Las Terrazas (Cuba) and the “Second Revolution” in the Sierra del Rosario

Abstract

How does a revolution such as the Cuban one arrive at the rural backwaters of the country? How do the citizens in a destitute area relate to a national, revolutionary process, given that “national” and “revolutionary” were hardly concepts that used to apply to their everyday lives? The Sierra del Rosario is today a UNESCO biosphere reserve with the model community of Las Terrazas inside it but prior to the revolution, it was a particularly poverty-stricken area. I would therefore like to suggest a few arguments, based on oral histories recorded in Las Terrazas in 2007 and 2008, as well as further interview sources, to sketch its remarkable development. In short, the argument put forward here is that the development scheme for the Sierra del Rosario, which transformed the landscape and (re)created a community in Las Terrazas, meant that the revolution finally arrived in the Sierra del Rosario, and today its living standards and economic and social success even outperform that of Cuba as a whole. The examples used and the arguments put forward are by no means exhaustive but should serve as part of a debate and hopefully/maybe even spark off further research into the question. All interviews (unless where otherwise stated) were recorded by the author in 2007 and 2008.