5,669
edits
Difference between revisions of "Mulas (Cuba)"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
Editor2018 (talk | contribs) |
|||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
| clusters = [[:Category: Informal entrepreneurship|Informal entrepreneurship]] – [[:Category: Redistribution| Redistribution]] – [[:Category: Substantive ambivalence| Substantive ambivalence]] – [[:Category: Market| Market]] | | clusters = [[:Category: Informal entrepreneurship|Informal entrepreneurship]] – [[:Category: Redistribution| Redistribution]] – [[:Category: Substantive ambivalence| Substantive ambivalence]] – [[:Category: Market| Market]] | ||
| categories = [[:Category: Cuba|Cuba]] – [[:Category: North America| North America]] – [[:Category: Central America| Central America]] – [[:Category: Latin America| Latin America]] – [[:Category: Borders| Borders]] – [[:Category: Entrepreneurship| Entrepreneurship]] – [[:Category: Trafficking| Trafficking]] – [[:Category: Diaspora| Diaspora]] – [[:Category: Trade| Trade]] – [[:Category: Shuttle trade| Shuttle trade]] | | categories = [[:Category: Cuba|Cuba]] – [[:Category: North America| North America]] – [[:Category: Central America| Central America]] – [[:Category: Latin America| Latin America]] – [[:Category: Borders| Borders]] – [[:Category: Entrepreneurship| Entrepreneurship]] – [[:Category: Trafficking| Trafficking]] – [[:Category: Diaspora| Diaspora]] – [[:Category: Trade| Trade]] – [[:Category: Shuttle trade| Shuttle trade]] | ||
| authorofpiece = | | authorofpiece = Concetta Russo | ||
| authorinstitution = Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy | | authorinstitution = Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy | ||
| authorwebsite = | | authorwebsite = | ||
}} | }} | ||
<big>'''By | <big>'''By Concetta Russo, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy'''</big> | ||
[[Category: Informal entrepreneurship]] | [[Category: Informal entrepreneurship]] | ||
[[Category: Redistribution]] | [[Category: Redistribution]] | ||
| Line 54: | Line 54: | ||
''Mulas'' can import only a limited amount of goods into the country (up to 120 lbs each) and pay import tax on arrival. Once imported, these goods find customers informally in all classes of society and are sold without income tax or regulation of price, quality or quantity. The connivance of the state with those forms of ‘unreported economy’, as the Cuban scholar Mayra Espina defined them, is paradigmatic in the way the government exploits the ''mula'' system (Espina 2010). By collecting heavy tariffs, the government directly profits from this system of importation. Indirectly, the government benefits from the fact that people’s needs, that the government is not capable of satisfying formally, are being satisfied informally. By allowing the importation and turning a blind eye on reselling the US-embargoed goods on the shadow market, the state is able to overcome some of the limitations of the restricted access of its citizens to the international market (Russo 2018). | ''Mulas'' can import only a limited amount of goods into the country (up to 120 lbs each) and pay import tax on arrival. Once imported, these goods find customers informally in all classes of society and are sold without income tax or regulation of price, quality or quantity. The connivance of the state with those forms of ‘unreported economy’, as the Cuban scholar Mayra Espina defined them, is paradigmatic in the way the government exploits the ''mula'' system (Espina 2010). By collecting heavy tariffs, the government directly profits from this system of importation. Indirectly, the government benefits from the fact that people’s needs, that the government is not capable of satisfying formally, are being satisfied informally. By allowing the importation and turning a blind eye on reselling the US-embargoed goods on the shadow market, the state is able to overcome some of the limitations of the restricted access of its citizens to the international market (Russo 2018). | ||
The international circulation of goods put in place by the ''mula'' system has been compared to the '' | The international circulation of goods put in place by the ''mula'' system has been compared to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kula_ring ''<nowiki>kula</nowiki>''] ring ‘as a lens onto strategies of creating personhood and expanding social worlds through transnational circulation networks of material items’ (Cearns 2019: 873). Observing these informal practices offers an opportunity to understand how peripheral economies work (Portes 1983). Indeed, the ''mula'' ring, as Ceans defines it, does not only affect the circulation of commodities in Cuba, but also acquires a moderate and sometimes considerable impact on the receiving countries too, thus challenging the idea of Cuba being an isolated country. For instance, almost one thousand Cubans travel to Guyana each week, and they purchase goods for the estimated annual amount of GYD$400 million (US$2 million), producing a large impact on the local economy (Semple 2016). | ||
Albeit the ''mulas'' play a crucial role for being engaged in imports, they are also involved in some export activities. The latter include transporting artefacts and other paraphernalia connected with the Santeria rituals. The Santeria rituals are an Afro-Caribbean religion counting several practitioners in Cuba and in the US, Mexico and Puerto Rico, essential to the embedded nature of the Cuban informal economy (Holbraad 2004). The ''mula''s also export tobacco, rum and local ''artesania'' (craftsmanship), such as a typical Cuban rocking chair in wood, or wood carved sculptures, which have come to constitute a distinctive sign in the houses of Cuban diasporas. The ‘transnational networks’ (Tilly 2007) put in place by the ''mula'' system play an important role not only in the constant negotiation between the socialist state and its citizens about the value and distribution of commodities but also in corroborating the representation of Cuban material identity outside the country. | Albeit the ''mulas'' play a crucial role for being engaged in imports, they are also involved in some export activities. The latter include transporting artefacts and other paraphernalia connected with the Santeria rituals. The Santeria rituals are an Afro-Caribbean religion counting several practitioners in Cuba and in the US, Mexico and Puerto Rico, essential to the embedded nature of the Cuban informal economy (Holbraad 2004). The ''mula''s also export tobacco, rum and local ''artesania'' (craftsmanship), such as a typical Cuban rocking chair in wood, or wood carved sculptures, which have come to constitute a distinctive sign in the houses of Cuban diasporas. The ‘transnational networks’ (Tilly 2007) put in place by the ''mula'' system play an important role not only in the constant negotiation between the socialist state and its citizens about the value and distribution of commodities but also in corroborating the representation of Cuban material identity outside the country. | ||