Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the implications of the process of economic reforms for Cuban cultural life. Using a broad definition of 'culture', it will examine the impact of cuentapropismo and the reorganisation of the cultural economy, as well as the debates provoked by these reforms.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explore the many implications of the recent process of reforms under Raúl Castro's government on cultural life in Cuba. The Special Period left a lasting impression on Cuban culture: the economic crisis forced individual, community and state actors to downscale national cultural policies and look for local and community-based solutions (often utilising state infrastructure) to ensure that cultural practice continued; at the same time, the state was obliged to introduce limited market mechanisms in order to target new audiences, predominantly in the tourist sector, and cultural producers were encouraged to seek opportunities off the island. However, the Batalla de Ideas of the early 2000s once again put national cultural policy for national audiences at centre stage, with many new cultural initiatives emerging to 're-invigorate' particular sectors of the population.

The process of economic analysis and reform undertaken under Raúl Castro, however, has again transformed the place of Cuban culture in Cuban society, with producers encouraged to develop public/private solutions to their budgetary needs, and with cuentapropismo allowing, at least in principle, the emergence of new cultural producers and mediators. This paper will therefore examine the multiple and complex functions, value and forms of cultural life in contemporary Cuba,as well as the internal debates that recent reforms have provoked.