolutionaries were jailed or killed. Early in the revolution,
The Cuban government viewed organized religion, especially the Catholic Church, as counter-revolutionary. Many churches had their property confiscated, religious schools were closed, and open religious practice could limit your chances to get a better job within the Communist Party. Despite this, religion does still persist in Cuba. Catholicism, Protestantism, and the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria.
and others, they do still exist there. But in the early days, they were practiced in private. And it wasn't until like the late 90s, early 2000s, that religious expression loosened in Cuba. Every neighborhood has something called the CDR. CDR stands for Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. And the job of the CDR is to support government initiatives. Like if there's a vaccine clinic, it's going to happen through your local CDR.
The dark side is that the CDR leaders monitor the neighbors for any sign of counter-revolutionary activities or beliefs. Surveillance work, if you want to be diplomatic. Neighborhood snitches, if you want to be frank, they keep track of... what people are doing. And they could turn you into the interior ministry, which is Fidel's secret police, which was dreaded, still is.
Simple things like not attending a parade or having an illegal satellite dish or letting someone use your house phone to call a relative in Miami. All of those things can get you reported. People became very afraid to criticize the revolution or Fidel, even in their... privacy of their own homes because they knew that they could lose their jobs or worse, be imprisoned or forced into exile.
Anthony De Palma writes, quote, everybody in Cuba at one time or another suspected nearly everyone else of being an informer or of somehow working with or for the government and getting something in return. End of quote. Bottom line here is that they lived in constant vigilance and political dissent was not allowed.
The media was and still is under government control. The official newspaper of the Communist Party is called the grandma based off the grandma yacht, which we talk about in part two. There is no independent press in Cuba. There are. many, many more social changes that happened in Cuba in the 1960s that persist today. I mean, we could talk for days about it, but there's one more that I want to talk about, and that is cars.
As we talked about in part two, Cuba started importing cars from the U.S. in the 40s and 50s and Cubans take huge pride in their vehicles. After the U.S. embargo, getting parts to fix these cars became much more difficult. or impossible. So car loving Cubans had to become very scrappy to keep your pre 1959 cars running for six decades.
take some ingenuity and resourcefulness. And those are skills that Cubans have in spades. Cubans are now known internationally for hand-making missing parts from scratch. or repurposing parts from other machinery like boats or tractors or other brands of cars. Ultimately, car owners in Cuba, especially those with classic cars, meticulously maintain their vehicles to keep them in working condition.
It's really impressive. And to me, it's a symbol of the resilience of the Cuban people. Now, to pull off all of these social programs that we've talked about, Cuba needed money. And Cuba has always relied on exporting sugar for money. So in 1970, 11 years after the revolution started, Fidel decided to try something extreme called the 10 million ton sugar harvest.
It was founded on this idea of moral incentives and this new man and woman that Cubans could achieve this huge leap forward if they could mobilize all the citizens to produce a massive sugar harvest that would benefit everyone. And people all over the island were sent to fields to meet.
this goal, they even canceled Christmas. Many wanted to do it, felt like they were connecting with the revolution. Others thought it was ridiculous for university professors who had never picked Cain in their life to suddenly be out there doing a way worse job than people who had been trained. In the end, the harvest did not modernize Cuba overnight like Fidel hoped. It fell short by 8.5 million tons.
And it was a discouraging moment for the regime. Cuba paid a huge economic and social toll, and eventually they had to move to more pragmatic incentives to get Cubans to show up to work because support the revolution. That wasn't really working anymore. Economic survival was more important than this idea of creating a new man and a new woman. Now, if you've listened this far and are wondering to yourself, weren't people upset that they lost?
one dictator and essentially got another? I think it's a good question. Yes, there were many who supported the revolution. Others did not, and they organized to fight back. But Fidel was persistent in pursuing any counter-revolutionary cells, and most were dead or jailed by 1965. many ordinary Cubans decided that they needed to just leave Cuba. And so for the next few decades, saying goodbye or being left behind became a daily occurrence in Cuba.
The first wave of people leaving was in the first three years of the revolution, 59 to 62. And we talked about them already because their houses were divided up for others. Over a quarter of a million people left for the United States, mostly going to Miami. And that's a lot considering the population was only around 6 million in Cuba at the time.
