The Cuban historian Arsenio Rodríguez Quintana argues that Fidel Castro implemented a deliberate strategy to erase the memory of the Republic because that period demonstrated that Cuba was a prosperous, dynamic country with a vibrant private business class, in stark contrast to the revolutionary narrative.
In an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, Rodríguez Quintana begins with a historical analogy.
"There is a marvelous quote from Jorge Luis Borges that stated that all emperors and all pharaohs always wanted to erase the previous history." And he adds directly: "Fidel Castro acted like all dictators: he tried to erase the previous history."
One of the most compelling examples provided by the historian is that of the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, which was actually named Plaza Cívica and was built during the Republic, completed in 1958, with no involvement from Castro.
"That was called Plaza Cívica. It was completed in 1958. Fidel Castro has nothing to do with it," says Rodríguez Quintana, who adds that the regime simply changed the name in 1961 to appropriate the symbol.
The reason for the deletion, according to the historian, was that the Republic highlighted the failings of Castroism: "He didn't want the Republic to be mentioned because the Republic made that country."
Rodríguez Quintana enumerates specific achievements from that period that the regime preferred to keep silent.
"During the Republic, 20 movies were made every day. There were collaborations in filmmaking with Mexico and Argentina. All Cuban musicians traveled around the world."
Cite Ernesto Lecuona as an example of a music entrepreneur who organized international tours as far as Arabia, and Ninón Sevilla, a Cuban dancer and actress who turned down Hollywood contracts to operate as a businesswoman from Mexico and bring her productions to Brazil.
"You start studying Cuba's business world in the 1950s and it was brutal. That's why Fidel Castro didn't want these topics to be discussed," states the historian.
It also claims republican infrastructure works that the regime has symbolically appropriated: "At that time, a 7-kilometer seawall was built, a seawall that was one of the most important avenues in the world."
To illustrate the contrast between that Cuba and the current one, Rodríguez Quintana introduces the concept of “internal blockade”.
"How can it be that in Cuba people cannot go fishing? It is surrounded by water and they are dying of hunger. That is called internal blockade. This explains a dictatorship."
The historian recalls that as a child, fishing along the Malecón was a common activity, and that in the 1950s it was usual for families to own their own boats. Today, fishing in Cuba without state authorization is illegal, something the historian himself points out as a symptom of total control over economic life.
Rodríguez Quintana does not idealize the Republic: he acknowledges that Batista did not call for elections in 1952 and that this was "a democratic violation." However, he makes a comparison that speaks for itself: "Batista did bad things for 6 years. Someone else did them for 67. So the balance is a little strange."
The erasure of republican history was not merely narrative. According to the broader context of the interview, in 1996, after the approval of the Helms-Burton Act, the regime sent State Security agents to the National Archive of Cuba to locate and remove documents that legitimized the properties of Cubans and Americans that had been expropriated.
"I owe it to the dictatorship that does not allow me to enter Cuba. So, since it doesn't let me enter Cuba, I get to know other things," concludes Rodríguez Quintana, with an irony that encapsulates decades of forced exile for those who dare to study and recount the history that Castro's regime sought to bury.
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