“Para vivir, hay que seguir inventando, mi hermano”. La experiencia de la microempresa en Cuba.

The economic restructuration that started in 1993 in Cuba has accelerated the process of social and cultural change. A consequence of this process is the expansion of employment in the private sector, where most Cuban micro enterprises are being created. The creation of this sector has been followed by the implementation of a new set of restrictive laws that increases the control of the government over the private sector. The new micro-entrepreneurs are experiencing a different relationship with the means of production, and the work process is becoming imbued with new meanings. These micro-entrepreneurs are being initiated into the logic of a free market economy, which separates them from state workers. Because of this different type of relationship with the job market, they experience changes in their daily life practices, their goals, and their consumption habits. They generate new cultural expressions (particularly in the "labor culture") that may lead to a process of resignification of their social identity.