Amateur Citizens: Culture and Democracy in Contemporary Cuba
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Amateur Citizens: Culture and Democracy in Contemporary Cuba Paloma Duong Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 ©2014 Paloma Duong This work may be used in accordance with Creative Commons, Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs License. ABSTRACT Amateur Citizens: Culture and Democracy in Contemporary Cuba Paloma Duong My dissertation studies the creative practices of citizens who use cultural resources to engage in political criticism in contemporary Cuba. I argue that, in order to become visible as political subjects in the public sphere, these citizens appeal to cultural forms and narratives of self-representation that elucidate the struggles for recognition faced by emerging social actors. I examine blogs, garage bands, art performances, home art exhibits, digital literary supplements, improvised academies, and informal networks of publication that, as forms of aesthetic experimentation with stories of everyday life, disclose a social text. I suggest that their narrative choices emphasize their status as 'regular citizens’ in order to distinguish themselves from both traditional voices of political opposition and institutionally accredited cultural producers—professional artists, academics, musicians. This recasts sites of cultural production as models of alternative citizenship where the concept of the political is re-imagined and where the commonplace, pejorative meaning of the term amateur is contested. On the fringes of the republic of letters, adjacent to traditional sites of cultural production, these oblique uses of culture consequently question legitimate forms of public speech. They demand that the way in which the relationship between aesthetics and politics in Cuba has been traditionally studied be reconsidered. Read in tandem with discourses against and about them from the lettered city—in literature, cultural criticism, film, and visual arts—I also follow the trope of the amateur under revolutionary cultural politics. I suggest that these contemporary voices have a contradictory genealogy in the cultural practices of the early decades of the Cuban Revolution. I try to show that these cultural practices become politically and socially significant because they try to resist—though not always successfully—cooptation by two forces: the remnant of bureaucratic, state-capitalist tendencies on one hand, and the rapid commercialization of popular culture for a foreign audience on the other. As a result, both the reconfigurations of the cultural field and the contested meanings of democracy in post-Cold War Cuba are re-examined through a reading of informal hubs of cultural production. The functions of culture in late socialism can be then comparatively studied by looking at an institutional framework in transition through the social and political subjectivities that are both expressed in, and constituted by, corresponding aesthetic practices and forms. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...........................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..............................................................................................................iii INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 I. Background debates II. Gramsci contra Gramsci III. The actors IV. Amateur citizens CHAPTER 1: Genealogies Of The Amateur.................................................................................48 I. Definitions II. Cultural amateurs III. Amateur politics IV. Cultural Communism and Socialist Enlightenment in Revolutionary Cuba (1959-1980) CHAPTER 2: Public Homes, Private Spheres: Post-Socialist Redefinitions of Space...............113 I. Private homes, public spaces II. Socialist and post-Socialist spaces in Havana III. Other critical approaches to Havana: Urban readings of the Special Period and beyond CHAPTER 3: Bloggers Unplugged: Self-communication and the Public Sphere......................183 I. The alternative blogosphere II. But is it art? III. Citizenship, autonomy, and the public sphere CHAPTER 4: Language and Ideology in Porno para Ricardo: Punk Obscenity as Political Currency.......................................................................................................................................243 I. ¡Y de que van, van! II. The return of punk: Autonomy as style CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................284 ILLUSTRATIONS......................................................................................................................297 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................319 i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figs. 1, 2, 3 Early 20th century advertisements for player pianos, radios, and phonographs......298 Fig. 4 Map of Havana with official sites for the 11th Havana Biennial......................................299 Fig. 5 Annotated map of Havana showing alternative sites for art events and exhibits during the 11th Havana Biennial.......................................................................................................300 Fig. 6 Poster for Curadores go home! exhibit at Aglutinador.....................................................301 Fig. 7 and 8 Publicity for Bad Art exhibit...................................................................................302 Fig. 9 Lázaro Saavedra, “Atribuido a Lázaro Saavedra”.............................................................303 Fig. 10 Official logo of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)....................304 Fig. 11 Poster for home exhibit “Pusimos el cuadro y qué”........................................................304 Fig. 12 Poster of the municipal CDR of Centro Havana neighborhood from 1973....................305 Fig. 13 Still frame from Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968)..............306 Figs. 14 and 15 Materials from Estado de Sats and the alternative blogosphere.........................307 Figs. 16 and 17 Materials from the alternative blogosphere........................................................308 Fig. 18 Monument and Park “Mariana Grajales”........................................................................309 Fig. 19 Official billboard in Havana............................................................................................310 Fig. 20 Dedication.......................................................................................................................310 Fig. 21 Cover and sleeve of Cantan los pueblos, cantan los niños LP........................................311 Figs. 22 and 23 Homemade posters of Porno para Ricardo.........................................................313 Fig. 24 Porno para Ricardo’s Album Rojo…(Desteñido) album design with band members’ identification cards and song lyrics included...................................................................313 Figs. 25 and 26 Official banners in Havana.................................................................................314 Figs. 27 and 28 Photos of friki subculture...................................................................................315 Fig. 29 Club “El submarino amarillo”.........................................................................................316 Fig. 30 Music venue Maxim Rock...............................................................................................316 Figs. 31 and 32 Official iconography in Havana.........................................................................317 Fig. 33 Defacement of money during clandestine concert..........................................................318 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Above all, I am forever indebted to Carlos Alonso for being such a terrific advisor and mentor; without his perceptive suggestions, his meticulous readings, and his generous support, this project would not have matured and taken shape, much less been completed. Graciela Montaldo’s eloquence and erudition were permanent sources of inspiration and insight. To say, therefore, that I am grateful to mis profes Carlos and Graciela would be an egregious understatement. Their scholarship, their encouragement, and their infinite patience were always precious and welcome lifelines; I have always considered the opportunity to work with them an undeserved privilege. I am also very grateful to Alberto Medina for being part of my thesis committee from the very beginning, for being a sharp and discerning reader, and for his commitment to students as Director of Graduate Studies. I am both honored and thankful that Jacqueline Loss and Rachel Price accepted to be part of my dissertation committee and read my work. Special thanks to Joaquín Barriendos and Karen Benezra for their recommendations and their support, as well as to the entire faculty and staff of the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures. Many, many thanks go to Eunice Rodríguez Ferguson for her writing workshops, her editorial advice, and her unwavering kindness. I want to extend my gratitude as well to the institutions that supported my research and my teaching at Columbia—GSAS, ILAS, the Whiting Foundation, and the Core Curriculum—and to our resourceful librarian Sean Knowlton. I am also deeply