One last comment on Copellia.

Copellia has become such an icon in Havana that I couldn’t resist using it for one of the scenes in my new novel Crosshairs on Castro that’s coming out in a few weeks. Then I got nagged by a suspicion that Copellia might not have existed in 1962 which is when the novel is set. Sure enough, when I looked into it, Copellia didn’t open until 1966. That’s one of the perils of writing historical fiction.

I kept the scene, but shifted it from Copellia to even better  Havana establishment, the restaurant El Floridita.  

Last week, I noted that the popular ice cream store Coppelia illustrates a problem posed by  Cuba’s dual currency system. 

Coppelia illustrates another problem as well. It offers fewer flavors than it used to offer. And, as the photo shows, the lines can be long, especially for people buying with nonconvertible pesos. The line looks jagged, because Coppelia has a different way of doing this than we have in the U.S. When you show up, you shout “Ultima!” or “Last!” The last person in line raises his or her hand, letting you know who you follow. While you are waiting for that person to reach the window, you can wander around, go to the restroom, or just sit around waiting. But you don’t have to stand in line. When the other guy shows up at the window, you just fall in behind him.

Given the opening of relations with Cuba, it is likely that foreign ice cream chains will want into the Cuban market. How will Coppelia survive if it has to compete with well-run companies like Ben and Jerry or Dairy Queen? Customers at a well-run Ben and Jerry Ice Cream Shop probably won't put up with the long lines at Coppelia.

This problem will expand beyond Copelia. As Cuba engages more fully with the world, the government will lose its ability to protect its state-run industries from competition, Huge swaths of the economy will come under pressure.

I would never want to be governed by Fidel Castro. But he should get credit where credit is due.  

Measure                       Cuba today     U.S.                 Latin America countries

with a better reading

Life Expectancy          77.7                 78.4                 Costa Rica                  

Infant Mortality          4.6                   5.8                   None

Adult Literacy            96.6%             92.6%              Costa Rica; Mexico

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Sources:  UNESCO for Literacy; World Fact Book for the others. These results can differ by the organization compiling the data. But the differences are small. In general, by these measures, Cuba compares favorably with the U.S. and much better than the bulk of Latin America.

Feel free to comment. Just click the comment box and type your entry. Then click publish.

Did my Great Decisions Cuba-U.S. Presentation at St. Paul's Central H.S. this week. Had a small, but enthusiastic audience.

Coppelia is Havana’s popular ice cream parlor. It was started by in 1966, and served 26 flavors of ice cream in honor of Fidel’s 26^th of July Revolutionary Movement.

Today, there are fewer flavors, and Coppelia illustrates two dilemmas facing Cuba. The first is what to do with its confusing dual currency system. Most shops in Cuba accept only the national currency, but so-called “dollar stores” accept the convertible peso that was created in the 1990s and pegged to the dollar. This was done in part to stimulate a tourist industry that would make up for the economic chaos that struck after the USSR collapsed and could no longer subsidize Cuba. The exchange ratio is about 25 national pesos for one convertible peso.

Coppelia accepts both the national peso and the convertible peso. But paying in convertible pesos gets you more flavors and shorter lines than paying in the national peso.

The currency discrepancies at Coppelia could be eliminated by scrapping the dual currency system and moving to a single currency. But the Economist magazine pointed out a dilemma in doing that. If the national peso were replaced by the convertible peso, the likely result would be rampant inflation. On the other hand, if the convertible peso were replaced by the national peso, it would devalue the savings of people who had built up a nest egg in convertible pesos. Either way, Cubans suffer.

I wanted to set a scene for my CROSSHAIRS ON CASTRO at Coppelia. But, alas, my novel is set in 1962 and Coppelia wasn’t built until four years later.

Feel free to leave a comment. 

On Tuesday, I do my Great Decisions Cuba-U.S. presentation at Central H.S. in St. Paul. I haven't talked to a high school audience in years.  Decades, in fact.
Wish me luck!
Here's a link to the Great Decisions program, if you're curious.
http://www.fpa.org/news/index.cfm?act=show_announcement&announcement_id=393

A New Wave of Migrants from Cuba?
Since 1966, any Cuban landing on U.S. shores gets immediate entry. There is a fear that this arrangement may soon disappear as a result of President Obama's opening relations with Cuba. As a consequence thousands of Cubans have fled to Ecuador and Central America in hopes of gaining transit from there to the U.S. In December, none other than Pope Francis called for an alleviation of the stranding of thousands in Central America.