My research reviews the current literature on cuentapropismo (self-employment) in Havana and some of the existing theories of informality. My major goal is to see how well such theories explain the Havana case. Traditional approaches to understanding the informal economy do not fit Havana, which is distinct in terms of (1) social class structure, (2) social demography, (3) the relations between the formal and informal sectors, and (4) the relations between the informal economy and globalization. My research also examines the nature of informality and entrepreneurship and argues that the former supports the latter in three ways: overexploitation, invisibility and informal social network. These three elements apply to previous state employees who quit state jobs to enter the informal sector. In a context of neoliberal reforms and the consolidation of urbanization in Latin American countries, I conclude that it is necessary to theorize the experience of these informal entrepreneurs who previously worked in the formal sector and whose human capital and expectations separate them from earlier rural-origin migrants of the 1960s. / text

The design of housing in an urban fabric designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site requires consideration of the historic character and how each building contributes to the streetscape. Beyond the facade, one discovers the unique story of each parcel through the transformations that its residents have enacted over many centuries in order to accommodate greater density and the evolution of family structures. One might even find a record of building periods following a hurricane, for example, inscribed by hand on a column in the shared patio for the collective memory of current and future tenants. These transformations are almost all realized through self-effort construction and are a community-building exercise. Unfortunately, the paradox that accompanies the informal typologies to construct additional housing is destructive more often than not. The additions to and division of the highly articulated residential architecture in Havana have a pervasive impact on the building structure and exacerbates the decay of the built environment. The formal typologies established to define thresholds and transition between public and private spaces are as much a part of the social landscape as the informal insertions. Housing la Habana Vieja calls for a reconciliation of the architectural heritage with contemporary building attitudes in its design for multi-family housing in the historic city center of Cuba. This project addresses the housing crisis in Havana and proposes a resolution that is suited to the "economy of means, both material and aesthetic,"to appropriate the design philosophy of Cuban-American architect Belmont Freeman. The context investigates the underpinnings of housing attitudes by identifying milestones and gaining perspective from dialogue with the residents of la Habana Vieja. Documenting the formal and informal typologies allowed for a comparison of both their spatial implications and their performance, or function. The design proposal explores the intersection of these typologies to manifest the social behaviors and cultural values in the definition of shared and private space. The formal typologies engage the transitional qualities of space by layering building elements as thresholds to private realms. The informal typologies are engaged in the construction of habitable space by activating the immediate built environment through the addition and multiplication of planes. To design at the corner of the past and present is to preserve the vernacular and brandish the opportunities that the future holds for Housing la Habana Vieja. / Master of Architecture / Design multifamily housing to reconcile formal and informal housing typologies of La Habana Vieja By transcending its architectural heritage and resolving the spatial implications of Cuban contemporary living.

The conversion of the convent of San Francisco into a school of architecture in Havana, comes out of my omnipresent desire to work with old structures, my faith in architectural education, and my love for he city in which I was born. My intention was to propose an alternative to conventional restoration and preservation. From the mutilated body of the convent, and the seed of education planted by the monks the new school sprung. The memory of the lost limbs, still present in the city, began to materialize slowly, letting the old structure breathe again. / Master of Architecture

