Objective Dietary guidelines are important education and policy tools to address local nutrition concerns. The current paper presents a comparative analysis of nutrition messages from three Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) to explore how these dietary guidelines address common public health nutrition concerns, contextualized in different changing food environments and food culture similarities. Design Qualitative, comparative analysis of current dietary guideline documents and key recommendations. Results Key recommendations were categorized into sixteen themes (two diet-based, ten food-based and four ‘other’). Only the Cuban dietary guidelines included diet-based key recommendations. Of the ten food-based key recommendations, only four themes overlapped across the three dietary guidelines (the encouragement of fruits and vegetables, addressing protein sources and fat). Other overlaps were found between dietary guideline pairs, except between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Further analysis revealed differences in levels of specificity and acknowledgement of local dietary patterns and issues, as well as the need to revise the guidelines to account for current scientific advances. Conclusions The present study underscored the importance of context in the framing of dietary advice and the influence of national socio-economic and political situations on nutrition policy and education efforts. The results contribute to inform efforts to improve nutrition communication in the region and among migrant communities.

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Comparative analysis of dietary guidelines in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean.

This article examines the kind of development and political model most likely to emerge in Cuba, particularly in the wake of the gradual US–Cuban normalisation currently taking place. The rapprochement process, culminating with President Obama’s historic visit in March 2016, has unleashed stiff resistance in both countries. The liberal democratisation paradigm is held up against what we have termed ‘socialist neo-patrimonialism’, with both seen as alternative tools for assessing the direction of social transformations underway in Cuba, focusing on the debate about the role of the national private sector. Paradoxically, normalisation with the USA may so far have had the contrary effect of what President Obama had in mind in this respect: judging from the 7th Congress of the Communist Party in April 2016, it seems that resistance against economic reforms has hardened, caused by a fear that Obama’s charm offensive, combined with a strengthened entrepreneurial sector, will undermine the entire revolut...

The great paradox: how Obama’s opening to Cuba may imperil the country’s reform process

This paper examines the evolution of Cuba's self-employed entrepreneurs since the sector became an officially-recognized alternative to State sector employment in 2010. Despite the expansion of authorized self-employment activities and the implementation of gradual economic reforms to "update" the country's socialist economic model since 2010, Cuba's emerging self-employed entrepreneurs still face a series of constraints and limitations, such as an onerous tax system, underdeveloped banking and financial sectors, lack of access to organized input markets and a still hostile business climate that hinder their ability to expand and contribute to the country's economic growth.

Cuba's emerging self-employed entrepreneurs: recent developments and prospects for the future

This article discusses the phenomenon of self-employment in Cuba from three perspectives: its conceptualisation, its links with informality and the challenges to its growth. First, it reviews the characteristics of self-employment in Cuba, in comparison with available theory and with various studies of informality carried out in other countries. Second, it documents the dimensions of informality and Cuba’s black market economy through the study of a specific sector of the independent labour force: shoe producers. Third, it considers the main challenges for the growth of self-employment in Cuba, as illustrated by the case of Cuban shoemakers, and draws some lessons that should improve the situation of this sector, taking into account different international studies.

Self-employment in Cuba: between informality and entrepreneurship – the case of shoe manufacturing

RESUMEN Tras tres decadas de transición, la economía cubana se define por dinámicas entre las economías impuestas por el Estado y las resistencias cotidianas generadas ‘desde abajo’. Aunque estas últimas carecen de representación legal y estadística, se pueden estudiar a traves de las transcripciones ocultas (Scott, 1985) de sus participantes. El artículo aplica al caso cubano conceptos contemporáneos como economías multiples, infrapolítica y subalternidad.

Philip Brenner

Papers

Soft landing in Cuba? emerging entrepreneurs and middle classes