DOCSLIB.ORG

Afro-Cuban Hip Hop: Constructing Blackness in the Late Socialist Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Afro-Cuban Hip Hop: Constructing Blackness in the Late Socialist Society Indira Bisam Mus 261: Musical Protest in the U.S Maria Sonevytsky Final Paper 10/13/16 Afro-Cuban Hip Hop: Constructing Blackness in the Late Socialist Society Fidel Castro wanted to create a raceless society in Cuba. Unfortunately for him, this did not happen. Although there may not be a persistent discourse surrounding race in the late socialist society, contestation around the subject can be located in the rise of Cuban hip hop. Cuban hip hop was born black.1 Similar to the rise of hip hop in the United States, it was born out of economic turmoil. In the South Bronx, minority youths created hip hop as an alternative way to make money while simultaneously building a discursive space where issues prevalent to them and their communities could be brought to light. These New York youths, however, had a large advantage over those in Cuba: they knew they were minorities, they knew about racism, and they knew they were being oppressed. Many Cubans of color are unaware of present-day racism for two main reasons: they have no voice in the political structure and the national discourse stresses unity.2 By engaging in hip hop culture and developing Cuban hip hop, Afro- Cubans create spaces for their voices to be heard, thereby disrupting the national discourse by injecting issues of race. Beginning in the 1960s, the government began making strong statements against racism. They took possession of private homes in order to create housing for poorer, usually black or mixed race families. Over time, the creation of more housing and the establishment of other equalizing socialist policies contributed to a decline in racial inequality. It also lead to a better 1Geoffrey Baker, Buena Vista in the Club: Rap, Reggaetón, and Revolution in Havana (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 277. 2Robin D. Moore, "Afro-Cuban Folklore in a Raceless Society," in Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006), 194. Indira Bisam Mus 261: Musical Protest in the U.S Maria Sonevytsky Final Paper 10/13/16 quality of life for working class Cubans of color, resulting in their enthusiastic support of the revolution.3 Since then, the government has had a difficult time maintaining a positive relationship with its communities of color. The height of this friction began in the 1990s as a result of “the Special Period”, a period of economic downturn that resulted from the loss of Soviet-based economic stability. The downturn had the largest impact on Cubans of color who could no longer expect merit pay raises and experienced sharp declines in their recently improved standards of living.4 Consequently, people needed to find alternative ways to support themselves, which is where the story of Cuban hip hop began. Hip hop arrived in Cuba during the 1990s in Alamar, a high density housing project on the outskirts of Havana, occupied by mainly black, working class people. A popular origin story of Cuban rap5 tells of how the tall, seaside apartment blocks of Alamar were ideally constructed and located for installing illegal antennas that would receive radio signals and TV images from Miami.6 Those radio signals and TV images constituted that generation of critical youth’s first exposure to hip hop music and its accompanying culture. At this time many Cubans did not know English, but artists interviewed by Saunders for her article, Black Thoughts, Black Activism: Cuban Underground Hip-hop and Afro-Latino Countercultures of Modernity, recount that “there was something that resonated with them in the sound”, “the urban and rural landscapes portrayed in the videos reminded them of their own environments”, and they “felt 3Moore, "Afro-Cuban Folklore," in Music and Revolution, 173. 4Tanya L. Saunders, "Black Thoughts, Black Activism: Cuban Underground Hip-hop and Afro-Latino Countercultures of Modernity," Latin American Perspectives 39, no. 183 (March 2010): 45-46, doi:10.1177/0094582X11428062. 