⏱ Temps de lecture : 4 minutes
An island shaped by colonization and sugar cane
Located in the heart of the Caribbean, Cuba was for a long time the pearl of the Spanish Empire.
Colonized from 1511 by Diego Velázquez de CuéllarIt became a hub of Atlantic commerce and a huge sugar attic.
For three centuries, cane plantations were based on the exploitation of African slaves, making Cuba one of the strongholds of the colonial system.
After independence in 1898, following the Spanish-American war, Cuba entered the direct orbit of the United States.
Behind a facade of independence, the island was actually highly dependent on Washington, who controlled his finances, his trade, and placed his trusted men at the head of the country.
Havana, a showcase of an artificial paradise
In the 1920s and 1950s, Havana imposed the privileged playground of the American bourgeoisie.
- Large hotels like the Nacional, Riviera or Tropicana welcome Hollywood stars, politicians and wealthy businessmen.
- Night casinos and clubs Under the direct influence of the American mafia (including Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano), proliferate.
- Cabarets and magazines Tropicana, with their dancers, become famous all over the world.
Havana covers Cadillacs, Buicks and Chevrolets brand new, symbols of this imported opulence.
These American cars, still visible today, are the remains of a time when Cuba lived at the rhythm of jazz, cocktails and the desires of tourists.
But behind this glamorous facade, another reality emerges.
Behind the dark scenes: poverty and inequality
If the rich Americans get entertained in Havana, the majority of the Cuban people live in endemic poverty.
- The countryside is marked by poverty, hunger, and the domination of large landowners.
- The political system is corrupt: dictatorship of Gerardo Machado in the 1930s, and Fulgencio Batista (in power from 1952 to 1959), supported by the United States.
- The Mafia controls a large part of the Havana economy, while the police violently punishes any protest.
Thus, the image of Cuba as a « tropical casino » The country belonged more to foreigners than to the Cubans themselves.
The roots of the revolution
Faced with this explosive situation, a revolutionary movement took shape in the 1950s.
- In 1953, Fidel Castro Trying a blast against the barracks of the Moncada. Failed to lead him to prison and exile in Mexico, where he met Ernesto « Che » Guevara.
- In 1956, Castro returned to Cuba with 82 guerrillas aboard the yacht Granma. The guerrillas settled in the Sierra Maestra.
- Popular discontent grew: peasants, students, intellectuals and workers joined the struggle.
On January 1, 1959, Batista fled the country. Castro and his troops triumphantly enter Havana.
The Cuban revolution was born.
The US embargo and its turn towards the USSR
In the first few months, the new regime took radical measures: land nationalization, mass literacy, agrarian reform, the expulsion of the mafia and the closure of casinos.
The United States, seeing its interests threatened, imposed in 1960 a Economic embargo to Cuba, which will be strengthened in 1962 after the failure of the invasion of Cuba Bay of Pigs.
This embargo, still in force, has profoundly affected the island's economy.
Isolated by Washington, Cuba turns to the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, Moscow provided oil, wheat and military aid in exchange for Cuban sugar.
Havana becomes a bastion of Latin American socialism.
The 1962 missile crisis illustrates this shift: the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons on the island plunges the world to the brink of war.
Havana before and after the revolution
Before 1959:
- Havana is nicknamed the « Caribbean Las Vegas ».
- Great American fortunes come there to play, drink, enjoy prostitution and forbidden pleasures.
- The city lives by night, but it ignores the misery of its suburbs.
After 1959:
- Casinos close, hotels are nationalized.
- The State invests in health and education.
- Havana becomes a symbol of resistance to capitalism, but also a frozen city, marked by scarcity and isolation.
Heritage and paradoxes
Today Havana retains the traces of its contrasted history:
- The American cars of the 1950s, maintained by miracle, recall the golden age of worldly Havana.
- The Decrepit colonial facades evidence of suspended time.
- The population lives between revolutionary pride and daily difficulties related to the embargo and internal dysfunctions.
Cuba remains a historical paradox On one side, a poor but proud country, symbol of resistance; on the other, an island that was a playground for rich foreigners and still bears the stigmas of this double story.
Cuba, and Havana in particular, are a wonderful example of the tragic and grandiose fate of the Caribbean.
- Before the Revolution, an island turned into a tropical casino for a foreign elite.
- After the Revolution, a socialist citadel defying the world's first power.
In the collective imagination, American cars, the cabarets of the Tropicana and Fidel Castro's inflamed speeches are superimposed, forming a fresco where glamour, injustice, revolt and utopia mix together.
