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CUBAN QUESTION BOND

in 1959. Moreover, 40% of the trade union leadership on the grass roots level is female; women are prominent in the organization and work of the CDR's and housewives are active outside the home as day care workers, substitute teachers and community development aides.

The women we met in Cuba are energetic, assertive and confident, and they seem not about to take abuse in whatever form-especially since they're armed with the Cuban Constitution's liberating Family Code, enacted in 1975, and the support of all of the society's institutions. "We are quite pleased," one woman is said to have put it, "with the new traditions."

Not all of the men are pleased. Machismo is dying with its boots on, and divorce is epidemic. For those who can't hack it, there's a boat laving from Mariel.

The significantly large delinquent and criminal elements among the emigrants are another indicator that a mere 20 years of revolution have not been sufficient to eradicate all aspects of the pre-revolutionary legacy. These people are the inheritors of behavior patterns that were born and took root in the days when Cuba was the hustlers' capital of the Western hemisphere and which, given their nature, have not automatically disappeared in the new conditions. A possible though limited analogy in our own context is the welfare syndrome which, in some instances, repeats itself in a family from one generation to the next even where opportunities may present themselves to different family members to break out of the cycle. The emigrants who fit into this category could hardly be referred to as political dissidents in the true sense, rather, they are people who, burdened by a psychosocial history of life on the fringes of society, have resisted resocialization.

The presence of some skilled workers, semi-professionals and professionals in the emigration wave suggests that measures taken by the Cuban government recently according to a 10-year plan conceived in 1970 to correct certain inefficiencies, and which have been attended by what they call "rationalization" of the labor force, have disrupted some lives. Clearly, some workers have been "rationalized" out of their areas of expertise and are unwilling to accept work in, say, agriculture where jobs are available. Other workers have been relocated, while still others may feel threatened by the prospect.

In short, the present period in Cuba is one of marked change and reorganization. This is giving rise to tensions and insecurities that may well be prompting some people to emigrate.

The complaints expressed by some emigrants about the food situation in Cuba would seem to relate primarily to the rationing of meat and some other staples, which is necessitatd in part by the