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Past and present land reform in Cuba (1959–2020): from peasant collectivisation to re-peasantisation and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2021

Elisa Botella-Rodríguez*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Economic History and Instituto de Iberoamérica, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Ángel Luis González-Esteban
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Economic History, UNED, Madrid, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ebotella@usal.es

Abstract

Cuba is a paradigmatic case where the term and concept of the peasantry remains of lived importance. Cuban peasants had a significant role in the past as they did return to the political agenda after the Revolution with particular emphasis under Raul Castro’s administration. However, the Cuban case has not been significantly explored from a long-term perspective that connects the old debates and dimensions of land reforms under developmentalist states to the new agrarian questions in the global era. Based on secondary sources, semi-structured interviews and updated data on land structures, this article explores the long-term process of land reform in Cuba.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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