So it was extraordinary to see how many women and Afro-Cubans were chosen for positions in the highest echelon of Cuban politics in the new government: Half of the six vice presidents of the ruling Council of State are black, and three are women. The new council will serve under the new president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
That the first administration in 60 years without a single Castro would include so many women and black officials was notable in Cuba, where increasing business opportunities have only swelled economic racial disparities.
While official statistics reflect 9 percent of the population is black, most estimates put the number far higher. The Cuban government under the Castros has been viewed as one made up mainly of white men. Although it has generally had at least one Afro-Cuban in a high position, cynics dismissed them as symbolic figures.
Skeptics doubt much will change to address disparities, but some critics acknowledged that the shift was important. «Yes, it has great significance,» said Ramón Colas, a black anti-Castro activist who sought political asylum in the United States in 2001.
He said the election, a process in which Mr. Castro and the Communist Party had full control, showed that the former Cuban leader was willing to listen to black civic organizations. But he noted it would be even more noteworthy if the black people on the council used their positions to push for racial equality. «I doubt that they can do that,» he said. «They are not allowed. Fidel declared that racism is a problem that ended.»
While inequality persists in the country, the Castro revolution did make strides for black people. When Fidel Castro came to power, one of his early edicts essentially sought an end to racism. The result was that systemic racism as it exists in the Americas is far less present in Cuba.
Alejandro de la Fuente, a Harvard University professor of Cuba studies, said that in the 1980s, the life expectancy gap between black and white people was better in Cuba than in Brazil or the United States. Also, the proportion of black Cubans with college degrees was close to the proportion of white Cubans, he found, whereas in the United States, the proportion of white college degree holders was twice as large as among African-Americans.
But the improvements, brought on by socialized education, were offset by the economic decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. More Cubans started living on cash remittances sent from the United States. And almost all the Cubans sending money were white.
Mr. de la Fuente noted that both of the black women named to the council, Inés María Chapman Waugh and Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia, are engineers from eastern Cuba, which makes them an example of the kind of educational mobility possible for black women in the country. «Even if this was window-dressing, it would mean they feel the need to dress the window in a certain color, and that is something one would not have said 30 years ago,» he said.
In the largely black neighborhood of La Corea, on the outskirts of Havana, most people had more pressing concerns than the racial balance of officials. Homes are slapped together with rusty corrugated metal or raw cinder block.
Residents were somewhat divided on the meaning of the new racial composition of the government. Manuel Garro Gómez, 65, seemed to take the official line on the matter. «Cuba says there is no discrimination and that’s largely how it is,» he said.
Yasmani Santo, 30, once informed about the change, said it was a decent move. «This reflects the population a bit more, which I appreciate,» he said. «But I’m not sure it will change anything.»
A political transition sends a signal on diversity.