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.