Cuba DBQ Sources
As you read each source, keep in mind the rubric expectations for DBQs. In particular, you should be
annotating each source for content, author’s point of view, and historical context. This way, when you
cite each source in the essay, you will be prepared to write a second sentence explaining the
sourcing information (the most commonly missed point on the rubric).
After reviewing all the sources, you may want to jot down some ideas about how the sources all fit
together to help you prepare for the essay. For example, are all the sources economic, social, or
political in nature? Are there other trends that help you see how the sources all fit together?
DBQ Rubric
____ - Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of
reasoning.
____ - Describes a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
____ - Uses the content of at least three documents to address the topic of the prompt ____ -
Supports an argument in response to the prompt using at least six documents. ____ - Uses at least
one additional piece of the specific historical evidence (beyond that found in the documents)
relevant to an argument about the prompt.
____ - For at least three documents, explains how or why the document’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.
____ - Demonstrates a complex understanding of the historical development that is the focus of the
prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the
question.
7/7 = 100 6/7 = 90 5/7 = 85 4/7 = 80 3/7 = 70 2/7 = 60 1/7 = 50
TRB
History, Revolution, and Reform:
New Directions for Cuba
56 Synthesis:
Cuban Government
Name:______________________________________________
2. from The Havana Declaration, September 2, 1960
The National General Assembly of the People of Cuba [parliament] expresses its conviction that
democracy cannot coexist only in an electoral vote, which is almost always fictitious and handled by
big landholders and professional politicians, but in the rights of citizens to decide, as this Assembly
of the People is now doing, their own destiny. Moreover, democracy will only exist in Latin America
when its people are really free to choose, when the humble people are not reduced—by hunger,
social inequality, illiteracy, and the judicial systems—to the most degrad ing impotence….
3. from the Cuban Constitution of 1992
ARTICLE 9. The state:...
b) as the power of the people and for the people, guarantees
- that every man or woman, who is able to work, have the opportunity to have a job with
which to contribute to the good of society and to the satisfaction of individual needs;
- that no disabled person be left without adequate means of subsistence;
- that no sick person be left without medical care;
- that no child be left without schooling, food and clothing;
- that no young person be left without the opportunity to study;
- that no one be left without access to studies, culture and sports;
c) works to achieve that no family be left without a comfortable place to live....
ARTICLE 53. Citizens have freedom of speech and of the press in keeping with the objec
tives of socialist society. Material conditions for the exercise of that right are provided by the fact
that the press, radio, television, cinema, and other mass media are state or social property and
can never be private property. This assures their use at exclusive service of the working people
and in the interests of society....
ARTICLE 62. None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised
contrary to what is established in the Constitution and by law, or contrary to the existence and
objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build social ism
and communism. Violations of this principle can be punished by law....
ARTICLE 132. All Cubans over 16 years of age, men and women alike, have the right to vote
except those who:
a) are mentally disabled and have been declared so by court;
b) have committed a crime and because of this have lost the right to vote.
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History, Revolution, and Reform: TRB
5
7
New Directions for Cuba
Name:__________________________________________ of state, 2004
____ 4. Colin Powell, former U.S. secretary
Synthesis: Cuban Government
As fate would have it, I was in Lima, Peru joining our hemispheric neighbors in the adop tion of
the Inter-American Democratic Charter when the terrorists struck the United States on September
11, 2001. By adopting the Democratic Charter, the countries of our hemisphere made a powerful
statement in support of freedom, humanity and peace.
Conspicuous for its absence on that historic occasion was Cuba. Cuba alone among the
hemispheric nations did not adopt the Democratic Charter. That is not surprising, for Cuba alone
among the nations of Americas is a dictatorship. For over four decades, the regime of Fidel Cas tro
has imposed upon the Cuban people a communist system of government that systematically
violates their most fundamental human rights.
5. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign, undated
IS CASTRO A DICTATOR?
Any one of the deputies to Cuba’s parliament, including Fidel Castro, are subject to recall at
any time and must by law report back to mass meeting in their constituency once every six
months.
If Castro is such a dictator, why did he receive such overwhelming support in the elections?
Why is it also that his position as the country’s President is decided by parliament and that
members of his government are also voted in by parliament?
6. D.L. Raby, Latin American scholar, 2006
[Those in the] media or in academia [assume] that democracy is summed up in free elec tions,
freedom of speech and organization and political pluralism, but [say] nothing about social and
economic rights or the distribution of power and wealth….
