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Cuban ration booklet — "Productos Alimenticios 1969–1970," Habana Metropolitana (MINCIN)

Object/Artifact

A small landscape-format paperbound booklet (libreta / control booklet for rationed foodstuffs) with a buff card cover printed in red and black. Upper left: the ministry's MCI logo (a diamond device) with GOBIERNO REVOLUCIONARIO / MINISTERIO DEL COMERCIO INTERIOR. Center: the title PRODUCTOS ALIMENTICIOS in shaded display type, the period 1969-1970 in red, and HABANA METROPOLITANA in red. A handwritten "70" sits in the upper-right corner; the booklet is thread/staple-bound at the right edge.

2025.26.1

Raúl Mondelo collection

2025.26

Raúl Mondelo

MINCIN

1969

1960s

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

GOBIERNO REVOLUCIONARIO / MINISTERIO DEL COMERCIO INTERIOR; MCI logo (diamond device); PRODUCTOS ALIMENTICIOS; 1969-1970; HABANA METROPOLITANA. Handwritten 70 upper right.

Paper

Materials: Printed card cover (buff stock) with newsprint-type interior leaves; thread/staple binding. Technique: Letterpress/offset-printed cover and interior; side-stitched/sewn booklet.

Fair

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

production, use

Cuba's libreta de abastecimiento (rationing/supply booklet) was introduced in March 1962 (formalized 1963) and administered by the Ministerio del Comercio Interior (MINCIN, founded 1961 under Ley 933) through the OFICODA, to distribute the subsidized basic basket (canasta básica) amid embargo-era scarcity; the system remains in use today. This "Productos Alimenticios 1969-1970" booklet is the annual food-products control/ration document for the metropolitan Havana zone. An emblematic artifact of the revolutionary planned economy and rationing system — among the most characteristic documents of everyday material life in socialist Cuba.