Lo informal: Habaneros In Between System and Struggle - Navigating Cuba´s Economy as a Möbius Strip

Abstract

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has faced persistent economic stagnation. Driven by the sudden loss of subsidies from the Eastern Bloc and a tightening embargo imposed by the United States, the largest island in the Caribbean archipelago has found itself in a position where state structures alone are no longer sufficient to meet the population’s basic needs. In recent years, these structural weaknesses have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent decline of global tourism, resulting in record-high inflation, new waves of mass migration, and worsening shortages in nearly every aspect of daily life. Within this context, I had the opportunity to participate in and observe, over the course of two separate fieldwork periods (2022–2023), how Cubans from diverse social and professional backgrounds navigate scarcity at a time when economic uncertainty and political tension are on the rise. The study is grounded in a theoretical framework that conceptualizes Cuba’s economy as a Möbius strip—a continuous interplay between formal and informal sectors, not as distinct entities, but as interwoven and mutually dependent systems, where the boundaries between legality and illegality are often blurred. On this basis, the thesis seeks to answer questions such as: How do Cubans use informal economic practices to meet their daily needs? What role do social networks play in the distribution of resources? And how does the recent access to digital technologies shape the ways in which people adapt? Drawing on ethnographic accounts of everyday life in Havana, the findings shed light on Cuba as a post-socialist society, where daily struggles and personal needs often conflict with official ideology, prompting a societal dependence on flexibility, improvisation, and social networks as vital coping strategies for getting by within a rigidly controlled economic landscape.