Of spectacular phantasmal desire: tourism and the Cuban state's complicity in the commodification of its citizens

Abstract

Tourism is a multibillion dollar industry worldwide that has transformed apparently marginalised locations into hotspots of consumerism. Governments seeking low investment, high‐yield industries have turned to this service industry to facilitate the generation of income for state coffers. In doing so, states have become integral players in the selling of their own citizenry. This article uses the emergence of the Cuban tourism industry to explore how Cuba's socialist state, ideologically existing for the emancipation of its people, works to commodify and, through that commodification, control its populace. This article makes use of a decade's worth of ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate how Cubans engage and negotiate these processes with foreigners, adapting and adopting the state's attempts to commodify their bodies, for their own advantage rather than the state's. The production of these illusionary desires ultimately results in the creation of Cuban phantasms that undermine the state's own selling of the Revolution and ultimately, its control over its citizenry.

Keywords:

• Cuba
• tourism
• consumption
• state commodification
• body
• globalisation

Notes

1. CUC$75 (pesos convertibles) per person for a three‐hour show equals roughly US$100.00.

2. This campaign broadcast in Spain was in Spanish. It and all other translations in this article are my own unless otherwise noted.

3. La Yuma is Cuban slang for a foreigner but does not really translate to English. Its provenance is uncertain although some of have suggested that it is from U.S. Westerns. Thanks to Paul Ryer for first communicating the term to me.

4. Change is nothing new to Habana Vieja. The architectural profile of the colonial city has changed several times and evolved over the centuries. See Scarpaci et al. (2002, pp. 310–345) for a discussion of the long dureé of Habana Vieja.

5. The most famous of these are Varadero and Cayo Coco. There are others as well, all of which operate on the spatial organisation of all‐inclusive resorts even if the actual tourist packages sold are not themselves all‐inclusive.

6. Resolver can be translated as ‘to resolve’; inventar is ‘to invent’; jinetear translates literally as ‘to ride’ and historically has been used in relation to horse riding. So Cubans are attempting to resolve difficult situations, invent novel solutions or ride potential carriers (e.g. cash streams, airlines, foreigners) to take them away from their present difficulties.

7. The practice of jockeying, literally, in its varying nuances, includes hustling or ‘taking someone for a ride’.

8. Eduardo is a pseudonym as are all Cubans identified in this article. This is a standard ethnographic practice.

9. A camello [camel] is a large public transport vehicle pulled by a truck/tractor in much the same configuration as lorries in the UK or semis in the USA. They are so named because of their shape.

10. Using a car for private use instead of official use is one example of an official engaging in jineterismo.