 Colonialist images in
contemporary Cuba
With the increase in tourists, many of
them from Europe and South America, Cuba has seen a great increase in the
number of disrespectful images one can find for sale on the streets, especially
in places such as Old Havana and Varadero, prime tourist areas. This
imagery has also spread to t-shirts, some even worn by Black Cubans, such
as those at left.
Gloria Rolando has touched
on this issue in her new movie,
Dialog with My Grandmother:
"This film project will also offer a very different image from the one that the
local tourist industry attempts to project, namely the sexual stereotype of
mulatas in extremely insensitive and provocative poses; also black women with
prominent lips, breasts, buttocks, holding cigars of exaggerated sizes. These
trinkets are not funny and not amusing. Instead these insensitive souvenirs sold
in Cuba project a false understanding of the real image of black women in
general. It is through the recognition of womanist community leadership that I
draw attention to the misrepresentation of the current Afro Cuban experience
through the promotion and sale of consumer products via the exaggerated,
affected misappropriation of African Diaspora representation."
There is a tradition of
these images going back at least 100 years. Ugly cartoons were common in
the build up to the Massacre of 1912. They are by no means confined to
Cuba, and they are enjoying a resurgence not only in Cuba but also in
Colombia, the US, and elsewhere.
See our
Picture Gallery: statuettes
for sale in Varadero, a major tourist resort east of Havana and Matanzas,
itself a cradle of African culture in Cuba. It is unlikely these were
being sold through a government store, as there are strict penalties for
producing and selling pornographic images. Intersectionality!
A related issue is the
number of costumed caricatures running around in Old Havana. A
number of folks have complained about this show of low self esteem. Is
this the best Havana has to offer?
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