Communist Cuba, which exists today, is much different from the Cuba many remember. Now the government owns everything and the people are desperate. In the past, Cuba had a productive system of commerce. Each family's main responsibility was to support themselves through the production of food. Custom, available resources and labor influenced the actions of these people.
Customs are very important in every culture. Each family was basically self-reliant but there was some reciprocity to those who fell on hard times. Families would give what they could to needy families and knew that the same would be there for them if they fell on hard times. Many products were made in the home. Clothes were sewn by hand, furniture was built, pots and utensil were made by each family. Each family included parents, children, and possibly newly married children and their spouses, all under one roof.
Resources varied from family to family. Many families owned land on which many acres constituted farming fields. Since everyone did not produce everything that they needed, some exchanges were vital. Money was used along with some bartering. Money facilitated trade between people when one did not have a product of interest to the other. If each of them happen to have items that were needed by the other, then an exchange took place in a barter style.
Labor for most Cuban families consisted of the family members. Gender and age were the major determinants of who did what jobs. Women did all of the housework and men worked in the fields. Children were not utilized until the reached their teens. As teenagers the girls would start to help around the house and the boys would help out in the fields. The aged were cared for by their families. Basically everyone was cared for, but it was not unheard of for an able bodied person who refused to help to be kicked out after attempts were made to change that person. Everyone was expected to pull their own weight and then some if possible. This was true for everyone except the children who were treated like babies and not given any responsibility in the preteen years. The richer Cubans also had servants who worked for them basically for food and shelter, but they were free to leave if they wanted to quit. For the most part labor consisted of the family.
The Cuban people are covered in tradition and honor. Today they have been taken away from that life of supporting their own family and now must depend on the government, not because they are unable or unwilling to fend for themselves, but because they are not allowed to. Still the true spirit of the Cuban people lives on within those in Cuba and those who came to America.