The Grandness of what we lost!

Dr. Manuel Cereijo, P.E.

Desde Miami

“The economic development of Cuba from 1940-1958 was considered an economic miracle”


“THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CUBANS IN EXILE is considered also an economic miracle”

1. Social and labor regulations


1. Minimum salary, for both public and private firms.

2. Salary paid only in the national currency

3. Social security mandatory for all workers, including disability, age, and unemployment

4. Right to retirement as proper age is reached

5. Health insurance for illness or accident, paid by employers

6. One month vacation per year, with pay

7. 8 hours/day labor. Maximum 44 hours/week, paid for 48 hours

8. Maternity rest with salary, 6 weeks before and six weeks afterwards

9. Right to strike

The average salary of the agricultural workers was $3 pesos/day, seventh place in the world, second in this Hemisphere. The average industrial salary was $6 pesos/day, second in this Hemisphere.

The peso and the dollar were equally valued.

2. Economy

The Cuban banking system was formed, in its public sector, by the National Bank, the Bank for the Agricultural and Industrial Development, the Cuban Bank for External Commerce,, the Bank for the Economic and Social Development, the National Financial Bank, and the Insurance Mortgage Bank

Cuba had a modern and efficient system of commercial banks. There were 48 main banks and 273 subsidiaries, with 8,035 employees. Also, 11 Savings and loan banks.

In 1958 the total of deposits was above one billion pesos, of these, 60% were handled by Cubans owned banks. Savings were $443 millions, and loans $784,500,000 pesos.

Cuba was in third place in Latin America in gold, dollars and convertibles, with $373 millions. The PNB (gross) was $2,834,000,000 pesos for a population of 6,630,921 inhabitants in 1958.Six place in Latin America and 40th world wide. The national budget was $400,000,000, which made Cuba the highest per capita in Latin America. The average salary per capita was $520/month.

3. Nutrition

According to UN’s FAO, we had, in 1958, in calories/day:

Argentina 3240

Cuba 2730

Mexico 2390

Chile 2370

Brazil 2360

Peru 2070

Venezuela 2010-11-11

4, Industries and Stores

In 1958 there were in Cuba a total of 38,384 industries and 65,872 commercial stores, representing over $4,778 millions of dollars, with $3,268 millions corresponding to industries and 41,510 millions to commercial stores. They employed 1,214,770 workers nd employees.

5. Energy Consumption

In 1958 Cuba was in place # 25, of 124 countries at that time, with 11.8 Megawatts hour/year per capita. The world median was 10, and above it there were only 29 countries. Cuba was #1 in Latin America. Mexico was #42.

6. Agriculture in General (briefly here only)

In 1958, we had land distributed as follows:

Crops 25.8%

Pasture 40.8%

Forrests 13.3%

Bushes 0.8%

Others 19.3%

The crops areas were, as follows;

Sugar cane 61%

Viands, fruits 29.7%

Coffee 5%

Tobacco 2.3%

Others 2%

There were a total of 159,958 farms (fincas), with an area of 676,390 caballerias, or 9,083,918 hectareas. The average size of a farm was 4.4 caballerias.

Cuba was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world, followed by Brazil and Mexico.. In 1958, the harvest was 5,613,332 million tons, and as a subproduct Cuba had 230,684,742 millions of gallons of melaza.

The 161 sugar mills were owned as follows:

Cubans 121 75%

Americans 36 22%

Spanish 3 2%

French 1 1%

Over 2/3 of the farms were assigned to pastures. There were 6,000,000 million cattle heads, that is, 0.84 cattle per capita. The world per capita was 0.32. The price of beef was was $0.35 cents/pound, the lowest in the Hemisphere after Argentina.

The milk industry had had an annual production of 960 million liters, worth $57,000,000. As subproducts of this industry, there was: canned milk (7 plants), cheese, butter, tasajo, and fur. Over 50 plants produced butter and cheese.

7. Education

In 1958, Cuba had:

Kindergartens 1864

Primary public schools 8900

Primary private schools 1700

Junior Highs 240

High Schools Public 21

High Schools Private 150

Schools to form Teachers 14

Schools to form Kindergarten Teachers 7

Escuelas del Hogar 14

Commerce Schools 168

Public Universities 3

Private Universities 5

Semi Private Universities 4

People who kew to read and write 78%

This figure placed Cuba in third place in Latin America.

8. Communications

The transport and communications system in Cuba 1958, was very adequate as far as inside Cuba and from and in to Cuba from the exterior.

1. ROADS

In 1950, Cuba had the Carretera Central, 1,144 Kms going from La Habana to Santiago de Cuba, 794 Kms. of secondary roads, in good conditions.. it had 1,619 Kms. of provincial roads, and 1,164 Kms. of inter cities roads.

There was the Via Blanca, a beautiful and wide road, 4 lanes, from Mariel, La Habana, along the north coast to Matanzas and Varadero. From here to Sagua la Grande and Caibarien. There was the Circuito sur, from Guines to Cienfuegos, and from Cienfuegos to Trinidad. The via Mulata, 202 kms, from Baracoa to Santiago de Cuba.

2. Railways, trucks, buses

Cuba was the country in this Hemisphere with the greatest railway lines, with 1Km per 8.08 square km of area.. Cuba had 18,059 Kms of railway lines. Of these, 6,000 Kms were public, and 12,059 were private, owned by the sugar companies.

In 1958 there were 303 bus firms for the public transportation, urban and inter urban. They had 4,459 vehicles. Also, there was 45,242 trucks, of which 3,193 were owned by public firms. There were 42,049 owned by agricultural, commercial and industrial entities.