7. Rafael Hernández, Cuban scholar, 2008
In relative terms, Cuba is further ahead in its democratic civic culture than any other society I’ve
known. Democratic civic culture in Cuba is expressed when people say what they think and stand
up for their rights and needs, despite the existence of an administrative structure of con trol (which is
not that of a police state)…. Recently, I went to José Martí Airport to say goodbye to a Caribbean
researcher, who saw me argue with a policeman about a parking regulation. My colleague was so
concerned that he called me at home a few hours later, convinced that some thing had happened to
me. “Here in my country you might spend a night in jail for what you said to the policeman,” he said.
Many Cubans believe that the day that the government had to use the police or army to massively
repress its citizens, there would be no socialism to defend.
8. Rafael Hernández, Cuban scholar, 2008
Political system institutions do not work as well as they should [in Cuba]. For example, ac
cording to the powers given it by law, the National Assembly in the discussion and treatment of
national problems is not critical in terms of the State’s decisionmaking.
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History, Revolution, and Reform:
New Directions for Cuba
58 Synthesis:
Cuban Government
Name:______________________________________________
9. Cubans Tout Street Democracy, Associated Press, October 2007
HAVANA—This is democracy, Cuban style: salsa music and a show of hands on a street
corner in Old Havana.
The beat pours from curbside speakers, signaling to about 150 neighbors to gather and
choose candidates for the capital’s municipal assembly....
Cuba’s communist system rests in part on these block-by-block gatherings, convened every 2
1⁄2 years, where anyone 16 and over can nominate and elect neighbors to local government
posts.
These “nomination assemblies” are organized by election officials and the Revolutionary
Defense Committees, which keep tabs on residents and are located on nearly every block across
the nation of 11.2 million. Nominated candidates vie for seats on municipal assemblies, which help
choose candidates for Cuba’s National Assembly. That national legislature in turn approves
appointments to the island’s supreme governing body, the Council of State….
The United States says Cuba’s system is anti-democratic because it doesn’t allow direct mul
tiparty elections for president. Cuba retorts that in America, the candidates who raise the most
money usually win. It also maintains that the United States doesn’t have direct presidential elec
tions either, pointing to the electoral college that gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush, even
though Al Gore got more votes.
And while the Communist Party runs the government, a third of the 37,328 candidates cho sen
at nominating assemblies to run for municipal posts won’t be party members, but men and women
chosen because their neighbors like them.
Critics note, however, that when municipal assembly seats are determined in a secret ballot
election on Oct. 28, the only winners of the more than 15,000 posts will be Communist Party
members.
Moreover, the initial nominating that ran until September 26 was by a show of hands, not a
secret ballot, which effectively bars dissidents from running, say critics such as Alejandro Tru of the
tiny, opposition Liberal Party of Cuba.
If anyone raised a hand for a dissident candidate, “there are 1,000 subtle and not subtle
ways” to intimidate them into withdrawing their nomination, he said….
On O’Reilly Street, families spill out of crowded apartments for the vote. Struggling to be
heard over the music, a veteran organizer shouts to the crowd that the assembly will soon be
gin....
“We all know him as a good neighbor who completes his work,” one woman says in support of
the first nominee, party member Buenaventura Fernandez....
The final vote isn’t close. Fernandez’s name is called first. Without a word, 63 hands go up.
The other three get just 39 votes between them.
Everyone applauds. “Viva Fidel! Viva Raúl!” they cry, before drifting home. The whole pro cess
has taken 27 minutes.
Fernandez is middle-aged and a first-time nominee, but “he was already known by people,”
says Jorge Guerrero, a 59-year-old port mechanic and voter, explaining the landslide victory.
Asked if he hopes one day to vote like this for Cuba’s president, Rene Grana, a 77-year-old
retiree, replies that Fernandez could win an assembly seat and work his way up from there.
“Maybe we just elected the president of the republic,” he says.
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History, Revolution, and Reform: TRB
59
New Directions for Cuba
Name:__________________________________________
____ Synthesis: Cuban Government
10. Cuba Signs Two Treaties on Rights, The New York Times, March 2008 HAVANA
— Just days after Raúl Castro took office as president of Cuba, its Communist govern ment signed two
important international human rights treaties that Fidel Castro had long opposed....
One of the pacts, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, guarantees “civil and political
freedom,” including the right to self-determination, peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, privacy,
freedom to leave a country, and equal protection before the law.
...The other pact signed Thursday, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
requires countries to ensure the right to work, fair wages, freedom to form and join trade unions, social
security, education and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
11. Freedom House report on Cuba, 2015
Cuban government representatives signed two UN human rights treaties in 2008, but neither has
been ratified or implemented.
