HOW TO STAY CONNECTED IN AN ‘OFFLINE’ COUNTRY? STORIES OF CUBANS’ INTERNET EXPERIENCE by Xenia Reloba de la Cruz A thesis submitted to the Cultural Studies Graduate Program In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Art Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (April 2019) Copyright ©Xenia Reloba de la Cruz, 2019 Abstract Since 2013, Cuban authorities have taken significant steps towards the regularization of public Internet access in the Island. Before that date, policies regarding the Internet benefited specific sectors and limited the broader access of most of the Cuban population. Cubans managed to stay current, creating original alternatives or adjusting pre-existing initiatives to get access to information and knowledge. This thesis explores some of the configurations that characterize the Cuban communicative ecosystem. Building on Don Slater’s concepts of communicative ecologies and communicative assemblages (2013), I define the Cuban communicative ecosystem as the combination of online and offline alternatives to access information and enable communication needs. Such alternatives involve human agents, tools and media that work within institutional, irregular, and illegal networks. Those networks coexist, not necessarily in harmony, within everyday life in Cuba. Rather than disappearing with Internet access, the irregular and illegal aspects of the communicative ecosystem continue to emerge and develop, providing in some cases more suitable solutions in a context of scarcity. The emergence of irregular and illegal networks is an expression of agency in the face of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). I argue that Cubans’ agency reflects a cultural sense of connectedness, based on imaginaries about modernity, modernization, development, and normality that have been part of Cuban tradition since its formation as a nation. I will approach the concept of modernity as a metaphor that expresses the goals and illusions of modernization and development. In the Cuban case, being part of modernity historically reflected an obsession to transcend geographical and intellectual insularity, embracing the global flows of technological and social modernization. Throughout this thesis, I seek to answer two central questions: What is the Internet adding regarding individual agency to the fabric of Cuban society? And how does the creation of alternative communicative structures, enriched by the Internet, relate to an inherent and mainly not deliberate sense of connectedness with a global community? Keywords: Cuban communicative ecosystem; Internet access; agency; sense of connectedness; modernity ii Acknowledgements My co-supervisors, Dr. Susan Lord and Dr. Karen Dubinsky, started this story back in 2013 when they considered this topic relevant to a broader understanding of Cuban culture and invited me to share my empirical knowledge with their students in Havana. Without their insightful, respectful, and passionate regard for Cuban society and history, it would not be possible to be here now. Susan Belyea took care of me throughout all my experience at Queen’s University, but especially during the last months, while I was finishing the process of this thesis. Also, my friends and extended family in Kingston comforted me, bringing hope and solidarity every time I needed it. Scott, Sayyida, Paul, Jordi, Freddy, Zaira, Dairon, Kurt, Lubna, Rena, Sylvie, Canan, Ale, Amila, Rohit, Efkan, Jennifer, Yasmin, Saira, Hanna, and many others: I have a huge debt of gratitude with you. My professors, Dr. Scott Rutherford, Dr. Laura Cameron and Dr. Martin Hand, challenged my assumptions and helped me to evolve throughout this experience. This thesis is a little fragment of a collective history still under construction. I owe it to all the persons in Cuba (and abroad) who agreed to participate in this research in any capacity. I have tried to be loyal to your concerns and dreams, despite the translations. I also owe it to all those who refused to participate, because in their refusal I found new questions and ways to approach my subject. Last, but not least, to those friends (or ‘friends’) who nourished my wall on Facebook during these two years, bringing new ideas or the distractions that reminded me about my fun self while I was writing this thesis. I am especially grateful to Dami and Jogito, for being the first readers of these pages, and staying around while I was freaking out. A mis padres, mi hermana y mi sobrino: saberlos es el mejor argumento para levantarme cada día a soñar. iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... iii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................................................ v Chapter 1 Going online: A Cuban obsession ................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 Cuban communicative ecosystem. Offline and online practices to stay current ....................... 23 Chapter 3 Cuban Agency and the Internet .................................................................................................. 60 Chapter 4 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 85 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 92 Appendix A List of Participants ............................................................................................................... 109 Appendix B List of Experts ...................................................................................................................... 111 Appendix C Guide for conversations with Participants ............................................................................ 112 Appendix D Guide for the interviews with the experts............................................................................. 113 Appendix E Free Association of Ideas ...................................................................................................... 114 Appendix F Cuba, Internet and the World (sample of memorable quotes) .............................................. 116 Appendix G Letter of Information/Consent (Participants) ....................................................................... 120 Appendix H Letter of Information/Consent (Experts) .............................................................................. 122 Appendix I Guide for verbal recruitment .................................................................................................. 124 Appendix J GREB Clearance letter .......................................................................................................... 125 iv List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 2G, 3G, and 4G, the second, third and four generations of mobile telecommunications technology. The number increases proportionately to the information exchange rate. ALBA-1, the undersea fiber optic cable between Venezuela and Cuba, named by the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (Alianza Bolivariana de las Américas, ALBA). ADSL, Asymmetric digital subscriber line, a type of broadband communications technology. CENIAI, Centro Nacional de Intercambio Automatizado de Información (National Center for Automated Exchange of Information). CNIC, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas (National Center for Scientific Research). COMECON, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established in 1949 to coordinate the development of the socialist bloc of nations. Cubarte, a Cuban network associated to the Ministry of Culture. CUC, Cuban convertible currency. DNA, the carrier of living organisms’ genetic information, used in this thesis as a metaphor. ETECSA, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, S.A. (Cuban Telecommunications Company). FDD LTE, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a standard of wireless broadband communications for mobile devices; the FDD, Frequency Division Duplex comes from a migration path of the 3G. GDP, gross domestic product. GPS, Global Positioning System. ICRT, Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (Cuban Institute of Radio and Television). ICTs, Information and Communication Technologies. IMO, a messenger platform that allows for the living exchange of audio, video and text. Infomed, Cuban national network specialized in Medicine. InterNic, organization created to provide Internet information and domain name registration services. v LGBTQI+, gathers Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals, Queers, Intersexual, and other identities. MHz, megahertz. MINCOM, Ministry of Communications. Nauta Hogar, ETECSA’s brand for the Internet service in the households. Nauta, ETECSA’s brand for the connectivity services. SNET, sometimes translated as Street Net (red callejera). U.S., United States of America. Wi-Fi, it has been assumed and generalized as the acronym for Wireless fidelity. vi Chapter 1 Going online: A Cuban obsession December 2018. The Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA, by its acronym in Spanish) announced the beginning of Internet service for mobile phones. After months of speculations and tests, the information concerning the