be no discrimination of races if there was a raceless country, just Cubans. The revolutionary regime aligned itself with the race-blind narrative historically embedded in Cuba's race relations. Due to this, Castro refused to enact laws that directly addressed and condemned race-based persecution because he considered them unnecessary or even anti-Cuban. Instead, he believed that fixing economic structures for a better distribution of wealth would end racism. The Cuban Revolution also employed the use of the loyal black soldier of the independence days in order to curb white resistance to the new policies. Scholars argue that raceless rhetoric left Cuba unprepared to address the deep-seated culture of racism on the island. Two years after his 1959 speech at the Havana Labor Rally, Castro declared that the age of racism and discrimination was over. In a speech given at the Confederation of Cuban Workers in observance of May Day, Castro declared that the "just laws of the Revolution ended unemployment, put an end to villages without hospitals and schools, enacted laws which ended discrimination, control by monopolies, humiliation, and the suffering of the people." After this announcement, any attempt by Afro-Cubans to open up discussion on race again was met with great resistance. If the regime claimed that racism was gone, an attempt to reignite the conversation on race was thus counterrevolutionary. Though Castro's vision for Cuba was to not see color, a concept which many today view as futile, he addressed racial discrimination and inopportunity by converting previously segregated and "white only" spaces to integrated spaces. Black Cubans and mulattos got access to opportunities not possible under Batista. There was education and employment opportunities, even gaining access to recreational facilities and beaches. Castro's government promised to get rid of racism in three years, despite Cuba's violent history of colonialism. In January of 1959, the government's official newspaper, Revolución, the title of this edition was "Not Blacks, but Citizens". This can be critiqued due to the framing of this campaign and title that in order to be a citizen, Black Cubans could not hold on to their Black identity. In order for them to be integrated into Castro's new society, they were expected to just be Cuban. This is not something that Black Cubans could easily do, as it shaped their lives on the island. Black Cubans still experienced employment discrimination, especially when their economy relied on tourism, and they experienced