Negotiating Paradise by Dennis Merrill

Author:Dennis Merrill [Merrill, Dennis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, 20th Century, Latin America, General, Political Science, International Relations
ISBN: 9780807898635
Google: NiE96e6rHZkC
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Published: 2009-09-01T00:31:12+00:00

Revolution and Tourism: Host Agency

Castro came to power determined to bring the visitors back but to do so on terms more beneficial to the host society. No set blueprint existed, and certainly no preconceived formula. Battlefield tactics, U.S. aid to the established government, and the possibility of U.S. intervention had been Castro's main preoccupations during the preceding months. The new government nonetheless quickly set to work to negotiate a redistribution of power inside the island's touristed cultural contact zones.

The effort did not produce immediate results. Fighting for his life in the Sierra Maestra, Castro had adopted a harsh stance not only toward U.S. military aid to Batista but also toward foreign tourism, especially its sponsorship of rampant vice. The Castroites infused Cuban nationalism with a strong moral tone, a response no doubt to the demeaning constructions of identity imposed on Cuba by fun-loving tourists. Matthews remembered Castro and his young officers as provincials when it came to gambling, narcotics, and prostitution. “Fidel was so old fashioned when he first reached Havana,” he told a student audience at the City College of New York in 1961, that “he argued that interest on money was a sin.”46 Even prior to Castro's arrival in Havana, victorious rebels began to interrogate and arrest some casino operators and seize their daily receipts. Thus, few observers expressed surprise when President Urrutia ordered the closure of casinos and gaming houses on 5 January.47

Revolutionary morality, however, had to be reconciled with conflicting interest group pressure and the need for tourist revenue and employment. Even Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the ideological firebrand among the bunch, tempered his idealism. “I am for total planning as a matter of principle as well as theory,” he told Matthews in early 1959; “however, I am only one person in the government and I realize that in the present state of the Cuban economy, there must be a mixture of planning and private enterprise.” Nor did Guevara sense rabid anti-Americanism among the revolution's rank and file, especially when compared to postrevolutionary Mexico. “You know Mexico. In Mexico I have seen crowds showing hatred of Americans as Americans. You have never seen that here and you never will.”48

U.S. travel industry officials representing Pan Am, American Express, Hilton, and other firms struck a pragmatic pose, undertaking ad campaigns to lure visitors back to the island and seeking support from the new government.49 Just a few weeks following Castro's victorious arrival in Havana, representatives of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) met with President Urrutia and assured him that they still looked forward to holding their annual meeting in Havana later in the year.50 Coming just days after the closing of Havana's casinos, ASTA'S gesture not only promised an influx of some two thousand conventioneers into the Cuban capital but also affirmed that one of the U.S. travel industry's most influential organizations wanted to do business with the Castro government.

After hearing of Batista's New Year's morning flight from Havana, Hilton's Caverly hopped a plane and headed directly for the Havana Hilton.

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