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The Search for Revolutionary Urbanism
HAVANA
CUBA: NINETY MILES FROM FLORIDA
CONTEMPORARY CUBA: FACTS

11.4 million (2004 est.)
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0.34% growth rate (est.)

-1.58 migrant(s)/1,000
people
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51% mulatto, 37% white,
17% black, 1% Chinese
Havana: First Center of
Spanish Imperialism
•1516:
founded in as a Spanish military outpost.
•1553: Office of the governor transferred from
eastern Cuba (Santiago) to Havana.
HAVANA: GEM OF SPANISH IMPERIALISM

18th Century
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Larger than Boston and
NYC
Fortifications erected
after seizure by Royal
Navy (Great Britain)
Havana’s Shipyard
19th Century
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Increased Trade
Growing middle class
Centers for arts
Residential housing
CUBA REMAINED UNDER SPANISH CONTROL AFTER
THE CONTINENTAL COLONIES GAINED INDEPENDENCE
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Insurgency develops in
second half of
nineteenth century
U.S. sympathy for
insurgents
Spanish-American War

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
Remember the Maine!”
War lasts less than a year
U. S. occupies Cuba
before granting
conditional independence
Platt Amendment gives
US great influence
January 25, 1898 -The U.S.S. Maine enters
Havana harbor, about three
weeks before it was blown
up
THE FIRST THREE DECADES OF INDEPENDENCE

U.S. investment - engine
of Cuban modernization
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Sugar refineries –
produced “white Gold” of
Cuba
United Fruit
Hershey chocolate
Havana.
• City Beautiful movement in
the tropics (1900 – 1930)
TOURISM

Cuban tourism became
popular with
Americans in the
1920s.
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Exotic
Tropical
Spanish heritage
Escape from puritanical
constraints of U.S.
culture
CUBAN POLITICS IN 1920’S
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Havana reinforced as primate city
Cuban presidents strongly influenced by sugar
interests in the United States
Depression (1929-32) has political consequences:
 Unease over U.S. influence in Cuban economy
 President Gerardo Machado threatens U.S.
economic interests
 Cuban armed forces overthrew President Machado
and install figurehead as president (Manuel de
Cespedes).
U.S. INTERVENTION IN 1930’S/1940’S

Social revolution leads to power and influence
for groups from the interior
 Sergeant
Fulgencio Batista
 Peasant
background
 Empowered enlisted ranks of the army
 Coordination with middle class elements from Havana
Middle sectors led by Grau San Martin
 1940 U.S. style constitution adopted
 Failure of U.S. style democracy leads to military
coup of 1952

BATISTA DICTATORSHIP (1952-58)

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Initially popular
Loss of support
leads to human
rights violations
Became symbol
of U.S.
imperialism
Ties with
organized crime
Havana
achieved
unprecedented
primacy

Born August 13,
1926
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Attended
Catholic School

Law Degree
from University
of Havana
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Tied to Santiago de Cuba
– the second city
Ortodoxo student leader
1953 (July 26): launched
a failed attack on the
Moncada army barracks
Imprisoned for two years
1956 (November 26):
Landed in Cuba from
Mexican exile
January 1, 1959 –
topples Batista
government
PICO TURQUINO, HIGHEST ELEVATION OF
THE SIERRA MAESTRA.
REVOLUTIONARY HAVANA: THE EARLY
YEARS
Havana neglected – viewed by Fidel as a center
of imperialist exploitation
 “minimum of urbanism and a maximum of
ruralism”
 Built schools, housing, hospitals in provincial
cities
 Exception: Habana del Este – middle class
development given to working class (1959-60)

HAVANA AND THE REVOLUTIONARY
GOVERNMENT: HABANA DEL ESTE
WORKERS
MIDDLE CLASS
EMPHASIS ON “PODER LOCAL”

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U. S. style local government institutions abolished
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution:
Participation or control?
Community Councils
HAVANA: AFTERMATH OF COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET
UNION
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Havana became even more stressed economically
Fidel forced to search for other viable economic
alternatives.
Solution: a new political economy for Havana
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starting in the early 1990’s called The Special Period in a
Time of Peace.
Promoted entrepreneurship and changes in governance in
Havana.
Similarities to emphasis on tourism under Batista
INNOVATIVE URBAN STRATEGY FOR DIFFICULT
TIMES
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Selective gentrification of
Havana,
Employed 1982 UN
Education, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization

Old Havana declared a World
Heritage Site.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE URBAN REFORMS
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Legalization of the dollar and certain jobs in the private sector
in 1993.
Habaguanex the first state corporation to promote the tourist
industry, and urban redevelopment in Havana was created in
1994.
 http://www.habaguanex.com/
Decree 143, passed in 1994, made Old Havana an economic
free zone.
Law 77, passed in 1995 to promote programs of direct foreign
investment.
Decree 165, passed in 1996 created economic free trade
zones to help with importation and exportation
HABAGUANEX
 Special
Privileges
- Bypass Customs
Regulations
- Only Cuban Entity
with Complete
Control Over
Operations
- Access to hard
currency
RESULTS
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By 2002 two million people each year were traveling
to Cuba
Habaguanex is acquiring power to shape Havana, but
in theory still operates under the control of the
communist party
150,000 new jobs in the private sector
The state is able to generate funds from taxes and
business licensing fees.
HAVANA: SOCIALIST GENTRIFICATION?

Hotel Parque Central
FOREIGN ENCLAVE IN A SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
HAVANA: MOST CUBAS
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Households receive meat rations monthly
Milk not always available
Prices of produce and other farm products too high for most
Work long hours to keep up with prices
NEW HAVANA ECONOMY
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Castro is reversing the policy of refusing to invest in
city or maintain the physical infrastructure
100,000 of the dwellings remain uninhabitable
Government tolerates private-sector jineteros and
cuentapropista

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Jineteros earn their living working the black-market
Cuentapropistas are entrepreneurs
CUBAN ECONOMY: EARLY 21ST CENTURY
$32.13 billion GDP (2003 est.) – mainly in
services
 2.6% GDP growth rate (est.)
 $2,900 Per-capita Personal Product
 4.58 mil labor force

 78%
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state sector, 22% non-state sector (est.)
Recent reforms in Cuban economy modeled on
China’s capitalistic communism
POLITICAL CONTROL IS STILL AN ISSUE OF
CONCERN
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Privitizing Havana
economy undermines
socialist ideologies that
legitimate Castro
regime .
Communist Party
leaders fear loss of
economic influence
Tourism highlights that
foreigners live better
Cuban government (Ex.
Havana) holds 60 % of
the city’s public housing
stock
REGIME SURVIVAL REMAINS THE FIRST
PRIORITY OF THE CASTRO BROTHERS
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Police are paid more
than most professionals
(physicians, university
professors,
engineers/architects)
High profile dissidents
imprisoned or relocated
for reeducation
Highest officials
expected to tow the line:
Perez Roque 2009
HAVANA: A RETURN TO
URBAN PRIMACY?