Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25065
DII.ITIIT. H rental fee. Where it was once against the law to possess greenbacks, the us dollar is now legal tender in Cuba and has surpassed the Cuban peso as the currency of choice. The peso-to-dollar exchange rate is 20 to 1, but now there's a third currency in the mix called a convertible peso that's equal to the dollar. So there are three currencies and two parallel economies in the country now-one fueled by dollars, the other chugging along on pesos. Cubans working for the government or for state-owned industry are paid in old pesos, which used to be enough. Education through university level and health care are free in Cuba. Food rations are distributed in state-owned shops at subsidized prices, and many cultural activities are also subsidized. Even so, without dollars these days, it's hard to get by. Ration booklets cover fewer and fewer of the basic needs. The ration shops and pharmacies have bare shelves, but the dollar stores are well stocked with such coveted items as shampoo, Coca Cola, rum, meat and tampons. In 1993 some Cubans were allowed to open their own small, private businesses, which, on the one hand, are liberally taxed, but, on the other, provide vendors with access to dollars. Some Cubans who don't have relatives abroad sending cash home, look to carve a niche in the tourist market: renting rooms, driving gypsy cabs, or running 12-seat restaurants out of their homes. Even these paladares cater to both Cubans and foreigners, often charging two sets of prices. Jinateras and jinateros, "jockeys," look for foreigners to accompany and entertain in exchange for gifts and cash. The dollar economy has bred a new service-sector upperclass who are looked on with some scorn by those who've remained loyal to Revolutionary ideals. It is an ironic twist for the Revolution that was supposed to abolish racism, classism, sexism and, above all, the excesses of capitalism. Walking along the Malecon in Havana one night, near the opulent Hotel Nacional, I stop to pick up a few centavos on the sidewalk as a souvenir. The ground is littered with them. It's as if someone else strolling along the seaside avenue suddenly decided their pocketful of Cuban change was useless and threw it out on the spot. Outsiders often get caught up in the poetry of Castro's ideology and romanticize the struggles and victories of the Revolution. In January 1959 when Castro and his commandantes marched into Havana, after the military dictator Fulgencio Batista had fled to the Dominican Republic, people greeted him with cheers. "Many Cubans thought it possible that Fidel Castro might, indeed, be Jesus Christ," Wendy Gimbel writes in her book Havana Dreams. The Argentine inner circle and, aside from Castro, is probably the most recognized of the Revolutionaries. Since his murder during a guerilla campaign in the Bolivian Andes in 1967, he has become the poster boy for the Cuban Revolution. His face � (he Guevara was part of Fidel's 1�lan 5 Lloertv Be I, Its suave Uncle Sam witH sex appeal. Last year Che's ashes and personal effects returned to Cuba and are bill,boardas pnd mlJ��ls all over cou r,ry. Me IS tne Ejers d.own fr om on display at the Museum Revolution in Havana. The museum is a monument to the struggles of an underdog, chronicling Cuba's battle against "Yankee imperialism." It even includes a Cretins Corner thanking Batista for "helping us make the Revolution" and the US presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush for "helping to strengthen the Revolution," meaning: we could have done without you, but adversity has made us stronger. US aggression against Cuba and numerous alleged assassination attempts on Castro are chronicled at the Museum of the Department of the Interior, where bands of school children come to learn about modern Cuban history. And, as if to make it so, signs around Havana proclaim that socialism is stronger than ever. Castro reinforced those thoughts in a CNN interview last summer. "A pessimist cannot be a revolutionary," he said. "If we had not been the world's greatest optimists, we wouldn't have gone on." •