A presente tese de doutorado pretende analisar as razões que levaram Rio de Janeiro e Havana a se constituírem como as maiores cidades escravistas das Américas. O recorte inicial da pesquisa é o ano de 1763, quando as duas cidades transformaram-se em localidades-chave nos Impérios Ibéricos graças ao reordenamento das possessões europeias no Novo Mundo. Ainda que em meados do século XVIII Rio e Havana tivessem relações distintas com a escravidão, o que se observa a partir de 1763 é que o cativeiro urbano tornou-se cada vez mais importante para o funcionamento das duas cidades. Tal importância passa a ser operada em outra escala na última década do setecentos, principalmente após a rebelião dos escravos de Saint-Domingue (1791), quando uma série de Revoluções assolou o Mundo Atlântico questionando a totalidade do Antigo Regime. A despeito do movimento abolicionista e das independências americanas, as elites coloniais do Rio e de Havana conseguem refazer suas relações com o poder metropolitano em defesa da manutenção da escravidão e do tráfico transatlântico, que começou a ser operado numa escala nunca vista. Como espelhos que refletiam a escolha política e econômica feita pelas elites luso-brasileira e cubana, Rio de Janeiro e Havana tornaram-se não só importantes portas de entrada para os africanos escravizados, como urbes que dependiam cada vez mais de braços escravos para funcionar. Nem mesmo a assimetria política gerada em 1808 (quando o Rio de Janeiro deixou de ser capital colonial para transformar-se em Corte) alterou a forma sincrônica, e muitas vezes dialógica, por meio da qual as duas cidades lidaram com a escravidão. As semelhanças na articulação entre espaço urbano e cidade vigoraram até a década de 1840, momento em que Rio de Janeiro e Havana passaram a dividir o pouco honroso título de maiores cidades escravistas do Novo Mundo. O ano de 1844 foi especialmente relevante, pois a Rebelião de La Escalera em Havana e os novos rumos nos debates parlamentares para o fim do tráfico no Rio anunciavam mudanças que alterariam o peso da escravidão no espaço citadino. A análise sincrônica deste longo processo foi feita, sobretudo, a partir do exame de documentos que tratassem da instância urbana dessas duas cidades, mas que, ao mesmo tempo, permitissem compreender as relações das urbes com as unidades políticas que faziam parte. Por isso, a maior parte das fontes consultadas foram os documentos produzidos pelos órgãos que administravam as instâncias municipais do Rio de Janeiro e de Havana, sobretudo aquelas que diziam respeito ao governo dos escravos. Acreditasse, pois, que a escolha por essa tipologia documental permitiu a análise de três dimensões da escravidão nessas duas cidades: o cotidiano das relações escravistas em cada uma das cidades; o peso do cativeiro citadino como parte constitutiva das histórias do Brasil e de Cuba; a singular paridade que fez do Rio de Janeiro e de Havana irmãs do Atlântico. / This doctoral thesis aims to analyze the reasons that led Rio de Janeiro and Havana to become the major slave cities in the Americas. The starting point of the research is the year 1763, when both cities became key locations in the Iberian Empires due to the reorganization of European possessions in the New World. Although in mid-eighteenth century Rio and Havana had different relations with slavery, it is noticed from 1763 that the urban captivity became increasingly more important to the functioning of the two cities. Such importance starts to be observed on another scale in the last decade of the Seven Hundreds, especially after the slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue (1791), when a series of Revolutions ravaged the Atlantic World questioning the whole of the Old Regime. Despite the abolitionist movement and American independences, the colonial elites of Rio and Havana manage to rebuild their relationships with the metropolitan power in favor of maintaining slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, which began to be operated on a scale never seen before. As mirrors reflecting the political and economic choice made by Luso-Brazilian and Cuban elites, Rio de Janeiro and Havana have become not only important entry points to the enslaved Africans, but also large urban areas that increasingly depended on slave arms to work. Not even the political asymmetry generated in 1808 (when Rio de Janeiro turned from being the colonial capital to being the Royal Court) modified the synchronous and often dialogical way through which the two cities have dealt with slavery. The similarities in the relationship between urban space and city existed until the 1840s, which was the moment at which Rio de Janeiro and Havana began to share the little honorable title of largest slave cities of the New World. The year 1844 was particularly relevant, since the Rebellion of La Escalera in Havana and the new directions in parliamentary debates regarding the end of trafficking in Rio announced changes that would alter the weight of slavery in the city space. The synchronic analysis of this long process was done primarily through the examination of documents that addressed the urban context of these two cities, but at the same time allowed one to understand the relations between the large urban areas and the political units that were part of them. Therefore, most of the consulted sources were the documents produced by the public agencies that ran the \"city\" spheres of Rio de Janeiro and Havana, especially those that concerned the government of slaves. It is believed, therefore, that the choice for this type of documents has allowed the analysis of three dimensions of slavery in these two cities: the daily lives of slave relationships in each of the cities, the weight of the city captivity as a constituent part of the histories of Brazil and Cuba and the unique parity that has made Rio de Janeiro and Havana sisters of the Atlantic.

