Abstract
Years before Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced a “thaw” in US-Cuba relations on December 17, 2014 (17D), Cubans were intensifying ties through the transnational circulation of popular culture. To understand Cuba and its diaspora in the twenty-first century, it is essential that we attend to the transnational networks in place before 17D that continue to shape quotidian life for people on and off the island. I begin in Miami, with the “afterlives” of a comic variety show calledSabadazo—popular on the island during the 1990s—to illustrate how what it means to be Cuban, politically and culturally, has shifted away from the exile generation that arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. I complement this analysis with attention to generational tensions within the diaspora and representations of race and sexuality. I then move to the island to examine elpaquete(the package), a terabyte’s worth of mostly foreign media updated and distributed across the island weekly. I contend that the economic and cultural impact ofel paquetecannot be fully understood without careful consideration of the role of the Cuban diaspora.
Highlights
Before President Obama’s landmark trip to Cuba in March 2016, he successfully laid the groundwork for his warm reception from the Cuban people by reaching out to one of the most beloved figures on the island today—Pánfilo
The White House and the team at Vivir del cuento orchestrated what seemed like a live phone conversation between Obama and Pánfilo by having each separately record semiscripted parts and editing them together
The rest of the exchange is an exercise in Obama ingratiating himself with the Cuban people through a performance of familiarity with quotidian life on the island
Summary
Years before Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced a “thaw” in US-Cuba relations on December 17, 2014 (17D), Cubans were intensifying ties through the transnational circulation of popular culture. Years before Obama and Raúl Castro announced the “thaw” in relations between the two countries on December 17, 2014 (17D), Cubans on and off the island were intensifying ties with each other through the transnational circulation of popular culture. To understand Cuba and its diaspora in the twenty-first century, it is essential that we attend to the transnational networks in place before 17D that have and continue to change both quotidian life for people on and off the island and, to an extent, what it means to be Cuban. Miami has become more “present” in Cuba than ever before
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