Cuba: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave
by Sylvia Weinstein (November 1990)

On October 14th 1990, a thirty year dream came true for me. I arrived in Havana, Cuba to spend seven wonderful days. Thirty years ago, right after the Cuban revolution I had been very active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York and Brooklyn. I had even helped arrange a reception for the Cuban revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem when they came to appear before the United Nations.

Even though I had worked on various tours to Cuba for hundreds of people I never had the chance to go myself. Either I was too busy or too broke to make the trip. When my husband Nat and I finally could afford the time and the expense, the Government of the United States brought down their “iron curtain” and refused to allow any U.S. citizen to travel to Cuba.

This tour was to participate in a conference of women organized by the Federacion Mujeres Cubana (FMC, or in English, Federation of Cuban Women), a non-governmental organization of over 3 million Cuban women or 81 percent of the entire female population over the age of fourteen years. For seven days women from all over the Caribbean met and for seven days the women from the Federation answered all questions, showered us with information, personal visits to childcare centers, health care facilities, women’s prisons and whatever else we expressed interest in seeing. They answered all questions frankly and honestly.

There were nine women from the United States—none of us had ever met before this meeting. Three of us were fluent in Spanish—unfortunately I wasn’t. But we had no trouble getting translations wherever we went. And we went everywhere we had the energy to go, including what turned into a seven mile walk to the Malecon (an historic walkway along the oceans edge), up streets, down streets into all manner of neighborhoods, arriving back to our living quarters late at night. None of us were accosted or hassled by anyone.

This conference was called in memory of the nuns and priests who had been murdered by the military in El Salvador, and that set the serious tone of the conference. It was a busy one. We were meeting with women from Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as from Cuba. All of us were housed in a beautiful home that had been turned over to the Federation. It had obviously been the home of a very wealthy person during the days of the Batista regime. Now it is a dormitory for the use of the Cuban people.

One of the best aspects of being at this conference was living with and getting to know sisters from other countries. They are women who are fighting for justice and democracy in their countries. Every one of them knew that it is the United States government which stands between them and justice.

Cuba is a beautiful country. Houseplants that I have in my house grow into trees in Cuba. Below our dorm were banana trees with huge stalks of bananas on them. Flowering trees and shrubs were everywhere. Small parks are everywhere. The ocean has the deepest blue I have ever seen and the Cuban people of all ages looked healthy and well cared for. They drive fast and they walk fast. The buses are called wawas in Cuba and no one seemed to know why. But what is most beautiful about Cuba is that it is the sanctuary of the oppressed of the world.

I met a young, beautiful 16-year-old Panamanian woman. She had been shot in the back by U.S. troops when they invaded Panama. She will never walk again. She was in Cuba for medical reasons. Cuba also supplied her with her first wheel chair.

Cuba supplies medical care for wounded fighters from Africa and Central and Latin America. In Cuba they receive hospital care, dental care and whatever else necessary and they don’t pay one cent. Cuba carries out the policy carved on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,

your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Unfortunately, it is our government which is creating the huddled masses yearning to breathe free from its oppression. And it is to Cuba’s teeming shore that the homeless, huddled masses escape. And it is Cuba and the Cuban people who dig deeper into their pockets to give refuge to all who need it; despite the cost to this poor country.

We met many young men and women from many countries who were taking refuge in Cuba. Many were young college students who were receiving a totally free education at Havana University.
 

How Cuba takes care of its children

The children of Cuba are especially lucky. When the Cubans call them “Cuba’s future,” they mean it and they provide for them the best childcare and education possible.

All children of women who work outside of the home have childcare services. One of our trips was to a childcare center in Havana. It was a center built eleven years ago and was considered a model center even in Cuba.

But just in case anyone tries to say that we were fooled by Cuban authorities, let me say that we actually drove past four centers before we visited the one picked for this tour. At all of the centers the children were well supervised as they played.

Children may enter the childcare centers when they reach the age of 45 days. They can stay until they reach the age of six and then enter the school system. Women who take off that first 45 days after giving birth are guaranteed their jobs back.

