Alison Fraunhar
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496814432
- eISBN:
- 9781496814470
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496814432.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
With the onset of the period of intense economic deprivation that followed in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, Cubans turned to improvised as well as officially endorsed modes of expression ...
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With the onset of the period of intense economic deprivation that followed in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, Cubans turned to improvised as well as officially endorsed modes of expression and strategies for survival. With the reintroduction of tourism as a vital industry, tourist desire for both hetero- and homosexual (symbolized by sexy mulatas and drag performers embodying them) stimulated suppressed identities and demanded a reframing of discourses of prostitution and sexuality. Mulata, prostitute, and cross dressed and transgendered bodies were no longer the symbolic domain of representation and performance, but instead became embodied, lived reality. These took place among the preeminent sites for debates about the post-revolutionary era, which began in people’sconsciousness well in advance of state recognition. These suppressed but increasingly visible identities and subject positions were documented in the work of photographers and filmmakers as well as cabaret performance by drag artists.Less
With the onset of the period of intense economic deprivation that followed in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, Cubans turned to improvised as well as officially endorsed modes of expression and strategies for survival. With the reintroduction of tourism as a vital industry, tourist desire for both hetero- and homosexual (symbolized by sexy mulatas and drag performers embodying them) stimulated suppressed identities and demanded a reframing of discourses of prostitution and sexuality. Mulata, prostitute, and cross dressed and transgendered bodies were no longer the symbolic domain of representation and performance, but instead became embodied, lived reality. These took place among the preeminent sites for debates about the post-revolutionary era, which began in people’sconsciousness well in advance of state recognition. These suppressed but increasingly visible identities and subject positions were documented in the work of photographers and filmmakers as well as cabaret performance by drag artists.
