How Business Can Change Cuba

摘要

Yamina Vicente has lived in communist Cuba her whole life. But it didn't take her long to learn one of capitalism's handier skills: creating market demand. Baby showers were practically unheard of in Cuba until last year, when Vicente started an event planning company called Decorazon. She learned about the gift-giving parties from American women visiting Cuba, then persuaded some of her clients in Havana to throw their own. Now, arranging baby showers-albeit on the shoestring budgets of a country where the average monthly salary is $20-is one of Vicente's most popular services. Another is planning Halloween bashes.Recently, at the invitation of think tanks including Washington-based Cuba Study Group, Vicente and other Cuban entrepreneurs made unusual visits to Miami for tutoring from U.S. small business owners. During a break at a downtown restaurant, Vicente shifted her high-velocity Cuban Spanish into power-lunch gear. "I've got to do more than birthdays and weddings," said Vicente, 31, a former Marxist economics teacher who wears the smart attire and determined attitude of a rookie real estate agent. "I've got to diversify."