Music, Race, Class & Motherhood at the Turn of the 21St Century
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School February 2013 Cuba's Chords of Change: Music, Race, Class & Motherhood at the turn of the 21st Century Saundra Marie Amrhein University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Latin American Studies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Amrhein, Saundra Marie, "Cuba's Chords of Change: Music, Race, Class & Motherhood at the turn of the 21st Century" (2013). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4277 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cuba’s Chords of Change: Music, Race, Class and Motherhood at the Turn of the 21st Century by Saundra Amrhein A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Rachel May, Ph.D. Robin Moore, Ph.D. James Lewis, Professor Emeritus. Date of Approval: October 5, 2012 Keywords: Timba, Afro-Cuban, revolution, identity, inequality Copyright © 2012, Saundra Amrhein DEDICATION I would like to thank my husband, Cesar Domicó, who has been a beacon of wisdom and a rock of support through the numerous years of working on this project in its many forms, including getting to know the people involved and the subject material probably as well as I have. For his unwavering patience in listening to me talk about the thesis for hours on end, his enthusiasm in picking up at a moment’s notice to travel with me for research, and for never complaining during the months I left to travel alone, for his precise cultural insights, his brilliant input on early drafts and his endless capacity to lend encouragement, I dedicate this thesis to him – mi corazón. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful to the many people both in the United States and Cuba who helped me during my work on this thesis. First, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Rachel May, for her invaluable assistance in guiding this work to a conclusion. I would also like to thank my other thesis committee members, Professor James Lewis, who kindly introduced me to a key music source in Cuba, and Dr. Robin Moore, who also graciously shared many of his contacts with me for my research in Cuba and whose own work in the field has been a great inspiration to me. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Madeline Cámara, for her insights and tremendous support for this project through the years dating back to its very inception. The research that went into this work was greatly assisted by the feedback and information provided to me by numerous musicians and musicologists in Cuba, including, but not limited to, Lazaro Valdés, Juan de Marcos González and Leonardo Acosta. Finally, this thesis would not be possible without the incredible generosity of Violeta Aldama and Brian Zaldívar, who let me into their hearts, homes and lives, trusting me with their most personal and difficult struggles. I only hope I have done justice in these pages to the enormity of spirit I found in you both. Con todo mi corazón, muchas gracias. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Introduction and Prelude 1 Violeta, Brian and la lucha 5 Theoretical approach 9 Methods 13 Literature review 20 Organization of the thesis 22 Chapter 1: Class, music and the 1990s 24 1.1 The Special Period 31 1.2 Music education, Música bailable and the development of timba 37 1.3 Music and the market 54 1.4 Summary 62 Chapter 2: Race, revolution and the biography of Violeta Aldama 64 2.1 Violeta’s early years 67 2.2 Brian’s early music education 80 2.3 Summary 87 Chapter 3: National identity 89 3.1 Lo informal: “Todo es contacto.” 93 3.2 Lo informal: Motherhood, race, music and betrayal 109 3.3 Lo informal: Money, identity and networks 118 3.4 Lo informal: One more time for the Revolution 128 3.5 Summary 134 Conclusion 136 Bibliography 144 i ABSTRACT This thesis is an ethnography and biographical study that examines the impact of the immense socioeconomic changes underway in Cuba at the turn of the 21st century and the flexible identity categories through which individuals navigate a social crisis. The biography and ethnography in this thesis are centered on the life of Violeta Aldama, an aging revolutionary and Afro-Cuban mother who struggles to make ends meet while fighting to steer her son, Brian, through a classical music education and into a music career. Amid growing racial inequalities when many Afro-Cubans are locked out of the most lucrative jobs in the new tourism sector and less likely to have family abroad sending remittances, the booming dance music industry offers the greatest promise for advancement and wealth than possibly any other profession. With the retraction of the state in a growing market economy, Violeta must scramble to build new networks of support while also coming to terms with the idea that the system she fought for all of her life will no longer be able to sustain her son. This study argues that individuals navigate through social crises through identity categories that are both socially constructed and subjectively fluid. In the process, they rely on these identity categories to build new contacts for support while also finding in them meaning and agency. I frame this thesis around three broad identity categories – race, class and national identity. The study also shows how Violeta in turn experienced ii these categories – as well as motherhood and her revolutionary roles – and the ways that she used them to build networks of support. The thesis is guided by the theory on “lo informal” developed by scholar Damián Fernández: the split in individuals between ideals and passionate beliefs versus life on the black market to help loved ones survive. The study’s methodology draws from feminist ethnography, examining not only Violeta’s position in society as an Afro-Cuban woman and aging revolutionary, but also my relationship with her and her son as a white, middle-class American researcher during a time when relationships with foreigners became a crucial means of social advancement. This research bridges academic areas of study regarding Cuba’s growing racial inequalities and the rising economic power of the music industry. It also contributes to the academic canon on social movements by highlighting roles of individuals – not just the state or opposition alliances – as social actors. iii INTRODUCTION AND PRELUDE It has been five years now, but I still remember the morning in February, 2007, being woken up by the sound of the old American upright piano in the next room of Violeta’s house. For a moment, coming out of my slumber, I forgot where I was, curled up and stiff from the damp cold front moving over Cuba and seeping through the house’s concrete walls. It was pitch black in the bedroom, the shutters and door closed tight, probably due to Violeta trying to help me sleep a little longer. But there was no blocking out the piano. I lay there, following the music, listening as Violeta’s son, 18-year-old Brian, brought the piano’s broken wires and worn hammers alive with a Bach Prelude, his fingers masterful and light on the treble melody, commanding and fast on the bass harmony that chased it in counterpoint until the piano thundered. And then silence, a pause between movements, filled with the scratch of Brian’s sandal on the concrete floor near the pedals, and the soft call of a morning bird, signaling dawn. I knew if this was like many mornings – at least what I saw when I was with them and what Violeta described for me when I was not – Violeta would be in the back of the house, hanging clothes over the rope line in the small weed-filled yard and boiling water on the kitchen stove for Brian’s splash-off shower. But I also knew – as the smell of fresh paint and lacquer hung heavily in the air – that it was not just any other morning for them. They were days away from Brian’s graduation recital and reception – a milestone capping 1 more than a dozen years of excruciating preparation and sacrifice by the both of them. And with it, Violeta’s anticipation and anguish over where Brian would land in Cuba’s changing landscape. In this moment of their lives, what I saw in Violeta Aldama was a person whose entire being was involved in la lucha. The struggle. In Cuba at the turn of the century, the phrase “En la lucha,” was a common answer to the question, “How are you?” It meant, “In the struggle.” In the collective daily struggle to make ends meet, to get by. But for Violeta, her fight was much more. It was the struggle of a single mother in a devastated economy. The struggle of a black woman in an increasingly discriminatory society. And the struggle of an aging revolutionary in a system she had fought for, was proud of and believed in – a system that had given her unprecedented opportunities as a black Cuban and as a Cuban woman, a system in which she hoped to raise her son – but now a system she no longer recognized.