The more things change, the more they stay the same : rice and beans in modern Cuba

Although Cubans have experienced a tumultuous half-century of political revolution, social transformation, and market reform, the presence of rice and beans as a staple diet has always remained the same. Or has it? During the high-Soviet period of the Cuban Revolution (during the 1970s and 1980s), and then again after the economic upheavals that began the post-Soviet era (from the early 1990s), the relationship of Cubans to their everyday foods was changed dramatically. As the Cuban Revolution produced new trade relationships, new agricultural practices, and new rules about everyday shopping, even basic everyday recipes like rice and beans have been altered over time. Severe economic crisis in the 1990s, caused by the end of Soviet support and the tightening of U.S. trade embargoes, commenced an era known as the "Special Period in Times of Peace," or more informally as the "Special Period." The peak of this crisis, in 1993 and 1994, is commonly agreed to have been the most difficult period in Cubans' living memory, and nationwide food shortages created a whole new food culture among Cuban citizens. Although the extreme food shortages of the 1990s were significantly overcome in the following decade, shopping for, cooking, and eating food in contemporary Cuba is still deeply shaped by the notion of scarcity and unpredictability that define Cuban consumption.