When the Miami Cuban
reactionaries speak about Cuba they often reminisce about how great it
was. In a documentary entitled, Havana dreams, shown on PBS for
example, we see an elderly Miami Cuban couple talk about how good life
was in yesterday's Cuba. "Don't you remember honey when you
broke your arm while playing tennis", the wife asked the husband in this
documentary, as she reminisced about the good ole days in Cuba .
This entire documentary or rather propaganda film is devoted entirely to
depicting idyllic life in Cuba through the eyes of a minority of
elitists who could afford a life of ease.
The good life in
Cuba was mainly for a small segment of the population. To the
majority of the Cubans Batista's Cuba was a hell hole, filled with
vices, drugs, prostitution, the poor and American and Cuban
gangsters. This is the real Cuba, the one that the reactionary
Cubans of Miami adored. It is easy to understand how for the bourgeoisie and the Batista
element, that fled the people's revolution, Cuba was a paradise.
The census
statistics of the 50's showed the disparities in the society. For
example, Cuba was 4th in literacy in Latin America, behind Argentina,
Chile and Costa Rica, however it was 12th in school matriculation
between the ages of 5 and 24. Other statistics taken from the 1953
census which show the inequities of the society include:
Illiteracy was
approximately 25% of the population
Functional
illiteracy: 70%
Matriculated in
primary or secondary school: 52%
Achieved third grade
or less: 60%
High School or
Vocational graduates: 3.5%
University
graduates: 1.1%
From 1956 to
1957:
Unemployment:
16.4%
Semi-employed
(working 29 weeks or less): 13.8%
The World Bank in
1950 stated that, "Diseases is not a serious problem in Cuba, but health
is."
Approximately half
of all Cubans suffered from undernourishment, their caloric intake was
less than the recommended daily intake.
There was a large
disparity between urban Cuba and rural Cuba. The large percentage of the
children in rural Cuba suffered from intestinal
parasites.
Were the scenes in
the Godfather II by Francis Ford Cuppola, depicting life in Cuba as a totally corrupt and rotten
island, an amusement park for the gangsters and pimps, far from
fact?
Not at all.
That is why there was a revolution. A revolution that ended the
reign of the rotten scum that governed it and gave the people, the majority
being humble and poor, rights that they never had before. With the
triumph of the the revolution there came the end of the corrupt power
and authority of the ruling class; the revolution gave it's people an opportunity to end
not just the corruption, but much of the
discrimination and miseries of Batista's Cuba as well. The end of
the abuses of the elite class and US domination gave the masses hope and
a sense of independence.
The casinos represented the vices of
Batista's Cuba:
While the gangsters
and the corrupt element were living it up in the casinos, the people
suffered:
Children often had to work for a
living
Shinning shoes was a frequent
childhood occupation:
The children were underweight and often had
parasites
Often the police or the military would throw you out into the
streets :
The belongings would be thrown into the
streets
Farmers housing was often
inadequate 
This was the face of the
innocent in Batista's Cuba
