Once Traitors, Now Butterflies

The successful Revolution of 1959 marks the moment when the Cuban people emerged from under the influence of the United States to assert their increased autonomy and begin to chart their own course of history. While they found success in the years immediately after the Revolution, Cuba was exposed to the unpredictable forces of the international economy following the collapse of the Socialist Bloc in 1991, and the loss of its most important trade partner, the Soviet Union. To conduct trade on the international market, Cuba sought to generate foreign currency. The two most successful sources of hard currency that emerged during this Special Period were tourism and remittances from abroad. This new embrace of foreign currency is an about-face from the previous Cuban policy, enacted in 1979, which banned the possession of U.S. currency for Cuban citizens but permitted it for tourists and foreign diplomats.1 This did not stop migrants from sending money, and after 1991, remittances became a crucial source of hard currency for the Cuban government. At the same time, the Cuban government became increasingly dependent on the flow of remittances in the 1990s. The U.S. used this period of economic instability to tighten sanctions on Cuba and implement some of the most debilitating policies to date.