There are over 1,000 childcare centers in Cuba and 115 centers were opened in Havana between 1987 and 1989. A total of 110,000 children are cared for from 6 AM until 9 PM. One of the FMC women told me that at first the centers were only open till 6 PM but they soon realized that many women work until 9 PM so it was decided to keep the centers open until 9 PM for the convenience of the mothers. By the way, there is no cost for any childcare center, it is absolutely free.

At this center, the Frank Pais Center, there were 216 children with a total of 49 workers. Forty-seven women and two men. There were eleven teachers and eighteen aides plus support workers such as cooks and cleaners, etc. Head teachers at each center must have five years of university study including one year of child development and psychology.

Thirty-one infants up to the age of two were being cared for in a special area of the center. Women wearing nurses uniforms and caps were taking care of them. The nursery was well scrubbed with play pens and cribs and dressing tables, as well as toys and bright colored paintings on the wall. They had their own kitchen and refrigerator.

The other children are separated according to age and have their own rooms and play groups. Parents and friends had made beautiful papier mache childrens’ chairs and tables. Each school provides clothes, tooth brushes, soap and towels for each child.

Their schedule is like this. At 6 AM the children arrive and change from their home clothing to their school clothing. Each school washes and drys the clothing for the next days use. At 8:30 AM the children have gym where they do exercises and dance, at 8:45 they go to classes, according to their age level, where special effort is given to language development.

At 9:15 they have a snack, 9:45 they listen to music or stories, 10:00 AM is bath time for all children, 11:15 is lunch, 12 to 2:30 is nap—they all have their own cots and bedding. 3 PM is snack time, 3:30 is crafts and or singing or story reading time. From 4 till 7 PM is set aside for independent activities.

All children are toilet trained by the staff at the schools. Each child receives their own special identification such as a hat, color, flower, etc. This identification is placed on all of their belongings such as tooth brush, drinking glass, clothes, so that children too young to read can identify their things.

Parent meetings are held every two months and parents are filled in on the developmental programs so that the children can learn at home as well as at the center. Children who are ill (with a temperature) are kept at home until they are well enough to return to the center.

There are grandparent clubs all over Cuba! Retired grandparents, and others, can “adopt” a center and help out. Parents come to the center every day to pick up their children and are also encouraged to come into the center any time they have free. A total of 56 percent of the children in Cuba receive free, quality childcare.

What about the children of women who choose to stay home?

At the dorm where we were staying there was a beautiful park just next door. Every morning there were 16 or so young pre-school children who were being supervised by two adults. They were engaged in games and exercise. I was also told that they had crafts and art in community buildings in their neighborhoods. Cubans realize the importance of supervised play in the education of the young, so that even children of women not in the workplace receive daytime play periods.

Cuba has made special efforts for the disabled and the mentally handicapped. They have separate schools for them and make every effort to educate them to take a productive place in society.

Primary schools stay open from 7AM until 7PM. Classes begin at 8 AM until 4 PM. All children receive breakfast, snacks and lunch at school. Cuba has an established schedule for learning. For instance, all six year olds are expected to be doing some reading and writing after four months. I asked a teacher what if they didn’t make it. The teacher explained that actually most children do learn in that time and those that didn’t receive special help.

There are special summer and vacation camps for all Cuban children as well as children from all over the world. One of the women on the tour who lives in New York sends her two boys to an international summer-school in Cuba for the summer, and her daughter is in a boarding school outside of Havana. All free, including clothing. The mother works at a full time job in New York and doesn’t want her children spending their time on the streets alone and unsupervised. Her daughter had been at the boarding school for three years. She is sixteen and will very likely continue on through college in Cuba.
 

Health care

What about health care? All health care is absolutely free. There is some charge for prescription drugs, but at very low cost. But most medicine is simply free.

They have a very good medical system in Cuba. Doctors must live in the community their patients live in. The doctor will have a house on the top floor and open a clinic on the bottom floor. For the first year after the birth of a baby, the doctor will make monthly house calls to give immunization shots including polio vaccine. He or she is also expected to make sure that the living conditions of the infants are clean and that the babies are well cared for.