5Cuban hip hop music has been largely realized through the musical structures of rap music which is why I use the terms interchangeably here. 6Geoff Baker, "‘‘La Habana que no conoces’’: Cuban rap and the social construction of urban space," Ethnomusicology Forum 15, no. 2 (November 2006): 242, doi:10.1080/17411910600915380. Indira Bisam Mus 261: Musical Protest in the U.S Maria Sonevytsky Final Paper 10/13/16 that that the artists looked like them, moved like them, and sounded like them.”7 These relationships are more important than language as they reveal the lack of knowledge Cubans of color had about their social, political, and cultural history - a problem with roots that reach back to the late nineteenth century. Writings of the Cuban Anthropologist Society from that time suggested that Cubans of color were inherently inferior and questioned whether educating them was worth it. Attitudes such as these persisted into the 1960s when most Cubans of color attended poorly funded public schools. Those in attendance were usually forced to leave high school in order to support their families. Afro-Cubans comprised less than ten percent of university graduates in any field, despite being one-third of the entire population.8 Even if Cubans of color were able to finish university, they had no opportunity to learn about their racial identity. The government feared that learning about Afro-Cuban traditions and history would create a racial divide between the people and therefore discouraged a curriculum that would aid in the formation of a distinct Afro- Cuban identity.9 The exclusion of Afro-Cuban traditions, including folklore, music, and history, persisted until the late 1970s. For example, the University of Havana still today does not have a separate Afro-Cuban studies department nor is there much opportunity for students interested in the topic to pursue it independently. As of 1996, the university only offered one course on Afro-Cuban studies, poorly attended extracurricular lectures, and non-credited summer seminars.10 It can be inferred that if higher levels of education offer such limited spaces to engage in Afro-Cuban 7Saunders, "Black Thoughts," 47. 8Moore, "Afro-Cuban Folklore," in Music and Revolution, 171-173. 9Moore, "Afro-Cuban Folklore," in Music and Revolution, 174. 10Moore, "Afro-Cuban Folklore," in Music and Revolution, 189. Indira Bisam Mus 261: Musical Protest in the U.S Maria Sonevytsky Final Paper 10/13/16 studies, middle and high schools likely offer none. The lack of representation in the university system only serves to perpetuate the lack of self-knowledge held by minority youths in Cuba. As Cuban hip hop was coming to life, its creators sought to make up for this lack of knowledge by educating their communities through lyrics. As mentioned, Cuban hip hop was born in Alamar and the suburb is frequently described as the “home of Cuban rap”.11 Referring to the housing project as a “home” is significant for two reasons: 1) the home was the place where many Cubans of color received the majority of their race education; and 2) it created a sense of community amongst minority youths who affiliated themselves with Cuban rap.12 Many young Cubans had developed a racialized consciousness through the instruction of their parents. The home was where the generation of critical minority youths learned about blacks in Cuban history, racism, and self-love. Their parents also warned them against the self-hate that could develop in their minds as a result of the oppressive attitudes and verbal terminologies utilized by the white populations.13 The first wave of Cuban hip hop served the same purpose. Rappers would use their music to educate the community on the beauty and complexity that accompanies blackness. This wave of hip hop music is not overtly political or problematic in relation to the state, but it is revolutionary in the way it opposes the socialist “illusion of ideological coherence”.14 While the government preached color-blindness, rappers were creating a space to articulate blackness, gain a better sense of self, and support one another in the face of economic decline. 11Baker, "‘La Habana," 232. 12I am using the terms rap and hip hop interchangeably. 13Saunders, "Black Thoughts," 48. 14Baker, "‘La Habana," 222. Indira Bisam Mus 261: Musical Protest in the U.S Maria Sonevytsky Final Paper 10/13/16 A central contributor to hip hop’s success in educating the minority population of their worth has been the “rap battle” or freestyle element within the music. Freestyle is often understood as an extraneous element to hip hop culture, when rappers attempt to out rhyme one another by boosting their own ego and slinging insults at the other participants. This holds a certain level of truth in Cuban hip hop culture, but it serves the larger importance of creating a democratic community within the socialist society.15 Freestyle creates a democratic community because it allows artists and their listeners to speak freely with one another. During a live performance, some artists will take breaks between verses in order to share a few words about the