An Exploration of Video Gaming, Heritage, and Identity Creation in Contemporary Cuba
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1 University of Reading Gaming Myth: An Exploration of Video Gaming, Heritage, and Identity Creation in Contemporary Cuba. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Latin American Cultural Studies School of Modern Languages and European Studies Miranda R. Lickert January 2019 2 Declaration: I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. Signed, Miranda Ruth Lickert 3 Abstract This thesis examines the relationship between video games and the creation and sustainment of local, national, and personal myths in contemporary Cuba. This thesis examines traditional notions of myth, particularly those which relate to culture and heritage. At the same time, it will analyse the evolving role which video games, and technology more generally, play in our lives, and how new technologies affect the creation and propagation of myth in personal and national narratives. This thesis will then go on to give an overview of the historical context of Cuba, a nation in which myth continues to play a fundamental role in the national narrative, and explore how video games are an increasingly central element of these narratives. This thesis asks whether video games and computing can tell us anything of note about Cuban culture, and whether the games which are being played and developed in Cuba are part of a broader cultural and historical tradition which shapes Cuba as it is today. This thesis answers both of these questions in the affirmative, and demonstrates the significant impact which video games have had upon Cuba (particularly the more rural and remote parts of the country). This thesis also examines the question of whether gaming in Cuba might provide us with any practical or theoretical approaches to gaming which might be missing from the existing literature, and brings to the fore the lessons which Cuba’s unique circumstances hold for the furthering of the study of video games as an academic discipline. In order to support these assertions, the final chapter of this thesis is dedicated to a case study of the rural province of Granma. Using original interviews and fieldwork, this chapter combines the extensive historical and theoretical considerations which have been laid out in the preceding chapters, and applies them to the contemporary Cuban context. This thesis makes an original contribution to both the fields of Cuban studies and video game theory. Video game studies have traditionally been Western-centric, and have all but ignored countries such as Cuba. Whilst previous works have explored the role of myth within Cuba and gaming separately, this is the first work to study the manner in which myth underpins both video gaming and Cuban culture as a symbiotic whole. 4 Acknowledgments In no particular order, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the following people. To all of my friends and family, who have been bafflingly confident in me, unerringly supportive, and welcomed me back with love when I re-emerged into the light of day. Particular thanks go to Mrs Sally Friend, to Sabina Peck, and to Juliette “Fluliette” Smith, for their endlessly sparkling company, sage advice, and for being generally inspirational women. To my principal proof reader and beloved friend, Simon Barlow, who strengthened my resolve and cheered me over the finish line with characteristic sass. To Manuel Barcia, who shoulders the happy blame for this entire endeavour. To Alice Merino, for starting me out on my Spanish journey, and inspiring an enduring love. So much of my life would have been unimaginably different but for her efforts. To Joshua Sinyor, my techie in shining armour, who spent a day nursing my computer back to health when it had chosen to give up the ghost at a profoundly inconvenient time. To Jonny Seymour, who never turned down a takeaway when things were all a bit too much. To all of my friends and colleagues in Cuba, who gave so generously of their time, knowledge, and café, and without whom this project would categorically not have been possible. In particular, I would like to thank: Luis Arturo Soto Ramírez, for many hours of fruitful research and an ongoing friendship; Kenia Rodríguez Jiménez and Luis Guevara Polanco, for their unfailingly wonderful hospitality, enthusiasm for my project, invaluable insight, and even, on our first meeting, for acting as my ambulance; Jorge Luis Rosell, who gave me my first contact with gaming in Cuba; Niurka Tamayo Cabrales and her family, for adopting me as their own; and Alexis Pantoja, for opening up his home to me, and constantly forcing me to interrogate my assumptions. Finally, to my supervisors, Par Kumaraswami and Tony Kapcia, who met my frequent crises of faith with unwavering patience and support, and who, in the end, convinced me that I had something worth saying. 5 Table of Contents Glossary and Notes ............................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 15 Research Questions and Thesis Overview ......................................................................... 18 Chapter 1 .......................................................................................................................... 21 What’s in a Game? ............................................................................................................. 21 Defining the Format .............................................................................................. 25 The Postmodern and Post-colonial Implications of New Technologies ............................ 29 Technology and Myth ........................................................................................................ 33 Rooting Myth ........................................................................................................ 35 National Myth and Personal Heroic Identity ........................................................ 37 Out With the New: The Hierarchical Nature of Traditional Cultural Studies ................... 39 Culture, Capital, and Consumption ...................................................................... 49 The Interaction of the Real and the Virtual: Alternate Realities in Virtual Spaces ........... 54 Chapter 2 .......................................................................................................................... 63 Courting Controversy: Moral Distance, Persuasion, and Real-world Behaviours ............ 63 The Question of Context ....................................................................................... 67 Heritage, History, and Memory in Gaming ....................................................................... 71 Traditional Sites of Heritage ................................................................................. 72 Setting in Stone ..................................................................................................... 74 Fabricated Heritage, Mythologised History....................................................................... 76 Personal Heritage and Identity .............................................................................. 79 Abandoning the Centre: Networked Cultural Structures ................................................... 83 Chapter 3 .......................................................................................................................... 89 An Overview of Cuban Technology .................................................................................. 89 Cuba on the Global Stage .................................................................................................. 92 Positioning Cuba ................................................................................................... 95 The Cuban Mythic Narrative ............................................................................................. 97 The Cuban Mythic Canon .................................................................................................. 99 El Che and Fidel Castro ...................................................................................... 100 6 The Early Years (1959-1970) .......................................................................................... 105 The Literacy Campaign ...................................................................................... 109 Palabras a los Intelectuales ................................................................................ 112 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................ 115 Digital Revolutionaries .................................................................................................... 115 The quinquenio gris ......................................................................................................... 117 The quinquenio and the USSR ........................................................................... 118 Rectification (1976-1989) ................................................................................................ 120 Post-Rectification Computing ............................................................................ 123 The Special Period ..........................................................................................................