These are often called the golden exiles because they were typically educated, white, and well-received in the U.S. They had the means to buy plane tickets and get out of there. Because of the Cold War policies at the time, the U.S. offered pathways.
to legal residency with job training and loans. And while leaving your country for another is never easy, and I don't want to diminish that, the golden exiles did have an easier time integrating into communities in the United States than future exiles. would. They made Spanish-speaking neighborhoods like Little Havana in Miami. The second wave
was from 65 to 73. And we typically call these the silver exiles. These were often middle-class Cubans like engineers, teachers, small business owners who were not as wealthy as the golden exiles, often a little older in age, but many still had valuable skills they could bring to the U.S. And the U.S. funded airlifts for eight years called the Freedom Flights that transported around 300,000 Cubans to Miami.
Fidel was generally glad to see these people go because they were mostly upper and middle class individuals who opposed communism. Castro saw them as harmful to his vision of a utopian socialist society. By the way, in 1976, they restructured the government and he was the president now.
However, as time went on, Castro tightened restrictions on immigration because they were now losing too many skilled workers which they needed for a functioning economy. This is called brain drain. They were experiencing brain drain and losing all of their skilled workers. or a lot of them. The government clamped down on who could leave and they restricted exits. And Castro began using immigration as propaganda. He talked about those who left as gusanos.
worms who were selfish, unpatriotic, counter-revolutionary, and had abandoned Cuba. And the Cuban-American community was very divided over how they felt about Castro and his regime. This is a very vibrant community. And even though they had left, many still cared deeply about the future of Cuba, and they were politically influential, especially in Miami.
still are. And in the late 1970s, Castro did something unique. He decided to reopen dialogue with select exiles. He allowed short family reunification visits where people who had fled to the U.S. could now come back visit. their families. This didn't last long, but what it did was it allowed Cubans who were living with their libretas and
pretty severe economic hardship to see the other side. And their relatives would come back with money and genes and consumer goods that they didn't know existed. And Cubans who had no relatives in the U.S. were bothered by this because it was clear, like if you had U.S. relatives sending you money.
You lived just a little bit better. So there was a negative consequence for Fidel and that department. In 1980, the consequences of inefficient centralized planning hit a new low and there were widespread shortages of food. basic goods and jobs. And because the government had so much control over the economy, people had very little opportunity to improve their circumstances.
In April of 1980, a group of Cubans crashed a bus through the gates of the Peruvian embassy in Havana, and they were hoping to receive asylum and escape the country. Embassies are diplomatically protected ground, so the Cuban military can't just go in and take these people out. When the Peruvians wouldn't hand them over, Fidel removed all Cuban guards who were protecting the embassy to punish Peru. for offering asylum. Now what happened next shocked everybody, including Fidel.
Over 10,000 desperate Cubans crowded into the embassy grounds. It was a complete crisis. People literally were sleeping in trees and going to the bathroom wherever. international humanitarian crisis. Fidel turned this into a propaganda tool. He announced that anyone who wanted to leave could leave, but only through the port of Mariel.
This was strategic. The port of Mariel was close to several prisons and asylums for the mentally ill or those who were deemed unfit for socialist society. And Fidel encouraged the prisons and asylums to release criminals and psychiatric patients into the... mix with these regular asylum seekers. So now the Cuban government could get rid of the people that they deemed undesirable, didn't want to care for economically anymore, offload them.
He mocked the exiles, calling them scum, and created a very visible and chaotic exodus that overwhelmed Miami with refugees. Over 125,000 Cubans left during what is called the boatlift. And even though many of them were hardworking asylum seekers, Fidel had created a stigma with the criminals and psychiatric patients.
Many struggled to overcome that on their journey to start a new life in the United States. And after this, immigration policy in Cuba was again tightened. Travel to other countries was strictly controlled, especially if you were a skilled worker. and they worried that you would defect.
During all of this, the 60s to 80s, Cuba's international policy was also evolving. Fidel was a passionate anti-imperialist, anti-Yankee and saw himself as a model for movements throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. who were seeking independence from colonial powers. He especially felt a moral obligation to support African liberation movements that were socialist and anti-colonial with military, medical, and political support.
to Algeria, who were fighting the French. He sent arms and troops and medical personnel to Angola to support pro-communist forces there. That lasted over 16 years. He helped South Africa, Ethiopia, Congo more. I'm not going to go into more detail, but I want you to know that he gained a reputation as a champion of...
