Temporalities of <em>cubanía</em> in the Special Period. Review of José Quiroga's <em>Cuban Palimpsests</em> (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.)
Resumen
Written accounts of travel to Cuba during the Special Period—the period marked by the collapse of the Soviet bloc and ensuing economic transformations on the island—are replete with references to the island as exhibiting a particular sense of time: out of time, stuck in time, timeless, on its own time. These descriptions are typically accompanied by the requisite photos of 1950s Chevys against the backdrop of Havana’s colonial buildings or decaying billboards of Revolutionary heroes. Undoubtedly the idea of Time itself, along with its compadre History, is imbued with ideology. The notion of Cuban time at a standstill, for instance, is especially notable in recent U.S. newspaper and magazine articles that feature Cuba as a travel destination or potential capitalist investment opportunity.
Publicado
2006-04-10
Sección
Reseñas / Reviews