A presente tese de doutorado pretende analisar as razões que levaram Rio de Janeiro e Havana a se constituírem como as maiores cidades escravistas das Américas. O recorte inicial da pesquisa é o ano de 1763, quando as duas cidades transformaram-se em localidades-chave nos Impérios Ibéricos graças ao reordenamento das possessões europeias no Novo Mundo. Ainda que em meados do século XVIII Rio e Havana tivessem relações distintas com a escravidão, o que se observa a partir de 1763 é que o cativeiro urbano tornou-se cada vez mais importante para o funcionamento das duas cidades. Tal importância passa a ser operada em outra escala na última década do setecentos, principalmente após a rebelião dos escravos de Saint-Domingue (1791), quando uma série de Revoluções assolou o Mundo Atlântico questionando a totalidade do Antigo Regime. A despeito do movimento abolicionista e das independências americanas, as elites coloniais do Rio e de Havana conseguem refazer suas relações com o poder metropolitano em defesa da manutenção da escravidão e do tráfico transatlântico, que começou a ser operado numa escala nunca vista. Como espelhos que refletiam a escolha política e econômica feita pelas elites luso-brasileira e cubana, Rio de Janeiro e Havana tornaram-se não só importantes portas de entrada para os africanos escravizados, como urbes que dependiam cada vez mais de braços escravos para funcionar. Nem mesmo a assimetria política gerada em 1808 (quando o Rio de Janeiro deixou de ser capital colonial para transformar-se em Corte) alterou a forma sincrônica, e muitas vezes dialógica, por meio da qual as duas cidades lidaram com a escravidão. As semelhanças na articulação entre espaço urbano e cidade vigoraram até a década de 1840, momento em que Rio de Janeiro e Havana passaram a dividir o pouco honroso título de maiores cidades escravistas do Novo Mundo. O ano de 1844 foi especialmente relevante, pois a Rebelião de La Escalera em Havana e os novos rumos nos debates parlamentares para o fim do tráfico no Rio anunciavam mudanças que alterariam o peso da escravidão no espaço citadino. A análise sincrônica deste longo processo foi feita, sobretudo, a partir do exame de documentos que tratassem da instância urbana dessas duas cidades, mas que, ao mesmo tempo, permitissem compreender as relações das urbes com as unidades políticas que faziam parte. Por isso, a maior parte das fontes consultadas foram os documentos produzidos pelos órgãos que administravam as instâncias municipais do Rio de Janeiro e de Havana, sobretudo aquelas que diziam respeito ao governo dos escravos. Acreditasse, pois, que a escolha por essa tipologia documental permitiu a análise de três dimensões da escravidão nessas duas cidades: o cotidiano das relações escravistas em cada uma das cidades; o peso do cativeiro citadino como parte constitutiva das histórias do Brasil e de Cuba; a singular paridade que fez do Rio de Janeiro e de Havana irmãs do Atlântico. / This doctoral thesis aims to analyze the reasons that led Rio de Janeiro and Havana to become the major slave cities in the Americas. The starting point of the research is the year 1763, when both cities became key locations in the Iberian Empires due to the reorganization of European possessions in the New World. Although in mid-eighteenth century Rio and Havana had different relations with slavery, it is noticed from 1763 that the urban captivity became increasingly more important to the functioning of the two cities. Such importance starts to be observed on another scale in the last decade of the Seven Hundreds, especially after the slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue (1791), when a series of Revolutions ravaged the Atlantic World questioning the whole of the Old Regime. Despite the abolitionist movement and American independences, the colonial elites of Rio and Havana manage to rebuild their relationships with the metropolitan power in favor of maintaining slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, which began to be operated on a scale never seen before. As mirrors reflecting the political and economic choice made by Luso-Brazilian and Cuban elites, Rio de Janeiro and Havana have become not only important entry points to the enslaved Africans, but also large urban areas that increasingly depended on slave arms to work. Not even the political asymmetry generated in 1808 (when Rio de Janeiro turned from being the colonial capital to being the Royal Court) modified the synchronous and often dialogical way through which the two cities have dealt with slavery. The similarities in the relationship between urban space and city existed until the 1840s, which was the moment at which Rio de Janeiro and Havana began to share the little honorable title of largest slave cities of the New World. The year 1844 was particularly relevant, since the Rebellion of La Escalera in Havana and the new directions in parliamentary debates regarding the end of trafficking in Rio announced changes that would alter the weight of slavery in the city space. The synchronic analysis of this long process was done primarily through the examination of documents that addressed the urban context of these two cities, but at the same time allowed one to understand the relations between the large urban areas and the political units that were part of them. Therefore, most of the consulted sources were the documents produced by the public agencies that ran the \"city\" spheres of Rio de Janeiro and Havana, especially those that concerned the government of slaves. It is believed, therefore, that the choice for this type of documents has allowed the analysis of three dimensions of slavery in these two cities: the daily lives of slave relationships in each of the cities, the weight of the city captivity as a constituent part of the histories of Brazil and Cuba and the unique parity that has made Rio de Janeiro and Havana sisters of the Atlantic.