Third World causes during this time. And some Cubans supported his international ambitions. They were proud of that reputation. And others felt that they paid the steep price for it, not only in casualties and deployments, but because ordinary Cubans were struggling with. with their economy and funds were being sent to these foreign revolutions.
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Things became especially difficult for ordinary Cubans starting in the mid-1980s. If you've listened to my Russia 101 episodes, you'll remember that Mikhail Gorbachev became the new leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. reforms that opened and restructured the Soviet Union economy from a command economy toward more of a market economy. And they also cut back on foreign aid.
The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and economic and social change accelerated in the Soviet bloc. And by the end of 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union officially dissolved after 69 years. Now, at this time, the Soviet Union provided almost all of the oil, grain, fertilizer, and machinery that Cuba needed with massive subsidies. 85% of Cuban exports were bought by the USSR and the Eastern Bloc.
usually paid above market prices. So what happened to Cuba after the Soviet Union fell and the economy was restructured? It went into an economic crisis of unbelievable proportions. Fidel warned the people that Cuba was, quote, entering a special period in time of peace, end of quote. that every Cuban needed to prepare to sacrifice everything to sustain the revolution. This period from 1991 to the early 2000s is called the Special Period in Cuba.
That's its name. And it was the worst from 1991 to 1995. So let's talk about what happened. Since 1962, Cubans had been rationing. But during this special period, rationing was much more severe. You cannot grow fresh vegetables to feed a population without fuel and fertilizers, which were no longer being provided by the... Soviet Union.
Before the revolution, Cuba had produced 80% of the food that Cubans ate. Now, because of social inefficiencies, Cuba had been importing 80% of the food that it ate. So Cubans waited in line for hours for basic items. There were shortages of food, fuel, electricity, medicine. Most Cubans lost significant weight because they just didn't get their calorie intake. Parents with children often ate only one small meal a day so they could give their rations to their children.
Finding your meals was priority number one for nearly every Cuban for over a decade. Anthony De Palma writes, quote, beef practically disappeared and chicken and pork became so scarce. The Cubans were forced to look for substitutes. They flattened and tenderized grapefruit rinds and fried them as if they were steaks. Banana peels, ground up and mixed with spices, became another pale substitute for meat.
strictly limited, end of quote. I'll note that it was on average nine eggs a month for a family during this time. Cuba received food donations from other countries, including the U.S., which prevented large-scale starvation that we did see in other communist countries. That's important, but still the situation was very dire. Public transportation sharply declined, so people had to walk or ride bikes everywhere. The government imported a ton of bikes from China. Garbage trucks aged.
And without the repairs and replacement parts, they just stopped being able to drive. And so trash was left in the streets, factories closed, unemployment soared, boats aged, they eventually weren't able to float. So they were abandoned and sold for scrap.
There were also frequent blackouts that lasted a really long time, leaving people without any cool air and nothing to do. It was more uncommon to have light at night. And when the lights did come on, people were so excited. Some families would put their... mattresses on their roofs and just sleep there for fresh air during the really hot months. Clinics did not have the simplest medications and medical professionals began to rinse and reuse their latex gloves until they were finally
completely unusable. Cubans have always been very resilient and clever about reusing things, but this time period pushed all Cubans to use anything that they could. The black market grew substantially during the 1990s because people would try to sell whatever they could to feed their families. They would find or steal discarded material from inefficient factories and use it to make new things.
They took coffee cans and metal scraps to make antenna to pick up broadcasts from Miami. Many Cubans became very frustrated with their new reality and how it was not temporary. And they became more and more resentful of the revolution. There were even some public rallies where people openly spoke negatively against the revolution. But the government was very strict and people were thrown in jail for criticizing. So again.
Many people wanted to get out of Cuba. And during 1994 especially, thousands of desperate Cubans started making makeshift rafts called balseros that they hoped would take them across the Florida Straits to the U.S. The rafts were made of anything they could find. Wooden planks, scrap metal, tractor or car inner tubes that they tied together, oil drums, styrofoam blocks, homemade sails, plastic sheets to catch the wind.
