The Cuban Hustle

Sujatha Fernandes is Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at the University of Sydney and author of Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures and Who Can Stop the Drums?: Urban Social Movements in Chávez's Venezuela both also published by Duke University Press, and most recently of Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling.

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
Part I. Cultures of the Special Period
1. Revolution and Rumba: Cuba in the Special Period  9
2. Alice in Wondertown: Interview with Filmmaker Daniel Díaz Torres  15
3. Magín: Feminist Organizing in Cuba  22
4. Vitality in Precarious Conditions: Conversation with Artist/Art Critic Tonel  32
5. Public Art and Art Collectives in Havana  44
6. New Cuban Cinema: Race and Sexuality  53
7. The Capital of Rap: Hip Hop Culture in Alamar  62
8. Cultural Cimarronaje: Afro-Cuban Visual Arts  71
9. Elio Rodríguez: Of Joint Ventures and Sexual Adventures  77
Part II. Normalization: Netflix Meets the Weekly Packet
10. Cuban Rap: Where the Streets Meet Highbrow Art  87
11. Why USAID Could Never Spark a Hip Hop Revolution in Cuba  90
12. Stories that Resonate: New Cultures of Documentary Filmmaking in Cuba (With Alexandra Hakin)  94
13. What Do Cubans Think of Normalization with the United States?  100
14. The Repeating Barrio  104
15. In Cuba, Will the Revolution Be Digitized?  111
16. Afro-Cuban Activists Fight Racism between Two Fires  120
17. Black Diasporic Dialogues in Post-Soviet Cuba  129
18. The Many Shades of Fidel Castro  133
Part III. Cuban Futures and the Trump Era
19. The Cold War Politics of Donald Trump  139
20. Hairdressers of the World, Unite! (You Have Nothing to Lose but Your Locks . . . and a Community to Win)  143
21. How Socially Engaged Activism Is Transforming Cuba  152
22. A Ship Adrift: Cuba after the Pink Tide  162
Epilogue  167