ABSTRACT
The fall of the Berlin Wall seemed to open a new political era in Cuba. Thousands of Cubans who studied in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were sent back home. Although most still supported socialism, they were deeply influenced by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform politics and wished that Cuban leaders would choose the same path. They contributed to the already lively debates taking place on Cuban campuses, in cultural institutions, as well as in some research centers. The political conjuncture seemed all the more favorable since, in order to prepare for its Fourth Congress, the Cuban Communist Party launched a call for a national debate about the future of socialism in the country in 1991, and the government legalized the dollar in 1993 and allowed tens of thousands of citizens to leave the island in 1994 after massive street protests, whereas emigration had always been associated with counter-revolution.
