From our Bureau of Potentially Lethal Nostalgia
The four postcards below, published by the Bacardí industry, poke gentle fun (now condemned as “sexist”) at the presence of US troops in Cuba in the first half of the last century and their encounters with Cuban women. Their titles refer to military maneuvers: Reconnaissance, Interception, Convoy-duty, and Infiltration
Hard to imagine such a Cuba ever existed. Lord have mercy. In 1959 there were more Americans living in Cuba than Cubans living in the U.S. , and more Europeans migrating to Cuba than Cubans migrating anywhere.
The social and political dysfunction that allowed the Castro dynasty to come to power and destroy that Cuba is beyond comprehension.
Alas, Bacardí was supported the “revolution” before it was against it (after the damage was done and it was too late to undo it). This includes but was not limited to the notorious Vilma Espín, whose “bourgeois” family was connected to the Bacardí firm. There were plenty of pre-Castro “oligarchs” who actually helped Castro.
It certainly today would be condemned as sexist…and also colonialist, ageist, size-ist (yes, there is such a grievance)….and let’s not forget racist, being that all the native women depicted are obviously of European stock. This would be a prime artifact to “interrogate” in a Latin American “Studies” course. Having been enrolled briefly in a graduate program in that “discipline” I can report having experienced it as what some (few) contrarian academics call “Grievance Studies” LOL!