Shifting Sands: Cuban Tourism, Politics, and The Transformation of Varadero, 1945–2016

Ninety miles east of Havana is Varadero Beach. Beyond a site of mere leisure, Varadero's history provides a lens to examine the changing goals of the Cuban government, Cuba's relationship with the United States, and the island's position in the world. Cubans have continuously reconfigured the beach, dramatizing the island's transition from U.S. control, to a socialist society, and now to a hybrid of capitalism and socialism. Initially an exclusive enclave for wealthy Cubans, U.S. tourists came to know Varadero as their own white-sand playground, essentially an extension of the United States. After the revolution, Varadero became a key site where the Castro government could demonstrate a reversal of U.S. hegemony on the island and symbolically utilized the beach for the rebuilding of Cuban society around the central tenets of Cuban nationalism and socialism. The collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cuba into a severe financial crisis. In order to dramatically increase the necessary flow of hard currency to the island, the Cuban government remade Varadero into one of the largest resorts in the Caribbean. Cubans once again transformed Varadero's importance from a site of revolutionary celebration into an economic lifejacket for the embattled nation.