We Were In Cuba On Election Day
At least, we think so.
Last week the Startup Cuba gang was in Havana when Raul Castro handed over power to the country’s first President in sixty years without the last name Castro.
We were actually in Havana (sound familiar?) for a party, or two, but took a gander while there. What we experienced on Election Day blew us away. Because what we experienced was… Nothing.
Lemme start by saying that we (Startup Cuba & VERV.tv) have only one goal with regards to Cuba. That goal is to show the American people the magic that Cuban cuentapropistas are pulling off. We want Americans to see that Cuba has entrepreneurs, that they’re changing their lives and that although the space they are in is complex, they’re building businesses that matter. Undeniably, they are a key to Cuba’s future economy, no matter what your position is on Cuba.
So, to that end, being in Cuba to witness the transition to this new President was a bonus.
The most powerful moment was when we (very) quickly realized that there was more buzz and awareness about the election in the US than in Cuba by 100X (literally, not figuratively). If a visitor to Cuba didn’t know that the transition of power was taking place, they would literally have no idea. It was just another normal week. Not only was there no ceremony or parade, there wasn’t even a sense of acknowledgement among the people. People really just didn’t seem to care. We got a lot of, “Oh yeah, that’s happening this week, right?”
It almost felt like a new suburban American school board superintendent was being installed. Other than a small group of people in charge, it was inconsequential feeling. Nobody really knew where or when it was taking place, and nobody felt that an actual change was in process. Just like the installation of a new head of one of our suburban school systems in the US, “Ok, someone else is running the school system now. Back to work.”
Our sense was that there were two reasons for this. The first is that there’s just a general feeling of apathy — not necessarily negativity or anger — rather just the result of almost 60 years of not having direct involvement in the process. They’re resigned to the fact that they don’t have a participatory role in their government. Oh, and they don’t expect change.
The second reason is because this wasn’t really an election last week. Back in March, Cubans voted on the municipal level. These municipalities then provided candidate nominees for Cuba’s National Assembly. Last week, this National Assembly went ahead and selected Cuba’s new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Look, we don’t exist to get in the middle of politics between our two countries and we don’t want to tell Cuba how to run itself. It’s a complicated situation and we think there’s blame to go around on both sides. In a perfect world, our two governments would continue on the path to normalization and co-existence, leveraging the best parts of our cultures, countries and people to make everyone’s lives better.
The reality is that despite forward momentum, there’s also still a long way to go. We were fortunate to be able to be in Cuba for this historic event. We are eager to encourage our United States representatives (see “Marco Rubio”) down the path of normalization and we’re eager to support cuentapropistas and Miguel Diaz-Canel on the path of reform.