Or like little motors from lawnmowers, if you could afford one. Most rafts carried between three to 15 people. Some were very overcrowded with over 40 people. And they would launch from northern Cuba and some were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard or rescue. by passing ships. Some eventually made it to land at the Florida Keys, but countless Cubans died due to storms, dehydration, sharks. Their rafts just fell apart. They drowned. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted over 30,000 balseros.
rafts in 1994 alone. It was a crisis of epic proportions and it was a symbol to the world of Cuba's economic desperation and political repression. There are so many tragic stories during this time of people trying to leave and then being targeted when they did. It's believed that the Cuban Coast Guard even targeted groups and would sink their boats or rafts, and they would deny doing that. The government created civilian groups throughout Cuba called the Rapid Response Brigades to crush any...
momentum. Their job was to harass, intimidate, sometimes physically attack anyone who criticized the government. For example, if your daughter left for Cuba in a balsero and you were left behind, a mob could show up at your house shouting insults and throwing objects at your home. despite this so many cubans were still trying to leave that southern florida was in crisis so what did the united states do
At first, they intercepted rafters and transferred them to the Guantanamo Naval Base before admitting them to the U.S. Then Bill Clinton, who was president of the U.S. at the time, signed what's called a wet foot, dry foot policy. This is in 1995. The policy stated that Cubans who reached U.S. soil, dry foot, could stay and apply for residency. Those intercepted at sea, wet foot. were returned to Cuba or sent to a third country. This policy remained in place until 2017, so for 22 years.
Then in 1996, two small unarmed planes that were helping rafters and dropping anticastro leaflets all over Havana. They were shot down by Cuban fighter jets and U.S. Congress was outraged. They signed an act that tightened the embargo even more, made it so that the embargo could not be lifted by a U.S. president alone. Only Congress could end it.
also penalized companies that did any business with Cuba, further isolating the Cuban economy and prohibiting Cuban Americans from sending money back to family on the island. Cuba then countered with its own laws and the hostility. Between the two countries continued, and of course, ordinary citizens pay the price. Many around the world were convinced that Cuba was going to collapse just like the Soviet Union had, but this did not happen.
The Castro regime was very committed to the revolution and communism, but they needed economic relief and communism in this pure form was just not doing it. So they had to return at least a little bit to pre-revolutionary capitalist practices. to promote international tourism. They built a little district in Havana and other coastal cities that painted a pretty picture of Cuba for tourists to see.
And Canadians and Europeans began to travel there. They even legalized self-employment in very specific things, like farmers markets. The government began courting many European and Canadian companies to invest in Cuba, which some did. Then in 2000, Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela, began to subsidize oil to Cuba, which helped ease the fuel shortages of the last decade.
In the early 2000s, they improved their economic ties with China as well, getting some loans and infrastructure support there. And also new Russia started to renew ties a little bit. They even legalized the use of the U.S. dollar. So if this is reminding you of the China 101 episodes and how China opened up their economy, it's not exactly the same thing, but there is a pattern to be seen here, right?
In the mid-2000s, the special period had eased up a bit, though Cuba has never returned to pre-1991 levels. In 2006, Fidel Castro announced that he was experiencing some health issues and that his brother Raul would be taking over. The whole world stood on edge wondering, are there going to be protests? Is someone else going to try to take over? Nope.
Everyday life in Cuba just kind of continued on. And Anthony De Palma does a great job of describing Raul. He says, quote, when Raul Castro filled in as president in 2006, he started to put his own mark on Cuba and he was far more open to. traces of capitalism than Fidel ever was. After running Cuba's armed forces for nearly half a century, Raul was used to placing practical needs ahead of ideological ones, end of quote.
I would add that Raul was less fiery anti-US than his brother Fidel. Fidel was still around. He was writing articles for the grandma all the time, but his health issues were keeping him more in the background. Raul Castro had a stagnant centralized economy that was worsening every year.
