Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

by DAVID GREENE and JASMINE GARSD

June 24, 2014 3:39 AM ET



When Americans think of business in Cuba, they think of government-owned

enterprise. And the vast majority of Cubans do work for the state.



But in recent years, private business owners known as cuentapropistas

have flourished on the island.



Cuentapropismo literally means "on your own account." As far back as the

1970s, Fidel Castro was talking about how socialism and small business

ownership could coexist. Today, they do so more than ever: Between 2010

and 2013, the Cuban government expanded the list of privately owned

business ventures that are legal on the island, such as construction

work, restaurants and tailoring.



David Gilkey/NPR



About 1 million people — or 20 percent of the Cuban workforce — can now

be classified as wholly in the private sector, according to a report by

Richard Feinberg of the Brookings Institution.



Barbara Fernandez Franco remembers being excited when that list of

government-permitted businesses first came out. She combed through the

200-odd jobs, and thought carefully about which she could do. She

decided on the "tailor and seamstress" category.



We met 28-year-old Barbara in one of the aging but gorgeous buildings

that line the narrow colonial streets of central Havana, Cuba's capital.

Sitting in the stairway, she tells us it's been a difficult road full of

stumbles.



She started off reselling clothing a friend made, but the profit margins

were very small. Then, she began buying clothing from abroad, from

countries like Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, which she

then resold.



At first the project was as rocky as any start-up business. But a few

months down the line, she says, the profits where outstanding. Barbara

was able to save a good amount of money — which today is helping her

purchase a new home with her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova.



But that boom in business soon came to an end when the government

announced that importing clothing for resale on the island would be

illegal as of Dec. 31, 2013.



After Franco learned to sew, she started producing baby clothes and

mosquito nets for cribs.



Barbara was devastated by the news, she says, but while other businesses

shut down, she chose to carry on as best she could: She learned how to

sew and created her own line of baby clothing and mosquito netting for

cribs.



At a small restaurant in the port city of Mariel, owner Onil Lemus told

us everyone he knows is absolutely thrilled about the widening scope of

legal business ventures. In fact he jokes that he liked it better when

there where fewer cuentapropistas — because he had less competition.



Even though business is good for Onil, he echoed what several other

small enterprise owners said to us: One of the biggest challenges has

been the lack of raw materials. In Mariel for example, Onil said,

there's no access to wholesale food markets, which are so important to

the restaurant industry.



Pointing to the delicious lamb stew he'd prepared for us, he explained

that he'd had to go to a farm to buy the meat, but foods like rice and

beans — staples in Cuban cuisine — are hard to buy in large quantities

at good prices.



Similarly, Barbara said certain fabrics and ornaments are so expensive,

it would be impossible for her to make a profit if she were to use them.



The widespread sentiment here is that the U.S. embargo — which has been

in place for more than 50 years and is known as el bloqueo, or "the

blockade," on the island — is largely responsible for these kinds of

difficulties.



Since taking over for his brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro has been

pushing to modernize the economy. Onil said he's confident that as the

number of private business owners grows, the government will address

these issues.



Barbara's boyfriend Michel, on the other hand, seemed more disheartened.



"Some tourists say that this country's growing up now and it's going to

get better and better," he said. "But you know the system here is so

slow. Step by step. Very, very, very slow."



Source: Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

: Parallels : NPR -

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/06/24/324862512/cubas-budding-entrepreneurs-travel-a-rocky-road-toward-success