Mulattas have always been associated with sex. Since colonial times until now, many colored women have been the daughters of "love" and lovers to white men. According to a saying on the Caribbean plantations, white women were for marrying, black women for work, and the mulattas for making love. That legacy, told and re-told a thousand times in songs and poems and novels has made the mulatta into a national symbol of Cuba. Now the tourist campaigns utilize that symbol to make it perfectly clear what it is that Cuba has to offer to its male visitors.

A tropical socialist utopia that could be known as a place of "sexual liberation" in the 80's and later transform itself into an impoverished island ripe for sexual exploitation in the 90's and later.

Few Cubans seem inclined to draw a parallel between the prostitutes and many of the artists, musicians and professionals with exportable talents who also seek opportunities to socialize and, on occasion, make love with foreigners with the hope of obtaining sponsorship or work outside the island, or even a marriage partner.

The fact that colored prostitutes are marrying Europeans at an alarmingly high rate has made them the focus of envy in a country where many people are desperately looking for any possible way to leave.

In 1992, Castro seemed content to tolerate prostitution. He remarked that Cuban women are prostitutes not because they needed to be but rather because they liked to make love, and he added that they are the most educated and the healthiest prostitutes on the market. This was interpreted by many Cuba observers as an invitation to male tourists to avail themselves of the sexual mastery of the daughters of the revolution. And by myself as an idiot statement since there is no relationship between having sex and a nice mind, and maybe that kind of sex is even better with a silly girl!

In fact, the question about who really benefits from prostitution is key.

The range of lucrative activities has diminished in Cuba over the past seven years when the country entered what is called the "special period" in 1993 and had to face the worst scarcity of food and the highest prices in decades. Cubans without any resources had two options: work in or around tourism and get dollars, or earn a miserable wage in pesos and watch their families suffer. Since only 2% of Cuban workers are employed in legitimate jobs in hotel construction, maintenance, tourist entertainment and sales, the jobs in tourism are not sufficiently abundant to employ the many Cubans who need dollars.

The difficulties that drive many women into sexual work are real. But the image of the prostitute selling herself for a pound of meat doesn't explain the whole range of motivations of the women involved in the business. The desire to have a good time and enjoy some spending is also an important and explosive factor.

"How much do you charge?" She responds, "I wouldn't work for less than fifty dollars but some of the girls are ruining the business by accepting twenty or thirty."

The new Cuban generation is in crisis without a hope for the future.