Propaganda and the CDR
As one of the few remaining nominally Communist countries in the world (others are China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos), Cuba occupies a unique place in the sociopolitical makeup of the Western hemisphere. One of the most prominent ways in which this difference can be seen is in propaganda, which is incredibly prevalent in Cuba. Where the US has billboards advertising the lastest products of capitalism, Cuba uses its public display space to laud the ideals of the Communist Revolution of 1953-1959, which continues in spirit to this day.
An apartment building facing a large, circular grassy field and monument at Plaza de la Revolución bears Che's image and his signature "Hasta la victoria siempre" ("until victory, always" or "always towards victory"). Che customarily closed his letters with this phrase, which is reproduced everywhere from official monuments on this scale to handpainted signs on the sides of buildings.
As we traveled, I tried to always jot down the propaganda phrases I saw, starting from the moment we set foot on Cuba soil: written in blue paint on the orange walls of the José Martí International Airport is a quote from its namesake saying "Patria es humanidad," or "the homeland is humanity."
Here's a list of propaganda I saw, with translations, in order of frequency on an informal scale where 1 is infrequent and 4 is very frequent:
Although many meaning-laden buzzwords see widespread use in these slogans, "Marti," "CDR," "derecho," and "pueblo" are the most commonly used. As the tragically martyred ideaological leader of Cuba's war for independence in the 1880s, José Martí is constantly referenced with plaques, images in storefronts, streets and neighborhoods--and the national airport--who take him as their namesake. "Derecho"--which can mean "straight" in the sense of a pathway, "right" as in both the physical orientation and the moral concept, and "law"--is understandably well-represented, as is "pueblo", which is "town," but also a people or nation, as well as the working class.
The Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) are their own beast. Part neighborhood watch, part subcontracted spy ring, the CDR are scattered all over the country. About 75% of the Cuban population has membership to these groups, which report on counter-revolutionary activity.* Balancing this statistic with the sense one gets from conversation that many Cubans think the CDR are invasive bullies with dangerous influence is a careful reminder that Cuban citizens' relationship with their government is often much more nuanced and complex than it may appear.
We saw the saber-wielding eye emblem of the CDR everywhere we went. I even noticed a couple houses whose occupants had proudly painted on their doors that the president of the local CDR lives there. The emblem was often incorporated into the final "o" in "socialismo" or in "en cada barrio" ("in every neighborhood"). Some slogans also made acrostic poems of sorts, showing that the members of CDR are "convencidos, defensivos y revolucionarios" ("convinced, defensive, and revolucionary") or declaring that "Somos Cubanos, dignos y revolucionarios" ("We're Cubans, dignified and revolucionary").
While we were traveling by van or bus, these images flashed by too quick for me to do more than scrawl the words, let alone sketch their composition and associate imagery. And although the exercise for me was entertaining in terms of visual memory and translation exercise, I still had the luxury of seeing them as a tourist, from behind glass, sliding past on the slick surface of issues I, as a non-Cuban, won't ever be able to really understand.