message behind the lyrics and after a set is complete, the audience has the opportunity to perform a freestyle in response to a song that resonated with or interested them. Through this style of communication, artists are able to reach large audiences with their message, ensure that their message was accurately received, and hear responses from their audience and other artists. As this democratic community exists in a socialist society, the Cuban hip hop scene is commonly referred to as “underground”.16 Geoff Baker argues that by using the term underground to refer to their music, hip hop artists are able to maintain a certain level of appeal by identifying themselves as outside or against the law.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cuba “Underground”: Los Aldeanos, Cuban Hip-Hop and Youth Culture
    Cuba “Underground”: Los Aldeanos, Cuban Hip-Hop and Youth Culture Manuel Fernández University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Occasional Paper #97 c/o Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PO Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 http://www4.uwm.edu/clacs/ [email protected] Fernández 1 Cuba “Underground”: Los Aldeanos, Cuban Hip-Hop and Youth Culture Manuel Fernández The genre most frequently mentioned in U.S. university textbooks and anthologies when discussing Cuba’s recent musical production is the nueva trova , which developed soon after Fidel Castro came to power. The first edition of Más allá de las palabras (2004), to cite just one example of an intermediate Spanish language textbook, uses the trovistas Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez as examples of “contemporary” Cuban musical artists (204). Books on Cuba aimed at monolingual English speakers also depend largely on the nueva trova when attempting to present Cuba’s current musical production. The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics (2003), an anthology of texts dating back to Columbus, uses samples from Silvio Rodríguez’s music on two occasions, in a chapter dedicated to the international aspects and impact of the Cuban Revolution and once again in a chapter dedicated to Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union. Without discounting the artistic merit and endurance of the nueva trova or the numerous trovistas , the use of this music (the heyday of which was primarily in the 1960s to early 1980s) as a cultural marker for Cuban culture today seems distinctly anachronistic. It would be analogous to using music from World War II era United States to describe the events and sentiments of the 1960s.
    [Show full text]
  • The Life & Rhymes of Jay-Z, an Historical Biography
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE LIFE & RHYMES OF JAY-Z, AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY: 1969-2004 Omékongo Dibinga, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Barbara Finkelstein, Professor Emerita, University of Maryland College of Education. Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life and ideas of Jay-Z. It is an effort to illuminate the ways in which he managed the vicissitudes of life as they were inscribed in the political, economic cultural, social contexts and message systems of the worlds which he inhabited: the social ideas of class struggle, the fact of black youth disempowerment, educational disenfranchisement, entrepreneurial possibility, and the struggle of families to buffer their children from the horrors of life on the streets. Jay-Z was born into a society in flux in 1969. By the time Jay-Z reached his 20s, he saw the art form he came to love at the age of 9—hip hop— become a vehicle for upward mobility and the acquisition of great wealth through the sale of multiplatinum albums, massive record deal signings, and the omnipresence of hip-hop culture on radio and television. In short, Jay-Z lived at a time where, if he could survive his turbulent environment, he could take advantage of new terrains of possibility. This dissertation seeks to shed light on the life and development of Jay-Z during a time of great challenge and change in America and beyond. THE LIFE & RHYMES OF JAY-Z, AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY: 1969-2004 An historical biography: 1969-2004 by Omékongo Dibinga Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Professor Barbara Finkelstein, Chair Professor Steve Klees Professor Robert Croninger Professor Derrick Alridge Professor Hoda Mahmoudi © Copyright by Omékongo Dibinga 2015 Acknowledgments I would first like to thank God for making life possible and bringing me to this point in my life.