Even people on the street were saying they pretend to pay us. We pretend to work. And Raul knew this and declared that Cuba was no longer could no longer afford to be the only country where people did not have to work. So the Raul government allowed more life. to Cubans who wanted to be self-employed which improved some industries but many of the categories for licenses were very specific like one man peeling fruit or
cleaning spark plugs or operating a kitty cart pulled by a goat. Yes, that's actually what was on the licenses. Tiny little businesses like these are not going to open. you know, they're not going to majorly change Cuba's economy, but rather allow people to barely survive slightly better than just their government allotment. De Palma writes, quote, the goal as outlined by the government was to make Cuba a rich country without rich.
End of quote. Honestly, it feels like the government is tolerating a small private sector, but it isn't supporting it. only allowing it in very strict categories and not allowing it to grow much. He also allowed Cubans to buy cell phones in 2008 for the first time. Side note, most Cubans now have cell phones, but internet is slow, expensive, and government-controlled. Cubans do know about the outside world, often through black market media, talking with relatives, social media. I digress.
Being a Cuban entrepreneur was a struggle. The licenses were tightly controlled. The tax laws didn't make any sense. They had a dual currency at the time. One was the Cuban peso that was used for domestic things. The other was pegged to the US dollar, mostly used. tourism to currencies is tricky as a business owner and there also was no legal wholesale market and if you don't have a market to find your materials to create something to sell
then you have to find it somewhere. So most Cubans began to take materials from government warehouses to sell on the black market, basically stealing, but they call it inventando, which is Spanish for inventing. Inventando was and is very commonplace in Cuba, so long as you don't steal from family and friends. You can only steal from the state.
Around the same time as these changes, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and Obama challenged the 50 years of U.S.-Cuba hostility and felt like something needed to change, and many Cubans were excited to see what would happen under Obama. And in his second term, his administration held secret negotiations with Cuban officials. And at the end of 2014, they announced a historic agreement restoring diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba after over 50 years.
of hostility. This is what we call the Cuban thaw, like ice thawing. In short, the agreement reopened embassies in both places. It eased travel restrictions like cruise ships and flights. It loosened economic sanctions. American credit cards can now be used for the first time.
prisoner exchanges. It also made it easier for Cuban Americans to send money to Cuba. President Obama actually visited Cuba in 2016, which was huge because the last time a U.S. president did that was in 1928. So Cubans showed up in mass to see him. hoping that by improving relations with the U.S., they could hopefully have more economic opportunity. For decades now, Fidel had used the U.S. embargo to explain everything that was going wrong in Cuba. And yes, the embargo had a massive...
effect. But it also was his favorite scapegoat for not having to take responsibility. And so the thought of the embargo going away was exciting for Cubans at the time. The embargo never went away under Obama. And another one controversial thing he did right before leaving office was that he stopped the wet foot dry foot policy, which had made it easier for Cubans to become U.S. citizens if they'd set foot on American soil.
Obama wanted a more uniform immigration policy that didn't favor Cubans like this one had. And that made Cuban immigration more complicated for Cubans. Then in November of 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Seventeen days later, Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. So after three years of thaw. Trump reversed much of Obama's policy in 2017. He tightened the embargo, restricted travel and business again, limited how much money Cuban Americans could send to Cuba.
There seem to be quite a few reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that some Cuban-American communities in Florida, a swing state, they support a tougher stance on Cuba, not wanting to accommodate a communist nation, and Trump has seemed to align with them. Reversing the thaw hasn't made a huge difference to the average American, but it seems as though the small Cuban business owner...
You know, that fledgling little private sector and people who rely on family in the U.S. are the most affected by this reversing of the thaw. You know, if you're a tour operator or restaurant owner in Cuba and you were seeing more tourism from 2014 to 2007. and you're going to be affected by this. And the Cuban government has used this reversal to increase anti-American sentiment in the media there, and the economy has suffered.
In 2018, there were elections, which I say in quotes because elections in Cuba are not elections, they are selections. Raul announced only one candidate for president, and then Communist Party leaders voted on Miguel Diaz-Canal as their next leader. Yes, they did ask Cuban citizens to vote, but the decision had been made.
in advance. Diaz-Canal, this new president, promised that he was committed to following the path left to him by the Castro brothers. And then in 2019, Cuba adopted a new constitution that allowed for some expansion of private property and foreign investment. assessment, but central control and restriction of freedoms to speak out are still very real in Cuba. Just a side note, as of March of 2025, Raul Castro is in his 90s and he is still alive.
