***** The Houston Chronicle April 02, 2003, Wednesday 3 STAR EDITION SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 01 LENGTH: 1273 words HEADLINE: Cash from exiles in U.S. lets Cubans live, a little SOURCE: Staff BYLINE: JENALIA MORENO DATELINE: HAVANA
HAVANA - Anthia Marquetty's son left Cuba for the Bronx more than 20 years ago.
But like many Cuban-Americans, he's never forgotten his family struggling to make ends meet back home.
For years, William Allende, 39, has sent $ 200 every three months to Marquetty, who earns her living singing sentimental songs in Havana bars.
Every time Allende called to let his mother know money was waiting for her at Western Union, she rushed to an office to pick it up. In this country, these 100 branches with the yellow and black signs represent a world of difference in many lives.
Although Marquetty lives in a dreary Old Havana building, these gifts mean she can sometimes afford to eat at a restaurant.
With the global economic crunch hurting tourism, Cuba's main industry, remittances take on a far greater importance than ever before.
Most experts consider remittances Cuba's second source of hard cash.
Yet these remittances create ironies for Cuba and the United States - longtime foes.
Remittances help undermine U.S. sanctions intended to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
They also help create inequality in Cuba, a communist country Castro tried to design as free of socioeconomic classes.
However, for Marquetty and an estimated 60 percent of the Cuban population who receive money from relatives living in other countries, these payments boost them into a higher social class.
"They realize that in Cuba, to make life easier, if you've got an extra $ 400 or $ 500 in your pocket, you can put a lot more good food on the table," said Enzo Ruberto, president of ICC Corp., a Canadian-based company.
Through its subsidiary, Cash2Cuba.com, the company provides money transfers to the island nation.
Neither he nor officials from Western Union would disclose how much money is sent to Cuba, but both said transactions had increased every year.
However, after Sept. 11, both companies experienced a dip.
It's impossible to calculate how much money is sent to Cuba from expatriates.
Some experts say it may be as high as $ 800 million to $ 1 billion annually in the past few years.
The impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have created a drop in remittances to between $ 500 million and $ 650 million last year, estimates Hans de Salas-del Valle, a research associate at the University of Miami's Cuba Transition Project Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies....
Remittances also include the money Cuban-Americans stash in suitcases and deliver to their family members during trips home or money sent via mules, hired cash carriers....
These payments also provide a huge economic boost.
They helped make up for the financial aid lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989....
Many people lost their jobs, and everyone received even smaller rations. In 1993, Castro legalized the use of the U.S. dollar, thus encouraging Cuban exiles to send their families money.
The money Cubans receive now can be spent in the black market or at state-owned grocery stores, which garner most of the cash.
That is a source of controversy for many Cuban-American exiles who don't want to see any financial support flowing to the Castro regime....
That's why bumper stickers saying "Don't support the regime. Stop sending money to Cuba" are common in Miami, where 840,000 Cuban-Americans live.
But many Cubans continue to send money because every U.S. dollar eases the daily burden of survival....
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, doubts estimates of $ 1 billion sent last year from Cubans living abroad to their homeland is correct.
After all, the majority of Cubans living abroad reside in the United States. And these 1.2 million Cuban-Americans can only send $ 300 every three months to Cuba, according to a law passed under President Clinton's administration in 1999.
That makes the $ 1 billion estimate seem impossible, he said.
Regardless of how much is sent, it creates a social divide between the haves and have-nots of Cuba. And that division is often along racial lines.
When Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, promising equality, more than half of the population was white. Many fled to the United States, and about 90 percent of Cuban-Americans are white.
But inequality seems to reign on the island, with whites more likely to receive remittance checks than blacks and those of mixed race, even though today blacks and mixed-race persons make up 62 percent of the island's 11 million people, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Afro-Cubans tend to be more impoverished, said de Salas-del Valle, an issue the government glosses over.
Outside a Western Union branch in Havana, the few people who picked up money from their relatives in Miami or New Jersey were white.
Marquetty is one of the small group of blacks who receive money from the United States. But these days, she's receiving less money. Last year her son had to tighten his belt because of the weakening U.S. economy.
In October, Allende could only send his mother $ 50, so she did what little she could. This practicer of the Afro-Cuban religion of Yoruba spent the money on religious items to help pray for her son to earn more.
CUBAN RATIONS
A sampling of how much the Cuban government allows for each person:
Per month:
6 pounds of rice.
3 pounds of sugar.
3 pounds of refined sugar.
20 ounces of beans (green peas or lentils).
12 ounces of coffee.
10 ounces of salt.
One quarter pound of ground beef and soy mixture.
One pound of fish.
6 eggs.
Additional rations:
1 loaf of soft bread daily.
Half a pound of mortadella, a meat and soy product, every two months.
1 bar of laundry soap every two months.
1 bar of bath soap every two months.
1 tube of toothpaste every two months for three people.
Source: Raul Rivero, an independent [sic] Cuban journalist [sentenced to 20 years in prison]
Cuban finances
Cubans living abroad are said to send $ 800 million to $ 1 billion annually to their homeland.
Cuba's GDP: $ 18.6 billion.
60 percent of the Cuban population receives remittances.
Cuban-Americans are allowed to send $ 300 per quarter to Cuba.
1.2 million Cuban expatriates live in America, including 5,500 in Houston.
Cuban-American median income: $ 30,584.
Cuban income per person: $ 1,700.
Sources: U.S. State Department, U.S. Census Bureau *****
"Embargo Foes in Disarray as U.S. Mulls Cuba Options," <http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2632778>. -- Yoshie
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