    [Show full text]
  • Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form
    Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form Marcyliena Morgan & Dionne Bennett To me, hip-hop says, “Come as you are.” We are a family. Hip-hop is the voice of this generation. It has become a powerful force. Hip-hop binds all of these people, all of these nationalities, all over the world together. Hip-hop is a family so everybody has got to pitch in. East, west, north or south–we come MARCYLIENA MORGAN is from one coast and that coast was Africa. Professor of African and African –dj Kool Herc American Studies at Harvard Uni- versity. Her publications include Through hip-hop, we are trying to ½nd out who we Language, Discourse and Power in are, what we are. That’s what black people in Amer- African American Culture (2002), ica did. The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowl- –mc Yan1 edge, Power, and Respect in the LA Underground (2009), and “Hip- hop and Race: Blackness, Lan- It is nearly impossible to travel the world without guage, and Creativity” (with encountering instances of hip-hop music and cul- Dawn-Elissa Fischer), in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century ture. Hip-hop is the distinctive graf½ti lettering (ed. Hazel Rose Markus and styles that have materialized on walls worldwide. Paula M.L. Moya, 2010). It is the latest dance moves that young people per- form on streets and dirt roads. It is the bass beats DIONNE BENNETT is an Assis- mc tant Professor of African Ameri- and styles of dress at dance clubs. It is local s can Studies at Loyola Marymount on microphones with hands raised and moving to University.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Hip-Hop Is Queer: Using Queer Theory to Examine Identity Formation in Rap Music
    Why Hip-Hop is Queer: Using Queer Theory to Examine Identity Formation in Rap Music Silvia Maria Galis-Menendez Advisor: Dr. Irene Mata Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Prerequisite for Honors in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies May 2013 © Silvia Maria Galis-Menendez 2 Table of Contents Introduction 3 “These Are the Breaks:” Flow, Layering, Rupture, and the History of Hip-Hop 6 Hip-Hop Identity Interventions and My Project 12 “When Hip-Hop Lost Its Way, He Added a Fifth Element – Knowledge” 18 Chapter 1. “Baby I Ride with My Mic in My Bra:” Nicki Minaj, Azealia Banks and the Black Female Body as Resistance 23 “Super Bass:” Black Sexual Politics and Romantic Relationships in the Works of Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks 28 “Hey, I’m the Liquorice Bitch:” Challenging Dominant Representations of the Black Female Body 39 Fierce: Affirmation and Appropriation of Queer Black and Latin@ Cultures 43 Chapter 2. “Vamo a Vence:” Las Krudas, Feminist Activism, and Hip-Hop Identities across Borders 50 El Hip-Hop Cubano 53 Las Krudas and Queer Cuban Feminist Activism 57 Chapter 3. Coming Out and Keepin’ It Real: Frank Ocean, Big Freedia, and Hip- Hop Performances 69 Big Freedia, Queen Diva: Twerking, Positionality, and Challenging the Gaze 79 Conclusion 88 Bibliography 95 3 Introduction In 1987 Onika Tanya Maraj immigrated to Queens, New York City from her native Trinidad and Tobago with her family. Maraj attended a performing arts high school in New York City and pursued an acting career. In addition to acting, Maraj had an interest in singing and rapping.
    [Show full text]
  • ANASTASIA VALECCE Assistant Professor of Spanish Dept
    ANASTASIA VALECCE Assistant Professor of Spanish Dept. of World Languages and Literature, Box 719 450 Cosby Building Spelman College 350 Spelman Lane SW Atlanta, GA 30314 Tlf. (+1) 404 270 5542 [email protected] [email protected] EDUCATION Spring 2013 PhD Emory University, Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Specialization: Latin American Studies with a focus on contemporary Spanish Caribbean, cinema, queer and gender studies, visual culture, performance, and literature. Dissertation Title: Cine y (r)evolución. El neorrealismo italiano en Cuba (1959-1969) [Cinema and (R )evolution. Italian Neorealism in Cuba (1959-1969)] Dissertation Committee: Dr. José Quiroga (Adviser), Dr. Maria Mercedes Carrión, Dr. Mark Sanders, Dr. Juan Carlos Rodríguez. 2006 Siena (Italy) M. A. “Università di Lettere e Filosofia”[University of Literature and Philosophy.] Specialization: Literary Translation and Text Editing from Spanish into Italian. Work as a translator, interpreter, and editor for Gorèe Press, Siena, Italy. Masters Thesis: Translation Project from Spanish into Italian of Mexican piece Yo soy Don Juan para servirle a usted [This is Don Juan Here to Serve You] by Mexican play writer Dante Medina. Thesis Adviser: Dr. Antonio Melis. 2004 Naples (Italy) B. A. “Istituto Universitario l’Orientale,” Foreign Languages and Literature (major in Spanish and English, minor in Portuguese). Honors Thesis: L’immigrazione sirio libanese in Argentina (1850-1950) [The Syrian and Lebanese Immigration to Argentina (1850-1950)] Thesis Adviser: Dr. Angelo Trento. AWARDS 2018 Spring Best Honors Thesis Award. Adviser for Honor thesis La Identidad Racial en la Sociedad Cubana: Una mirada a los Cubanos Afrodescendientes [Racial Identity In Cuban Society: An Overview of Afro Cubans], Spelman College.