12. Castro vs. the Ladies in White, Wall Street Journal, August 2011 In the past two
months attacks on peaceful women dissidents, organized by the state security apparatus, have
escalated. Most notable is the intensity with which the regime is moving to try to crush the core group
known as the Ladies in White....
The Ladies in White first came on the scene in the aftermath of the infamous March 2003 crackdown
in which seventy-five independent journalists and librarians, writers and democracy advocates were
rounded up and handed prison sentences of six to twenty-eight years. The wives, mothers and
sisters of some of them began a simple act of protest. On Sundays they would gather
at the Havana Cathedral for Mass and afterward they would march carrying gladiolas [flowers] in a
silent call for the prisoners’ release.
...Cellphones that caught the regime’s brutality against them on video helped get their story out. By
2010 they had so embarrassed the dictatorship internationally that a deal was struck to deport their
imprisoned loved ones along with their family to Spain.... But some prisoners refused the deal and
some of the ladies stayed in Cuba.
13. World Report 2014, Human Rights Watch
[T]he Cuban government continues to repress individuals and groups who criticize the govern ment
or call for basic human rights. Officials employ a range of tactics to punish dissent and instill fear in the
public, including beatings, public acts of shaming, termination of employment, and threats of long-term
imprisonment. Short-term arbitrary arrests…are often used preemptively to pre vent individuals from
participating in events viewed as critical of the government, such as peaceful marches or meetings to
discuss politics….
Cubans who criticize the government may face criminal prosecution. They do not benefit from
due process guarantees, such as the right to fair and public hearings by a competent and impartial
tribunal. In practice, courts are “subordinated” to the executive and legislative branches, denying
meaningful judicial independence....
The government controls all media outlets in Cuba and tightly restricts access to outside infor
mation, severely limiting the right to freedom of expression.
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History, Revolution, and Reform:
New Directions for Cuba
60 Synthesis:
Cuban Government
Name:______________________________________________
14. Voting is a tribute to our history, Granma, April 19, 2015
“Today we ratify and defend the socialism we are constructing,” said Mercedes López Acea,
first secretary of the Communist Party in Havana....
She emphasized that voting for delegates to Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power safe
guards the rights of Cubans and validates the country’s participative democracy.
“Among those nominated are young people, women, workers in a variety of occupations –
the most authentic of our people. This is an opportunity for all of us together to make the
homeland stronger, on the basis of what all Cuban men and women want,” she added....
“We are responsible for constructing, day by day, a better society for the people. With these
kinds of elections, we demonstrate the true value of the Revolution, since it was won and is be ing
constructed by the people themselves...,” she insisted.
15. Elections in Cuba: Fine, as long as we win, The Economist, April 25, 2015
The most interesting thing about Cuba’s municipal elections on April 19th was not who won. It
was who lost, and who did not even turn up....
[F]or the first time two openly declared dissidents made it onto the ballot among more than
27,000 candidates competing for 12,589 municipal posts around the country. Predictably, they were
defeated. But their participation was an unusually open act of defiance, not just by the two men but
also by the ordinary citizens who proposed them in a show of hands before the elec tions.
What is more, the turnout on voting day fell by almost six percentage points compared with the
previous poll in 2012, to about 88%. Some claimed rising absenteeism was a crack in mono lithic
support for the Communist Party.
The opposition candidates...were labelled as “counter-revolutionaries” in official publicity. On
his party’s website, Mr López claims that voters were pressured not to vote for him. Yet both
candidates quickly conceded defeat. “The vote was clean. The people don’t want change. They still
want revolution,” Mr Chaviano said....
[T]he Castro government may also feel that elections can be a useful outlet—so long as the
ruling party continues to win.
16. Critical Analysis regarding Sunday’s Cuban Elections, Havana
Times, April 19, 2015
[In] the magazine “Temas” [Topics]...Daniel Rafuls Pineda...describes a series of issues that in
his opinion impede citizen participation in the process of public decision-making. For those who
are unable to access the magazine, let me summarize the ones I consider most critical:...
• The Cuban electoral system claims to be based on the popular and direct election of people
chosen in the different neighborhoods, communities and residential zones. None theless, at
the national and provincial levels the assembly incorporates delegates who were not
directly chosen by the people; these compose over 50% of the members. [In this way if a
movement driven by popular inspiration should ever occur, it could never reach a majority
of the National Assembly because the Party controls the gate to that, with over 50% of its
members.]
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