Even though Castro's troops toppled Fulgencio Batista more than four decades ago, many Cubans still view the revolution as ongoing and unfinished and its goals as still achievable. In fact, they often refer to their society as "El Proceso" (The Process), the aim of which is to create better living conditions. According to Swedish social anthropologist Mona Rosendahl, who spent time in Cuba studying how people lived, "Leaders do not say that people have to sacrifice everything for their society but for the revolution. Proud citizens do not say 'look what we have achieved' but 'look what the revolution has given us.'"

Prior to Castro's takeover of Cuba, the island had a rigid social system, dating back to the country's Spanish colonial period. A small, wealthy class of white landowners with...