    [Show full text]
  • Music Production and Cultural Entrepreneurship in Today’S Havana: Elephants in the Room
    MUSIC PRODUCTION AND CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN TODAY’S HAVANA: ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM by Freddy Monasterio Barsó A thesis submitted to the Department of Cultural Studies In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (September, 2018) Copyright ©Freddy Monasterio Barsó, 2018 Abstract Cultural production and entrepreneurship are two major components of today’s global economic system as well as important drivers of social development. Recently, Cuba has introduced substantial reforms to its socialist economic model of central planning in order to face a three-decade crisis triggered by the demise of the USSR. The transition to a new model, known as the “update,” has two main objectives: to make the state sector more efficient by granting more autonomy to its organizations; and to develop alternative economic actors (small private businesses, cooperatives) and self-employment. Cultural production and entrepreneurship have been largely absent from the debates and decentralization policies driving the “update” agenda. This is mainly due to culture’s strategic role in the ideological narrative of the ruling political leadership, aided by a dysfunctional, conservative cultural bureaucracy. The goal of this study is to highlight the potential of cultural production and entrepreneurship for socioeconomic development in the context of neoliberal globalization. While Cuba is attempting to advance an alternative socialist project, its high economic dependency makes the island vulnerable to the forces of global neoliberalism. This study focuses on Havana’s music sector, particularly on the initiatives, musicians and music professionals operating in the informal economy that has emerged as a consequence of major contradictions and legal gaps stemming from an outdated cultural policy and ambiguous regulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Raquel Z. Rivera Hip Hop/ Reggaetón Collection
    Guide to the Raquel Z. Rivera Hip Hop/ Reggaetón Collection Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Hunter College, CUNY 2180 Third Avenue @ 119th St., Rm. 120 New York, New York 10035 (212) 396-7877 www.centropr.hunter.cuny.edu Descriptive Summary Resumen descriptivo Creator: Raquel Z. Rivera, 1972- Creador: Raquel Z. Rivera, 1972- Title: The Raquel Z. Rivera Hip Hop/ Reggaetón Título: The Raquel Z. Rivera Hip Hop/ Reggaetón Collection Collection Inclusive Dates: 1977-2008 Años extremos: 1977-2008 Bulk Dates: 1995-2003 Período principal: 1995-2003 Volume: 9 cubic feet Volumen: 9 pies cùbicos Repository: Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Repositorio: Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Abstract: The Raquel Z. Rivera Hip Hop/ Reggaetón Nota de resumen: La Colección de Hip Hop y Collection helps document Puerto Rican contributions Reggaetón de Raquel Z. Rivera, documenta la to the creation and development of hip hop and contribución puertorriqueña a la creación y el reggaetón both in the United States and Puerto Rico. desarrollo del hip hop y el reggaetón tanto en los Highlights of the collection include an extensive Estados Unidos como en Puerto Rico. Parte importante audiocassette and compact disc collection, essays de la colección incluye una extensa compilación de written by Rivera on hip hop and reggaetón and paper cintas de audio y discos compactos, ensayos sobre hip documentation on numerous artists. hop y reggaetón escritos por Rivera y documentación en papel sobre varios artistas. Administrative Information Información administrativa Collection Number: 2005-07 Número de colección: 2005-07 Provenance: Raquel Z.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics and Commodification of Cuban Music During the Special