No description available.

This thesis examines how the recent socio-economic and political arena in Cuba informs the relationship among the idea of population health, national statistics, and the everyday lives of individuals. Post-revolutionary Cuba has used measures of the health of individuals as a metaphor for the health of the body politic, effectively linking the efficacy of socialism and its governmental apparatus to the health conditions of the population. The creation of a model of health care that was informed by the revolutionaries' vision of a new social order, which in turn would help to create an ' hombre nuevo' (new man and new woman), effectively shaped a model of citizenship that was associated with a particular notion of health, and in addition defined a system of socialist values and ideals. Thirty months of ethnographic field research in the city of Havana focused specifically on the Family Physician-and-Nurse Program---an innovative primary health care program in which family physician-and-nurse teams live and work on the city block or in the rural community they serve. Drawing on my ethnographic findings, I explore two key themes. First, I examine how state policy, enacted through the government's public health campaigns, has affected individual lives, changing the relationship among citizens, government institutions, public associations and the state. Secondly, I examine how the collapse of the Soviet bloc (post-1989) and the strengthening of the US embargo is changing the relationship between socialist health-policies and individual practices and how it has redefined how state power becomes enacted through and upon individual bodies. In particular, I examine how individual practices play an important role in the maintenance of Cuba's population-health profile, as individual citizens give priority to their own health care needs, both material (such as food, medicines and medical supplies) and spiritual (including the re-emergence of religious

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study looks at the broader transformations in Cuban history through the case study of a single, yet symbolic, man, and proposes a new paradigm for understanding the dynamics of Cuban society and culture. It also examines the implications for Cuba’s aspiring national identity at the turn of the twentieth century, by detailing the interplay between fact and fiction in the story of Alberto Yarini: elite born; well-educated; politically and socially well-connected; powerful; and celebrated Cuban racketeer and chulo (pimp). Yarini was described as vibrant and triumphant at a time when other nation-building forces in Cuba were weak and ambivalent. A century after his dramatic death, Yarini became the quintessential public man in Cuban lore who symbolized a cubanidad (Cuban national identity) not defined in terms of the ideological hegemony of class, race, or gender, and who through his actions dispelled the ambivalence that plagued Cuban nationalism. Using archival documents, contemporary newspaper accounts, court records, memoirs, and published works, this study analyzes the confluence of national events and individual action in the formation of Cuban national identity. It contends that for Cuba, the failure of nation-building experiments resulted in an ambivalent national identity based on failed philosophical and political ideals of equality and prosperity. These ideals played out within the context of the realities of racial discrimination, political dissonance, and class and gender barriers. Instead of a cohesive sense of national character, for Cubans the result was a competing set of identities including a populist version that was defined through identification with antitypes and pseudo-heroes such as Alberto Yarini y Ponce de León (1882-1910), a rising politician and celebrated chulo of the early republic. The telling and retelling of his story has given rise to what has been termed the island nation’s first national myth – one that continues to evolve and grow in the twenty-first century. For many Cubans, the Yarini antitype provided an idealized national identity which in many ways was—and many argue continues to be— the expression of an elusive and ambivalent cubanidad.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54). Also available in print.