Cuba Represent!

In Cuba something curious has happened over the past fifteen years. The government has allowed vocal criticism of its policies to be expressed within the arts. Filmmakers, rappers, and visual and performance artists have addressed sensitive issues including bureaucracy, racial and gender discrimination, emigration, and alienation. How can this vibrant body of work be reconciled with the standard representations of a repressive, authoritarian cultural apparatus? In Cuba Represent! Sujatha Fernandes—a scholar and musician who has performed in Cuba—answers that question. Combining textual analyses of films, rap songs, and visual artworks; ethnographic material collected in Cuba; and insights into the nation’s history and political economy, Fernandes details the new forms of engagement with official institutions that have opened up as a result of changing relationships between state and society in the post-Soviet period. She demonstrates that in a moment of extreme hardship and uncertainty, the Cuban state has moved to a more permeable model of power. Artists and other members of the public are collaborating with government actors to partially incorporate critical cultural expressions into official discourse. The Cuban leadership has come to recognize the benefits of supporting artists: rappers offer a link to increasingly frustrated black youth in Cuba; visual artists are an important source of international prestige and hard currency; and films help unify Cubans through community discourse about the nation. Cuba Represent! reveals that part of the socialist government’s resilience stems from its ability to absorb oppositional ideas and values.

“A provocative look into Cuba’s cultural production. Those who want to understand how the Cuban government managed to negotiate the crisis of the 1990s should read this book.”—Alejandro de la Fuente, author of A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba, “As a work that comes out of the discipline of political science, Cuba Represent! is extremely brave and original. Sujatha Fernandes manages to offer a language that is truly interdisciplinary, moving successfully across the boundaries of the social sciences and the humanities.”—Ruth Behar, author of Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story, “Sujatha Fernandes presents an excellent overview of expressive culture in revolutionary Cuba of the 1990s and beyond, offering provocative insights into the uses of art as a form of political protest and of individual expression. Her focus on various media (music, film, visual art) and her detailed ethnographic work allow her to document how topics such as gender, race, and politics surface constantly in Cuban art. Fernandes has demonstrated beyond any doubt the importance of culture as a space for progressive social discourse.”—Robin D. Moore, author of Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba, “Cuba Represent! Is a stimulating study on how new avenues such as performance and visual arts have addressed complex issues regarding racial and gender discrimination, emigration, and hostility. . . . Fernandes makes an important contribution to the study of Cuban culture, society, and politics of the 20th Century. But more importantly, she explains to readers how all sectors of society in Cuba confront these capitalist pressures placed by the Cuban government. The book is a must-read for any individual interested in these issues that are continuously widespread in Cuban society today.”, “Cuba Represent! makes an important contribution to our understanding of how a surprisingly permeable and flexible state deals with and incorporates criticism. . . .“

Sujatha Fernandes is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York.