    NEGOTIATION WITH THE REVOLUTION: THE POLITICS AND COMMODIFICATION OF CUBAN MUSIC DURING THE SPECIAL PERIOD by Eric Jason Oberstein Department of Cultural Anthropology Advisors: Caroline Yezer Paul Berliner Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with distinction for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences of Duke University 2007 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Caroline Yezer and Paul Berliner, my committee members, for their constant support and guidance throughout the writing process. They helped me define my topic, read through my drafts, and gave me direction with my ideas. I would like to thank the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, especially Orin Starn, who encouraged me to write a senior thesis, and Heather Settle, who was one of my first anthropology instructors and who taught me about the depth of Cuba. In addition, I would like to thank Bradley Simmons, my Afro-Cuban percussion mentor, who taught me how to play and appreciate Cuban music. I would also like to thank my family for fostering my passion for Cuban music and culture. A special thanks goes to Osvaldo Medina, my personal Cuban music encyclopedia, who always managed to find me in the corner at family parties and shared stories of Cuban musicians young and old. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to the musicians of Cuba, both on and off the island. Your work forever inspires and moves me. ii Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................................1 Research Question .............................................................................................................1 Significance of Research.................................................................................................. 14 Methods............................................................................................................................ 18 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Afro-Cuban Rap Legends Obsesion Talk Race, Gender and Hip-Hop at UCLA by GABRIEL SAN ROMAN FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017 at 7:56 A.M
    4/19/2017 Cuban Rap Group Obsesion Comes to UCLA | OC Weekly Afro-Cuban Rap Legends Obsesion Talk Race, Gender and Hip-Hop at UCLA BY GABRIEL SAN ROMAN FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017 AT 7:56 A.M. ¿Que bola? Photo by Gabriel San Roman / OC Weekly In a rare cultural exchange, veteran Cuban rap duo Obsesion visited UCLA as the university's week-long artists-in-residence. Magia Lopez Cabrera (Magia MC) and Alexey Rodriguez (...el tipo este...) form one of the most well-respected and longest-running hip-hop groups on the island having celebrated their 20th anniversary last summer. They masterfully mix Afro- Cuban percussion rhythms, jazz and socially conscious rhymes in their infectious brew (think A Tribe Called Quest meets Buena Vista Social Club). http://www.ocweekly.com/content/printView/8038908 1/5 4/19/2017 Cuban Rap Group Obsesion Comes to UCLA | OC Weekly With the UCLA library in a cultural heritage collaboration with the Cuban Hip-Hop Archive on the island, Obsesion spoke on a panel about their craft yesterday evening before giving a mini-performance perfect for the library's budding collection. The duo took questions first from Bruin professor Aisha Finch, whose book Rethinking Slave Rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the Insurgencies of 1841-1844 is a must read that won the inaugural Harriet Tubman prize. "One day, we had to perform and we chose the name Obsesion," Rodriguez said in Spanish. Professor Vanessa Diaz, a visiting scholar at UCLA from Cal State Fullerton, provided consecutive translations. The duo mulled over hundreds of possible monikers before the stage pressed the issue.
