Hair Dressing in Cuba

Cuba is changing in revolutionary ways. But this time around the revolution is not red, perhaps it’s got no one color. And no one leader. This is a revolution lead by many small entrepreneurs wanting a better life. An excerpt from an article titled “The Cuban Grape Wine” from The Intelligent Life magazine below:

“Hairdressing is what saved me,” says Papito, who is gym-built and charismatic, and sports a bewilderingly complicated utility-belt of hair-related tools. “I hated school. I ran away a lot. I got into trouble. And if someone hadn’t taught me this trade I think I would be in worse trouble right now. So I wanted others to benefit from the advantages I had.”

He currently has 11 pupils, all recruited from the deprived streets immediately surrounding the salon. He’s already opened a second salon across the street where his students can train, and, in a third building, a second art gallery that also doubles as a community gym. In a way he’s a kind of magnate, with two crucial distinctions: first, every one of his premises has at least two different uses; second, every one of his businesses benefits the community at large. Which might explain why, after initial suspicion, the state has so enthusiastically sanctioned his projects.

“If they see that this kind of social enterprise works, and that it’s good for the community, they’ll be better prepared for the next thing that comes along,” he says. “But they need to be shown the examples.”

This is trailblazing stuff. Cuba nationalised retail business in 1968, after which any form of private enterprise, from renting out a room in your house to selling bananas from a barrow, could be deemed “speculation”. Everybody broke the rules, because you couldn’t not if you wanted to survive, but if you were dobbed in by a “reliable source” you were in trouble. However, since late 2010, and facing public-sector redundancies, the government has been tentatively encouraging small-scale private enterprise. Things are moving slowly, partly because old bureaucratic habits die hard (the red tape is excruciating), but now you can apply for a licence to run a coffee shop or a snack bar that will be more than just a workers’ collective.

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