Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores former sugar-industry workers' ambiguous relations with the Cuban state, dealing with unmet material needs and moral expectations, while remaining dependent on the State's diminishing role as carer provider in an increasingly precarious context.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores the complex relations between the Cuban State and its population amidst a multifaceted crisis and within the ongoing process of “rethinking the Cuban socio-economic model”. It focuses on the residents of a small town in eastern Cuba, following the dismantling of the sugar industry that once sustained it.

In past years, the Cuban government has undertaken measures that tend to shift responsibilities traditionally shouldered by the State onto the Cuban population. The recent revision of the "Código de las familias" exemplifies this trend, placing increased responsibility on relatives for the care of elderly or destitute individuals. Meanwhile, state policy has sought to reduce -and ultimately eliminate- subsidised goods provided through the state-provisioning system. Additionally, small private enterprises are now officially endorsed and encouraged. These have become particularly vital in importing food and goods for both population consumption and the functioning of local industries.

Such shifts mark a departure from the state's historical monopoly on economic and social domains. However, despite offloading some of its duties to private or individual entities, the state retains stringent control of these initiatives through inspections, fines, and administrative hurdles. Measures aimed at mitigating the crisis sometimes exacerbate its impact on a population unable to participate in the evolving economic landscape.

This paper highlights the citizens' ambiguous relations with the Cuban state, as they grapple with unmet material needs and moral expectations, while remaining dependent on the state's diminishing role as carer and provider, in an increasingly precarious context.