Eric Peterson and Professor Lynn England, Sociology
I went to Cuba to do an ethnographic study of common folk medicine. My original intent was to focus on the traditional, home-remedies used by Cubans and the possible discovery of new homeopathic treatments for use in our society. What I discovered, along with a short list of herbal medicines, was a unique integration of folk medicine into the socialist health care system due to the existing political and economic situation.
My plan was to interview the Cubans with whom I came into contact during the one month that I was there. I would ask them questions about the types of home remedies with which they were familiar. What plants or other substances did they use? Where were they found? What illness were they used for? How was the treatment prepared? Was it taken orally or applied topically? Had they ever used that particular treatment? Was it effective? How did it compare with scientific medicine? I would also collect a sample of the plants most commonly used for healing.
I was traveling with a cousin and we also had plans to make a short documentary film about the Cubans’ view of the health care system there. We carried one simple HI-8 video camera and brought home seven hours of raw footage of interviews and Cuban life. With those seven hours we planned to make a ten to fifteen minute film. The interviews we conducted included questions about medicina verde “green medicine” as the Cubans referred to folk medicine, and other questions regarding condition and accessibility to medical facilities, accessibility to and training of doctors, availability of medicines, and the overall opinion about the system.
At first, I thought that my folk remedies research was separate from the other project, but I soon discovered that it was actually very much tied in with the entire medical system. I have done other ethnographies in the area of ethnobotany in Latin America, which usually resulted in long lists of what we might call “crazy” herbal cures with some patterns of common treatments between interviewees. The first five Cuban subjects formed almost identical lists of common “green medicine” and as I learned more about the health care system as a whole, I discovered the reason why.
Una escasez de medicina debido al bloqueo. When asked about the availability of medicines in pharmacies, all of the subjects responded that the hospitals usually had enough medicine for the sickest patients and that some medicines could be found in the pharmacies, but that many medicines were scarce. Why was there a shortage of medicine? For the same reason that there is a insufficiency of petroleum, paper and many manufactured goods. For the same reason that Cuba’s economy collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union and people started to form lines to buy bread and ice cream and medicine. There is a scarcity of important medicine in Cuba and is largely due to the economic embargo placed on Cuba by the United States.
The embargo has been in place since the early 1960s and not only stopped trade between Cuba and the US, but also slowed trade between Cuba and other nations that feared losing trade relations with the powerful United States. Acquiring certain vital goods, including medicines, has been hard since Cuba lost its support from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The Cubans have been forced to seek alternative methods until they can pull out of economic crisis and establish new sources of goods to meet their needs.
One alternative method that the Cubans have incorporated into the socialist system is the use of herbal medicines in the place of scarce pharmaceuticals. Folk medicine is no longer “folk” in Cuban society. Old remedies that were once passed down from generation to generation within families are now common knowledge. In the United States, homeopathic (natural) medicine is an alternative to seeing the local doctor at the clinic and taking pills for treatment. They are almost in competition with one another here. In Cuba, however, homeopathic remedies are just another optional treatment an MD might prescribe in a hospital or clinic. Doctors often recommend “green medicine” to patients requiring medicines that are difficult to attain in pharmacies.
As herbs have begun to substitute more and more for scarce drugs, a common list of herbal alternatives has made its way into every household and drug store. Pharmacies have posters with leaves taped to them or a drawing of different plants followed by an explanation of the illness and symptoms each plant remedies and how it is used. (I have included a table below with the most common “green” remedies I observed in pharmacies and in my interviews). Although they were forced into the situation, I believe that the Cubans’ integration of folk medicine into the traditional health care system has not only filled the void left by the shortage of medicines, but it has opened up doors for research in herbal medicine and better health care coverage for all Cubans.