ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the meanings ascribed to the infrastructure in the informal settlements of Havana. I argue that the practices of utilising infrastructure to one's needs become instruments for reassessing and building community resilience in the face of institutional neglect. Informal settlements, perceived primarily as spaces of marginality in Cuba, allow for the development of grassroots infrastructure thanks to the establishment of networks of mutual help grounded in kinship and local relations. Such networks become essential for survival in the subsistence economy. In recent years, informal settlements have started hosting a number of community projects that constitute themselves as non-state actors, proposing and testing new development strategies by navigating between formal and informal practices.
As the paternalistic socialist state recedes, empty spaces are filled by grassroots initiatives such as community projects that develop networks of mutual help through collaboration with the communities. These networks become essential for the maintenance of grassroots infrastructure, producing the effect of “people as infrastructure” (Simone, 2004). I consider how the practices of appropriation of space and its transformation result in building mechanisms that reinforce community resilience.