That is why Cuba’s infant mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world including even the industrialized countries. It is .07 percent and going down; in the United States the infant mortality rate is .17 percent—two and a half times higher, and going up.

In addition to its extraordinary medical care for its people, Cuba also exports many of its doctors to underdeveloped countries, including Africa and Asia.

Meanwhile, in the richest country in the world: “Every 67 seconds an American teenager has a baby. Every eight seconds of the school day an American child drops out of school. Every 53 minutes an American child dies of poverty.”!!! (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/25/90.)
 

What about ‘choice’?

Abortion has been legal in Cuba since the revolution—over 30 years ago. Immediately after the revolution the Cuban government legalized abortion. However, they became concerned because a large number of their medical operations were abortions.

For a short time Cuba tried to slow down on abortions, claiming that other medical needs outweighed their ability to perform abortions. What happened is that illegal and self-induced abortions created more medical problems than ever. Women were staying hospitalized longer due to botched abortions.

Cuba very soon re-legalized abortions and it has been legal and free ever since. Women over the age of sixteen can get immediate abortion, free and on demand. Women under the age of sixteen must inform their legal guardians or parents. However, neither has the power to prevent abortions.

Abortions must be performed in hospitals rather than clinics and can be done during up to ten weeks of pregnancy. The method of abortion is by vacuum aspirator. I asked what happened to women if they were already over the ten week limit and was told that since there is no stigma attached to abortion that almost no one waited beyond the ten week period.

Sex education begins in the third grade with both male and female students. The IUD and birth control pills are the most commonly used contraceptives. Cuba does not produce either the diaphram nor the condom; those birth control devices must be imported, and are too expensive. There is no anti-choice movement in Cuba.

Despite the wide-spread sexual education campaign there is still teenage pregnancy. In fact, when talking to some of the FMC women I was reminded of the complaints we hear in the United States about our exorbitant high teenage pregnancy rate. I mentioned a little joke that we tell about teenagers:

They have three beliefs: 1. They will never get old; 2. They will never die; and 3. They cannot get pregnant if they do it standing up! The Cuban women finished it off by adding “or they can’t get pregnant the first time they have sex.” I also mentioned that we even have people in the United States who blame the high teenage pregnancy rate on sexual education itself. She said that she had also heard the same complaint from older Cubans herself. But she said that this is rare.

I had the opportunity to meet a “block” group of the FMC women. This was one of my most treasured meetings. The block committees are volunteer women who provide services within their community. We met on a beautiful night on the front porch with about 20 women of all ages. One was 74 years old and her husband had been hanged in a public square by Batista’s thugs for activity against his dictatorship.

They explained that their job was to help in the community in whatever way needed. For instance, if an older person was sick they took them to the doctor, helped with shopping and medical needs. If there was a family having trouble, personal or financial, they intervened to help them out. They were responsible for any children who needed their help and generally interceded on behalf of their neighbors when dealing with a government agency.

I asked two questions of this group of mixed generation women: How did they take it when the government granted women the right to divorce their husbands, live together without marriage, and legalize abortions? The oldest woman answered:

She said that in the old days before the revolution only the middle class and rich had official weddings—the poor always lived together without the sanction of government or priest. Also, before the revolution women had to stay married to a man no matter how she was treated. Usually she was afraid to leave because she had no one to help support her children or herself. Now women were economically independent and were not forced to live with a man who was cruel to her or her children because women could work and make their own way.

I asked them what they thought of abortion. For years and years, they told me, women died of botched abortions. Or if lucky enough, they lived through them, but had to endure years of degradation by those who knew of the attempted abortion. Now it was open and honest and women had the right to decide how many children they would have.

Then I asked if their community involvement was sometimes looked upon as simply butting into private affairs of their neighbors. I was told that actually people came to the local FMC people with their problems because they knew they would be helped by them. They do so much community service that they are looked upon as the people to go to if you have any kind of trouble.

