The Cuban Revolution was a watershed moment in Cuban racial history. Despite the huge changes it made to the racial landscape, however, many critical aspects of racial ideology remained the same after the revolution. The regime of Fidel Castro forged a racial ideology that was based upon pre-existing Cuban attitudes toward race, the practical circumstances of the moment, and a new vision for Cuba, combining old attitudes with a new state ideology: Marxism. But unequal pre-revolutionary access to education and economic resources, pre-existing racial ideology, inequality in housing and labor markets, and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, unequal access to dollars all established the conditions for ongoing racial inequality. The war in Angola, which was caused by the geopolitical position of Cuba and the symbolic importance of military involvement in Africa, represented an opening of opportunities for blacks, and the subsequent Cuban economic collapse represented a significant retreat that will be explored in the latter chapters of the book in greater depth. Since the revolution, then, there has been a series of openings and consolidations that follow the race cycles theory, and alterations in race relations have reinforced a situation of inclusionary discrimination on the island.

This chapter examines the Cuban Revolution and its transformation of Cuban racial politics. It argues that the consolidation of the revolution, while institutionalizing important racial reforms, attempted to make racial problems invisible.