Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

NEW RULES TO THE OLD GAME: CUBAN SPORT AND STATE LEGITIMACY IN THE POST-SOVIET ERA

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10702890801904610

1547-3384

Thomas F. Carter,

Sport and Mega-Event Impacts

Abstract After the collapse of the socialist states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the Cuban state faced its greatest crisis. How the state managed to maintain sufficient legitimacy in light of the growing economic hardships and class restructuring Cuban society underwent in these initial post-Soviet years remains somewhat mysterious. A crucial element of the legitimating discourse of the Cuban state, domestically and internationally, has been the relative success of its sports teams in international competition. As symbols of the strength of the state and one of the few remaining “successes” of the Revolution, Cuban sports performances remain vital symbolic capital for current and future administrations. The problem that state officials continue to face is how to transform that symbolic capital into economic capital without sacrificing ideological principles. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Havana during the late 1990s and on interviews with sports officials, athletes, and coaches since then, this article examines Cuban officials' efforts to transform Cuban sport from a modern, centralized bureaucratic institution to a revenue generating industry within the neoliberal, capitalist, competitive, and post-Soviet world. In particular, I concentrate on the strategies pursued by Cuban sports officials in their efforts to maintain world-class sporting excellence and the ramifications of the emergence of Cuban sport as an export industry to provide a small suggestion of how legitimacy of the state was maintained and what the future of Cuban sport may hold. Key Words: state legitimacysportsymbolic capitalCuba Support for this article was provided by the British Academy, which permitted the most recent fieldwork in Cuba. Early versions were much improved by critical comments from Susan Brownell, Tracey Heatherington, Martin Bruhns, Eriberto Lozada, and Hastings Donnan. I also thank the two excellent anonymous reviewers who provided suggestions for improvement and additional resources. As always, any errors are mine and mine alone. Notes 1. There is a specific temporal and spatial geography distinct to each revolution, whether or not it is socialist (Knight 1994 Knight, Alan. 1994. “Weapons and Arches in the Mexican Revolutionary Landscape”. In Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico, Edited by: Joseph, Gilbert M. and Nugent, David. 24–66. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [Google Scholar]: 41). For the purposes of this article, my comments are restricted to socialist revolutions. 2. For an example of a non-socialist state deploying sport in a top-down approach see Silverstein's discussion of how the French state used sport to attempt to control discontented ethnic minority groups in France (2004 Silverstein, Paul A. 2004. Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]: 121–150). 3. All translations are my own. 4. The National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation. 5. For recent discussions of how each of the mentioned industries (other than sport) are structured in this manner, see the following: For tourism, consult García Jiménez 2005 García Jiménez, Alfredo. 2005. Turismo y desarrollo económico: Un acercamiento al caso cubano. Temas, 43: 43–55. [Google Scholar] and Colantonio and Potter 2006; for agriculture, see Roman 2004 Roman, Peter. 2004. “Anatomy of the Bill on Agricultural Cooperatives”. In Cuba Today: Continuity and Change since the ‘Periodo Especial’, Edited by: Font, Mauricio, Larson, Scott and Xuereb, Danielle. 187–208. New York: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, CUNY. [Google Scholar] and Bas 2006 Bas, Japji Anna. 2006. “Reorientation in Agriculture”. In Cuba in Transition? Pathways to Renewal, Long-Term Development and Global Reintegration, Edited by: Mauricio, Font and Scott, Larson. 51–70. New York: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, CUNY. [Google Scholar]; for music and art, read Thomas 2005 Thomas, Susan. 2005. “Cosmopolitan, International, Transnational: Locating Cuban Music”. In Cuba Transnational, Edited by: Fernández, Damián J. 104–120. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. [Google Scholar], Remba 2006 Remba, Natania. 2006. “Art in a Changing Cuba”. In Cuba in Transition? Pathways to Renewal, Long-Term Development and Global Reintegration, Edited by: Font, Mauricio and Larson, Scott. 285–292. New York: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, CUNY. [Google Scholar], and especially Fernandes 2006 Fernandes, Sujatha. 2006. Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; for the biotech industry, see Majoli Viani 2005 Majoli Viani, Marina. 2005. “Science and Biotechnology in Cuban Development”. In Cuba in the 21st Century: Realities and Perspectives, Edited by: Lara, José Bell and Dello Buono, Richard A. 167–184. La Habana, , Cuba: Editorial José Martí. [Google Scholar]. 6. Because Martínez was a public figure who made similar public statements reported in the Cuban press, I use his actual name and title at that time. Similarly, the Olympic medallists mentioned earlier are internationally recognized public figures, so their real names are used in this article as well. Any other Cuban mentioned in this article has been given a pseudonym. 7. The rate of athlete defection has gradually increased in scope and frequency over the past decade. Initially, such defections were limited to a few veteran baseball players seeking riches at the end of their careers or youngsters simply seeking a career as a baseball player. The practice has since spread to boxers, basketball, volleyball, and soccer players as well as judo practitioners. 8. The Cubans did participate in the Pan American Games held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the following year. Sponsorship deals had been finalized by then. 9. Cuba hosted the Olympic baseball qualification tournament in 2006 for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which did allow Cubans to gain first-hand experience of seeing the Cuban national team in sponsored uniforms. 10. Cuba was eliminated in a CONACAF quarter-final. The three CONACAF representatives in Germany were the United States, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago. 11. While the exchange rate between the two currencies is roughly 20 pesos to 1 CUC, the choice is not based solely on equivalent currency values. In the short term it makes more sense to choose CUC. But there is an inherent risk in choosing CUC because it is a fictional currency of the state that has no value outside of Cuba. The CUC could easily be eliminated, which would also eliminate exchanges, including payments by the state, based on it. Unless contracted by a foreign employer, a Cuban is paid in moneda nacional. Imported goods and tourist services are priced in CUC. Foreigners are expected to pay CUC prices for services that Cubans also obtain, but Cubans usually pay in moneda nacional. For example, entrance to the Museo de la Revolución is 5.00 CUC for tourists but 2.00 pesos for Cuban citizens. However, this is not the case when dealing with imported consumer goods, such as designer clothing, electronic appliances, or mobile phones. 12. For example, boxers who medal in the World Amateur Boxing Championships or sprinters who medal in the World Athletics Championships would earn this stipend. Although there is a World Baseball Cup, there is no World Championship that is equivalent to, say, the FIFA World Cup or other globally popular international tournament. The World Baseball Classic was played in 2006 in the United States and was organized and funded by Major League Baseball.