3. Automobiles, planes

The number of private owned automobiles in 1958 was 140,267, one for each 27 habitants, third place in this Continent. In 1958 there were 100 airports, public and private, of which 4-La Habana, Varadero, Camaguey, and Santiago de cuba had international traffic. The Compañia Cubana de Aviacion started in 1930 and in 1958 it covered 20 cities. Also, there was Aerovias Q with international traffic.

4. Telephones, radio, television

In 1958 Cuba had 191,414 telephones, that is, one per 38 habitants, second place in this Continent. There were 160 radio stations, third place in Latin America, and a million radio receivers, or radio sets. The first TV station was opened in 1950 and 8 years later Cuba had 23 stations, two of them tranmitting color TV. There were 400,000 TV sets, that meant one per 17 habitants, second place in this Hemisphere.

9. Turism

In 1958 La Habana had 42 Hotels with 5,438 rooms. In 1958 there were 15 hotels under construction in Cuba with a total of 2,900 rooms. In 1958 the foreign tourists visiting Cuba were 625,000. spending $62.5 million dollars. Cuban citizens travelled outside Cuba and spent in 1958, $37.5 million pesos.

10. Health

The medical assistance was done in Cuba through a) State, Province,or Municipal Hospitals;b) First aid Institutions (Sasas de Socorro);c) Private Clinics or Hospitals. In the Public hospitals and Casas de Socorro, assistance was free. Cuba had a Cooperative systems formed by Regional Centers, founded by Spaniards in all Provinces, and over 250 mutualist clinics or hospitals that for a monthly charge of either $2.85 or $3.00 pesos provided all kind of medical assistance, including home visits, surgery, hospitalization, medicines, Xrays, etc

In 1958 500,000 people were under these plans.Infant mortality was in 1958 of 37.6%, the lower in Latin America, and fourth in the world. The general mortality was of 5.6 deaths per year oer 1,000 habitants.

The number of physicians was 6,500. Cuba had 128.6 physicians and dentists per 100,000 habitants, third place in Latin America. Of 124 countries in the world, Cuba was number22.

In 1958 Cuba had 100 Hospital institutions, and one bed per 170 habitants, first place in Latin America.

11. Agriculture

1. General information

The sugar industry was gradually being owned by Cubans. The sugar mills owned by nationals went from 65 in 1939 to 121 in 1958. In 1958, the Cuban owned sugar mills produced 62% of the total production. Sugar represented 57% of Cuba’s economy and counting fields and mills it occupied 30% on the nation’s land.

The agricultureproduction was 56.7% sugar cane, 6.6% rice. 5.4% coffee, 2.5% tobacco,28.8% to others, including pineapple, citrics, yucca, bananas, arum, tomatoes, potatoes, quimbombo, etc as well as beans, kidney-beans, onions, garlic, guava, chick-peas, cotton, kenaf,peanuts, etc

In cattle, the production covered the domestic needs and also the exports were increasing. Especially in breeding animals, frozen beef. Cuba had 6,000,000 heads in bovines and the best tropical cattle raising. Cuba had replaced the United States and Canada in exporting breeding Cebus to Latin America. In 1958 Cuba produced 488 millions pounds of beef, and 785,000 metric tons of milk. Among other types of livestock, Cuba had:

400,000 horses

32,000 mules

3,000 asses

210,000 sheeps

180,000 goats

In 1958, there was a production of 1,800,000 chickens of 2.5 pounds, equivalent to 54 millions pounds/year, for a per capita of 12 pounds/year. Egg production was25,000,000 dozens in 1958. The consumption was 316,000,000 units, or a per capita of 47 eggs/year.

In 1958, the area dedicated to crops was 174,019 caballerias, or 2,335,215 Hectareas. For cane, it was 98,852 caballerias, or 1,326,414 Hectareas.


As data of general interest, we have:

State Largest harvest in 325 pounds bags Tons

(thousands of bags)


Pinar del Rio 1886 306.475

La Habana 3891 622.287

Matanzas 5796 94180

Las Villas 10150 1649.375

Camaguey 13.349 2183.838

Oriente 14.134 2296.776

2. Rice


In 1958 Cuba produced 256,000 metric tons of rice. The per capita consumption was 110 pounds/year. Cuba had 162,000 Hectareas dedicated to rice. Third producer in Latin America.


3. Tobacco


In 1958 Cuba was number 18 in the world producers of tobacco, with 98.4 millions of tons. Cuba exported 68.7 millions pounds.


4. Coffee


In 1958 Cuba produced 1,186,000 quintals of coffee, and exported 45,260 pounds.


5. Vegetable


In 1958, Cuba produced 56,000 metric tons of beans. Salad tomatoes 2millions 310 thousands quintals, and 192,000 quintal of the tomato called “placer’. Cuba exported cabbage, carrots, quimbombo, etc. We have:


Exported Product Quantity


Carrots 3,000 Kgs

Tomatoes 15,296,000 Kgs

Quimbombo 676,300 kgs

Cabbage 17,100 Kgs

Pumpkin 1,176,700 Kgs

Egg-plant 1,021,800 Kgs


In horticulture in general Cuba exported $1,806,000 in 1958.


6. Mining


In 1958 Cuba had in operation 287 mines, as follows: 68 of manganese, 9 of copper , 12 of chrome, 6 of iron, 4 of pyrite ,2 of lead, 1 of silver, 1 of tungsten, 3 of zinc, 2 of nickel, 1 of cobalt, 3 of barium, 3 of gold, 3 of peat, 4 of marble, 6 of kaolin, 8 of plaster, 1 of lignite, 42 of silicon. 21 of nafta, 84 oil wells in exploration, 2 of natural gas.


Minerals exports was in 1958, $360 million dollars.


A revolution in 1959?