To the End of the Line: The Culture of Informality in Late-socialist Cuba

Sharon Qiu

Advisor: Roger N Lancaster, PhD, Cultural Studies Program

Committee Members: Huwy-min Lucia Liu, Janine Wedel

Online Location, https://gmu.zoom.us/j/5515439923
October 13, 2026, 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM

Abstract:

This dissertation is an ethnography about Cuban people’s daily handling of excessive queuing and waiting in the post-COVID-19 era. Every day, Cubans live with blackouts and water outages, struggling with shortages of foodstuffs, medicine, and fuel. Since people cannot obtain goods from the state sector after waiting for hours, days, or even months, they resort to various informal channels to make ends meet. Between 2022 and 2025, I traveled to Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, and other provinces to do fieldwork, participant observation, and life history interviews. My research explored three things. First, it discussed how queuing and waiting are formed. Waiting, in its final determination, is caused by shortages, which can be manipulated by different economic actors. Shortages do not necessarily mean that goods were not produced; instead, there are processual problems like delays and misappropriations. This, however, does not mean provision outside the state sector is easier. In the private plots and the black market, people pay to shorten their waiting time and to access commodities. Second, it highlights how time is translated into value. As private livelihoods rise, people are socialized with informality. Although people can find necessities through private and illicit transactions, there isn’t much they can do about outages but wait. The state regulates the energy and water supply, controlling people’s work and rest. Thefts and shakedowns are rampant during outages. The once-practiced virtues of Socialist Revolution have given way to real needs in the present day. Traditional values and social relationships are distorted and transformed into more pragmatic ones. Third, it examined what a sane life means to Cubans. Seized in everyday waiting, they are frustrated, disappointed, and angry. While the government blamed the woes on the US blockade, people are losing faith in central planning. They perceive the general shortage as a shortage of justice and take actions to preserve opportunities that they deserve. In this process, Cuban people reinterpret the egalitarian system. A new kind of late-socialist man is formed.