"A Veces No Hay Nada”: Food Politics in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-70

Almost two decades before Julia Child’s The French Chef debuted in 1963, Cocina al minuto, a cooking show featuring Cuban chef Nitza Villapol, premiered on Cuban television. Cocina al minuto aired for forty-five consecutive years, from 1948 to 1993, making Villapol a fixture in Cuban kitchens for nearly half a century. Her cookbook by the same name was first published in 1950, and updated editions appeared regularly for the next three decades. Two consecutive editions, one published in 1960 and the other in 1980, reveal the changes wrought by the Cuban Revolution during its first two decades, including the development of a centrally-planned economy, widespread austerity, and entrance into the Soviet bloc. They provide windows through which to observe how the political and economic policies of the revolutionary government affected the daily lives of average Cubans. Although 1970s and 80s are often considered times of relative abundance in the history of revolutionary society, the 1980 edition of Cocina al minuto reveals continued concern over an insufficient and unpredictable food supply. While evading revolutionary censorship by never directly mentioning these economic woes, Villapol’s resourceful responses to them enabled Cuban women to create, or as Cubans might say, "inventar," healthy, balanced and varied meals out of whatever they could find.