    [Show full text]
  • “Rap Is War”: Los Aldeanos and the Politics of Music Subversion in Contemporary Cuba Nora Gámez Torres (City University, London)
    TRANS 17 (2013) ARTÍCULOS/ ARTICLES “Rap is war”: Los Aldeanos and the Politics of Music Subversion in Contemporary Cuba Nora Gámez Torres (City University, London) Resumen Abstract El estudio del hip hop cubano permite examinar hasta qué Cuban hip-hop provides a good case to examine the extent to punto la música puede convertirse en una práctica de which music can articulate opposition in socialist societies. As oposición política en las sociedades socialistas. Al tiempo hip-hop’s racial politics became a concern to the state and a que la política racial del hip cubano ha provocado estrategias site for hegemonic control and assimilation, I suggest that the estatales de asimilación y control hegemónico, el lado más resistant edge of hip-hop as a cultural form has shifted from contestatario de este movimiento se ha desplazado de las racial politics to a politics of confrontation best illustrated by políticas raciales hacia políticas de confrontación más the rap group Los Aldeanos. I analyse their lyrics and public abiertas hacia el estado como lo ejemplifica el caso de Los interventions to illustrate how these rappers rearticulate the Aldeanos. Este artículo analiza las letras y las intervenciones Cuban Revolution’s framework to propose a radical politics of públicas de este grupo de rap e ilustra cómo estos raperos confrontation that mobilizes a subversive “revolutionary” rearticulan el imaginario de la Revolución Cubana para identity constructed as a political agent. I argue that their proponer una política de confrontación radical que construye music can be interpreted as a form of politics in a context una identidad “revolucionaria” subversiva.
    [Show full text]
  • Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity by Tanya Saunders
    Publication of the afro-latin/american research association (Palara) ISSN 2639-1295 Fall 2018 • Issue 22 doi:10.32855/palara.2018.007 Book Review Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity by Tanya Saunders Sarah Ohmer • City University of New York, Lehman College University of Texas Press: Austin, TX, 2015. 368 pages. nation-making and in Latinx Studies. Chapters 1 through 3 $29.95, cloth. ISBN: 978-1-4773-0770-0 (Chapter 1: “Introduction,” Chapter 2: “Historicizing Race, Cultural Politics, and Critical Music Cultures in Cuba” “A Queer of Color, Black Feminist Crucial Threat to and Chapter 3: “La Revolución Dentro de la Revolución: Latinx Studies, Latin American Studies, Sociology and Hip Hop, Cuba and Afro-Descendant Challenges to Hip Hop Studies” Coloniality”) trace carefully how to rethink current notions of Western modernity while tracing and acknowl- n Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black edging Africans and their descendants in the formation of Revolution, Black Modernity, Tanya Saunders presents the Cuban society and the West (and, I would add, in American ICuban Underground Hip Hop Movement (cuhhm) as Feminism). Throughout the book, one sees how and why “artivists” who create a nascent civil society in a totalitari- the racism that continues today in the Americas is tied to an state. Thinking of subjectivity or identity formation with 15th -19th centuries’ cultural imaginaries. This, Saunders hip hop, sexuality, race, and latinidades, Saunders focuses on reminds us, comes back to the ‘devious invention of contemporary underground Cuban hip hop (separate from modernity’ established during Renaissance according to original Cuban Hip Hop).
    [Show full text]
  • El Hip-Hop Cubano: an Agent of Social and Political Change in Cuba?
    University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) 12-2019 El hip-hop cubano: An Agent of Social and Political Change in Cuba? Margaree Jackson Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Part of the Latin American History Commons, and the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Jackson, Margaree, "El hip-hop cubano: An Agent of Social and Political Change in Cuba?" (2019). Honors Theses. 1557. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1557 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EL HIP-HOP CUBANO: AN AGENT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN CUBA? by Margaree Jackson A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Oxford December 2019 Approved by ____________________________________ _ Advisor: Dean Douglass Sullivan-González _____________________________________ Reader: Professor Alice Cooper _____________________________________ Reader: Professor Diane Marting i © 2019 Margaree Jackson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dean Douglass Sullivan-González for helping me discover my passion for learning about race in Latin America. Thank you for your patience, guidance, and motivation throughout my capstone and thesis writing process. Thank you for working with me almost every Friday morning at 8 a.m. and for helping me to grow as a writer. I would also like to thank Dr.
    [Show full text]