Home : Book details : Book description

Description of  Fiesta de diez pesos: Music and Gay Identity in Special Period Cuba (SOAS Studies in Music)

The Special Period in Cuba was an extended era of economic depression starting in the early 1990s, characterized by the collapse of revolutionary values and social norms, and a way of life conducted by improvised solutions for survival, including hustling and sex-work. During this time there developed a thriving, though constantly harassed and destabilized, clandestine gay scene (known as the ambiente). In the course of eight visits between 1995 and 2007, the last dozen years of Fidel Castros reign, Moshe Morad became absorbed in Havanas gay scene, where he created a wide social network, attended numerous secret gatherings-from clandestine parties to religious rituals-and observed patterns of behavior and communication. He discovered the role of music in this scene as a marker of identity, a source of queer codifications and identifications, a medium of interaction, an outlet for emotion and a way to escape from a reality of scarcity, oppression and despair. Read more