Although the matrifocal basis of the Cuban family, especially the close relationship between a woman, her children, and her female kin group, has historical roots in slavery, it is sustained by contemporary postrevolutionary structural forces, as seen by the dramatic increase in female-headed households in this period. In particular, matrifocality is linked to (1) the increase in women's labor force participation, which gave women more economic autonomy; (2) household structure, including the prevalence of consensual unions and of the extended family, that provides women with an alternative source of support; and (3) the leveling of prerevolutionary class and racial hierarchies, which eroded the prior status value of legal marriage. The increasing inequality arising in the Special Period poses dangers to this leveling and to Cuban women's autonomy, particularly among the competitive emerging sector of white-collar workers in tourism and other new enterprises.
Benítez Pérez, María Elena1999Panorama sociodemográfico de la familia cubana. Havana : Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.
2.
Blue, Sarah2004 "State policy, economic crisis, gender, and family ties: determinants of family remittances to Cuba." Economic Geography80 (1): 63-83.
3.
2007 "The erosion of racial equality in the context of Cuba's dual economy." Latin American Politics and Society49 (3): 35-68.
4.
Catasús, Sonia1996 "The sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics of Cuban women." Latin American Perspectives23 (1): 87-98.
5.
1999 "Género, patrones reproductivos y jefatura de núcleo familiar por color de la piel en Cuba" Paper presented at the Red de Estudios de Poblacón ALFAPOP, Center of Demographic Studies, Bellaterra, Spain. http://www.ced.uab.es.PDFs/PapersPDF/Text.151.pdf.
6.
CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe)2006Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe: Estadísticas sociales. Santiago de Chile: División de Estadísticas y Proyecciones Económicas, CEPAL.
7.
2007Panorama social de América Latina 2006. Santiago de Chile: CEPAL/UNFPA.
8.
de la Fuente, Alejandro1995 "Race and inequality in Cuba, 1899-1981." Journal of Contemporary History30: 131-167.
9.
1998"Recreating racism: race and discrimination in Cuba's `Special Period.'" Georgetown University Cuba Briefing Paper Series 18. Washington, DC: The Caribbean Project, Center for Latin American Studies.
10.
Echevarría León, Dayma2004 "Mujer, empleo y dirección en Cuba: algo más que estádisticas ," pp. 71-79 in Crisis, cam-bio económico y subjectividad de las cubanas. Havana: Editorial Felix Varela.
11.
Eckstein, Susan2004 "Transnational networks and norms, remittances, and the transformation of Cuba," pp. 319-352 in Jorge Domínguez , Omar Everleny Pérez V, and Lorena Barbería (eds.), The Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
12.
Espina Prieto, Mayra Paula2004 "Social effects of economic adjustment: equality, inequality, and trends toward greater complexity in Cuban society," pp. 209-244 in Jorge Domínguez, Omar Everleny Pérez V , and Lorena Barbería (eds.), The Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
13.
Gonzalez de la Rocha, M.1994The Resources of Poverty: Women and Survival in a Mexican City. Cambridge: Blackwell.
14.
Martínez-Alier, Verena1974Marriage, Class, and Colour in Nineteenth Century Cuba . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Nuñez Sarmiento, Marta n.d. "A top-bottom, bottom-top model: four decades of women's employment and gender ideology in Cuba," in N. Lebon and E. Maier (eds.), From Private to Public: 30 Years of Women's Citizen Action in Latin America . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Forthcoming.
16.
Rodríguez Ruiz, Pablo2006 "La inter- y la intraracialidad en las estructuras familiares ," pp. 87-129 in Kalid Argyriadis (ed.), Las relaciones raciales en Cuba: Aportes empíricos y nuevas interpretaciones. Documento IDYMOV 10. Xalapa: CIESAS-Golfo.
17.
2008 "Espacios y contextos del debate racial actual en Cuba " Temas, no. 53, 86-96.
18.
Rodríguez Ruiz, Pablo and Claudio Estévez Mezquía2006 "Familia, uniones matrimoniales y sexualidad en la pobreza y la marginalidad: el `llega y pon,' un estudio de caso" Catauro8 (14): 5-31.
19.
Sacchetti, Elena2007 "Vivir en la cuerda floja: Transformaciones en las culturas del trabajo entre microempresarios cubanos" Ph.D. diss., University of Seville.
20.
Safa, Helen I.1995The Myth of the Male Breadwinner: Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean . Boulder: Westview Press.
21.
2002 "Questioning globalization: gender and export processing in the Dominican Republic." Journal of Developing Societies18 (2-3): 11-31.
22.
2005 "The matrifocal family and patriarchal ideology in Cuba and the Caribbean." Journal of Latin American Anthropology10 (2): 314-338.
23.
Telles, Edward E.2004Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
24.
Togores González, Viviana2003"Ingresos monetarios de la población, cambios en la distribución y efectos sobre el nivel de vida," in 15 años. Havana: Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana/Editorial Félix Varela.
25.
Toro-Morn, Maura, Anne Roschelle, and Elisa Facio2002 "Gender, work, and family in Cuba: the challenges of the Special Period" Journal of Developing Societies18 (2-3): 32-58.
26.
Uriarte, Miren2002Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads. Boston: Oxfam America.