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown that began in 2020 was devastating for Cuba. They had another severe economic crisis with long food lines and medication shortages. And in desperation, the government ended the dual currency system. which unfortunately made inflation even worse and the black market activity skyrocketed. Cubans became even more discontent. And in July of 2021, Cuba had the largest anti-government protests in decades. And the government responded with mass arrests and censorship.
A new immigration wave of Cubans left for Mexico, trying to get to the U.S. from that angle. And politically, there was hope in 2021 that President Biden would bring back the Obama thaw. And he did restore some U.S. flights and soften the ability to send money to family in Cuba. But most of the Trump era sanctions were left in place.
And now, as I'm recording this in March of 2025, Trump is again president. So U.S.-Cuba relations are predicted to remain tense for another four years. Cuba has again. turned to Venezuela, China, Russia, and others for economic support.
Okay, to wrap up here, Cuba's been through a lot. And at this point, people in Cuba seem to survive in a variety of ways. And of course, each person's story is different. Some rely on money from family in the U.S. Some get special treatment from the Communist Party. I'm sorry.
Many have become very resourceful and have resorted to inventando or stealing to make ends meet. Some are private business owners in this little fledgling economy. I would say that from what I gathered, from what I read, most Cubans sound pretty weary. From what I can tell, Cubans are aware that the revolution did not provide what Fidel promised, and now they're making do. Proud to be Cuban? Yes. Tired of living with a rationing libreta since 1962?
Also, yes. And no amount of rebranding or fancy words can change that reality. Some say that Cuba is still living in a special period because food and fuel shortages still exist today. Like just this month, the entire country had a massive... blackout that was all over the news. If you're wondering why there's not more open dissent, Anthony De Palma explains this very well.
After 60 interminable years, Cubans were burned out and far too focused on just surviving to organize themselves into an opposition the way the disaffected did in Venezuela. This is the logic based on fear that, combined with their adaptability, keeps the vast majority of Cubans from having anything to do with dissidents and the opposition groups they lead. They have so little, and that's too much to risk losing.
As one woman said, you say something and then what? Then the little bit you have, they take away. End of quote. So yes, there are opposition groups. It's dangerous work. And not all Cubans are disillusioned with the system. Many, if not most, of today's Cubans were born and built during the revolution. Just like anything, it depends on who you talk to and how honest they want to be and what their opinions are. But with a thriving black market and family members in the U.S., it's hard to not...
have some questions and some doubts. And many Cubans have a deep pessimism about the future of Cuba. It's a discouraging time for Cuba. And ultimately, Cuba, to me... is an island of resilient people with a really remarkable history that I think that everybody needs to know and I have so many thoughts about Cuba but I'm going to do something a little different this time lately I've been thinking about how I want to use this podcast to help
help more folks to become interested in learning about world history. And one of the questions that has come to my mind is, okay, so I'm teaching the history, I'm teaching the facts as I've seen them, as I've learned them, but now what? What do we do with it? How does it change us? What does it teach us? How do we apply it? Then how can we help people? How can we make positive impact? Learning the facts is nice, but...
We have to be able to apply it. And so I've decided that after each 101 series, which they take me months to make. I'm going to break down in a separate episode how learning about that place and those people have changed me. I'm going to apply in my life what I admire about the people I've studied, what mistakes I hope to learn from, just things of that nature.
So I'm hoping to show how that works for me. And hopefully it humanizes the history a little bit more. It leads to more conversations. You may agree or disagree with me. That's fine. But I think the introspection is what we're going for here. And hopefully more of an ability to understand.
tolerate different points of view. I don't know. I'm going to give it a shot. And I hope you listen to my next episode because I put a lot of thought into it. And I just really loved studying Cuba and Cuban people. So give it a listen.
That's my wrap for Cuba 101 part three. Thank you so much for listening and learning about Cuba with me. If you learned anything from this episode and you want to learn more, please consider supporting the podcast on patreon.com slash wiser world podcast. You can also sign up for my free.
newsletter, which I send out when new episodes drop. You can do that on my website, wiserworldpodcast.com. Thank you so much for supporting and sharing the podcast with your friends and family. So grateful when you do that. And I'll be back very soon. with an episode summarizing what I learned from studying Cuba. Until then, let's go make the world a little wiser.