In an action being praised as indicating a new and more progressive attitude in Cuba, and a move away from its white-dominated legacy, the government has named to black women as new vice presidents. Inés María Chapman and Beatriz Jhonson will showcase Cuba’s “changing of the guard” as they move into their new leadership roles. Chapman and Jhonson will joint first vice president Salvador Valdes Mesa in the nation’s government. Cuba’s new president Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez took office just a week ago. This represents a major change for Cuba and the first time it has a president outside of the leadership of the family of Fidel Castro. Raul Castro, Fidel’s 86-year-old brother, will remain as the head of the Community Party. Castro noted that while the women are Afro-Cuban, they were elected to hold positions of power because of their “virtues and qualities,” not just their ethnicity. He went on to say that the nation still faces “the battle of proportions” and “not just in numerical aspects but qualitative – in decision-making slots.” According to Ramon Colas, an activist, the women’s appointments are historically significant, and the importance could “trickle down to the people who need it most.” Colas stated that the revolution in Cuba was historically white and had been seen from the outside as a revolution of white men. Black people were only a “part of the crowd, spectators who were silent or applauded,” but who never actually participated. Many people in Cuba still think that nothing will really change under the new leadership, he admitted, but hoped that the new leaders would use their influence to express their opposition to injustice against black people in the country.
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