The answers to all our questions had the ring of truth. I couldn’t help thinking of the times when I personally would have loved to have had a neighbor like them, someone I could call on if I needed real help. Of course, most of us have someone we can rely on, but in Cuba you have a whole organization whose job is to be good friends and neighbors and who enjoy doing it.

Bush talks through twisted lips about “a thousand points of light.” Well those thousand points of light are burning bright in Cuba—on every block and in every neighborhood—they are the women of the FMC.
 

Housing

What about housing? Walk through any city in the United States and you will come upon people sleeping on door steps, in parks and alleys—wherever they can find the slightest bit of shelter. I didn’t see or hear of one such case in Cuba. I mentioned earlier that I had taken what must have been a seven mile walk thru Havana. I had blisters on the bottoms of my feet the size of half dollars. Not once did I see any sign of a homeless person on the street.

I did not even see anyone who gave the appearance of not having a home. What I did see was massive construction going up in all parts of Havana—most of it housing. And you pass by homes which were obviously once the homes of the wealthy who had left Cuba. These homes have been portioned for use as regular housing. For those who know San Francisco it would be like walking through Pacific Heights and seeing clothes hanging from lines and balconies; evidence that these homes are now being occupied by working class families rather than by the rich and beautiful and their servants.

The FMC woman said that there is, however, still a shortage of housing in Cuba. That this was why families did have to share larger homes. She also said that some of the housing were dorm affairs but she said that no one in Cuba was without shelter. The rent in Cuba, by law, is held to just 10 percent of wages. It can go no higher.

Cuba has also developed “micro-brigades.” These are real self-help housing associations. Workers can take off from work, being replaced by another worker, while they build their own apartments. The government will give the worker all building supplies and give them the help of skilled construction workers to help them build their own home.

The government builds high-rise shells and workers finish them off. In that way thousands of workers in Cuba have not only built their own homes but have also helped their fellow workers build theirs. Unfortunately, with the energy crisis and with the new 1991 Soviet trade agreement, which is a sharp cut-back from the 1990 trade agreement, Cuba will probably have to slow down its housing development.
 

Equal pay for equal work

The micro-brigades have also had the effect of placing more women into jobs they would not have done a few years ago. Women are working at trades, such as construction, that they had not been in before. Two things that are illegal in Cuba are racism and sexism. Women and minorities receive the same wage as men when doing the same work. It is against the law to pay women and minorities less. While the poison of racism and sexism might still live on in the hearts and minds of a very few Cubans they had better not practice it. It is against the law!

Women of the United States have been waiting and fighting for two hundred years for the Equal Rights Amendment. In Cuba the women have full and equal rights. But it took a revolution to get them, and that’s what it will take here.

However, women still have a way to go, not because of the government but because of the history of oppression of women before the revolution. Women are moving into leadership roles; there are more women in the universities than ever before, women are working in increasingly diverse occupations formerly reserved for male workers; they are becoming doctors, plumbers, movie directors—getting into all phases of Cuban life. Today in Cuba, women and Blacks are the majority in the institutions of higher learning. In the United States there are more black males in prison than in college.

Most importantly, my impression is that the Cuban people are dedicated to a society based on the principles of socialism. They are not inclined toward the Soviet bureaucrats’ mad dash toward capitalism. They can see what capitalism has done to the people of the undeveloped world and they want no part of it.

Cuba won’t be a push over like Grenada. The Cuban people are ready to defend their ideas and homeland with their lives if necessary. As one 74 year old Cuban woman said to me: “I would sink this whole island and me with it before I would let the United States take it.”

Listen up, George Bush. Don’t mess with that little Caribbean island, home of the free and the brave! —November 1990


 

FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein

Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association
ISBN: 0-9763570-0-3
360 pp.

To order your copy of FIGHTBACK!
Send a check for $25.00 plus $5.95 for shipping and handling to:

Socialist Viewpoint
333 Valencia Street, Fourth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-920-9323


Please be sure to include your name, address, city, state and zip code.