Havana beyond the Ruins: Cultural Mappings after 1989

4. The ‘‘Slums’’ of Havana

................ 4 ................ The ‘‘Slums’’ of Havana jill hamberg Foreign visitors to Havana—while charmed by its stunning architecture, friendly residents, vintage cars, and tropical pleasures—can hardly escape a sense of dilapidation and seeming impoverishment. Steps from Old Havana’s elegantly restored colonial edifices, they may easily stumble upon shored up buildings and crumbling facades. On the way from tourist hot spots on La Rampa to Old Havana, they may catch a glimpse of decaying structures. For long-time Havana residents, the severe economic crisis starting in the early 1990s—known as the Special Period—was not only socially, economically , and psychologically wrenching, but they also experienced a disorienting loss when the long-term, slow deterioration of the city’s older districts accelerated into frequent building collapses, including structures on such iconic settings as Old Havana’s Plaza Vieja (Old Square), the Malecón seawall drive, and the San Rafael pedestrian mall in the heart of downtown Havana. But has Havana really become a city of slums, little di√erent from those of other developing nations? To be sure there are slums in Havana. However, the meaning and context of this term is quite di√erent in Cuba than elsewhere. Indeed, the term slum does not have a universal meaning. Since its inception in early-nineteenth-century Britain, the word slum generally signified not only overcrowding, poor housing conditions, and lack of basic services but also disease, poverty, vice, squalor, and immorality. Governments in developed and developing nations often designated neighborhoods as blighted 74 jill hamberg slums to justify clearance of richly textured and socially thriving urban communities . But the use of social and behavioral characteristics to define slums has been highly criticized. In an attempt to develop an operational definition for future international use, in 2002 a United Nations expert group proposed defining a slum as an area that combines, to various extents, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding, insecure residential status, and inadequate access to safe water, sanitation, and other infrastructure. Social and behavioral characteristics were excluded. Based on the thresholds for each indicator, unHabitat (2003, 14) estimates that nearly a third of the world’s urban population lives in slums, with the highest proportion in sub-Saharan Africa (72 percent) and the lowest in developed regions (6 percent). Latin America and the Caribbean have near the world average (32 percent).∞ This chapter explores several aspects of Havana’s slums. What types of slums exist in the city, and how do their characteristics compare with the United Nations’ indicators? Who lives in Havana’s slums, and do they conform to the stereotype of slum dwellers? Which policies have accelerated, halted, or rolled back the deterioration of Havana’s housing? First, in order to provide context for answers to the above questions, there will be a brief introduction to Cuban housing, urban planning, and economic development policies influencing slums up to 1990. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the characteristics of Havana’s slums and their residents . Finally, housing policies starting in the early 1990s will be analyzed. This discussion will show that, despite their highly visible concentration in certain areas, Havana’s slums only partially fit the definition and stereotypes of slums in other developing nations. Moreover, they are somewhat less prevalent than in other Latin American large cities. Policies A√ecting Slums before 1990 The policies pursued since the Cuban Revolution of 1959 prevented the explosion of shantytowns found in other Latin American cities but also resulted in widespread deterioration of Havana’s housing stock. The basic urban and regional policies enunciated in the early 1960s were largely followed for the next thirty years (inv 2001b; pnc 1996). These policies were designed to promote balanced regional growth by directing resources to areas other than Havana; diminish urban and rural di√erences by improving living conditions in the countryside and concentrating the rural population in small settlements ; foster the development of a network of settlements; and assure rational land use through comprehensive urban planning. The government hoped to the ‘‘slums’’ of havana 75 accomplish these goals by coordinating economic and social development with physical planning. At least until the early 1990s, these policies were largely successful, although with contradictions and problems in achieving rational urban land use and stabilizing the rural labor force. Despite fleeting antiurban rhetoric in the late 1960s, Cuba sought to increase the proportion of...