Thinking politics and fashion in 1960s Cuba: How not to judge a book by its cover

(Dis)Affordances: Publicness and the Question of Absence

“…This insight is linked to one of cultural sociology's key achievements, which is to illustrate that the physicality of an environment is interwoven with what is politically thinkable there (Cabrera Arus, 2017;Molnár, 2016Molnár, , 2017Mukerji, 2012;Pugh, 2022). Scholars of the recent material and infrastructural turn in media and communications studies, as such, are right to pay attention to the myriad ways in which publicness and political imaginaries are linked to a broader world of things, and how this fundamental connection changes what it might mean to conceive of posthuman agency and the political.…”

Articulating the Pueblo Cubano: Women’s Politicization and Productivity in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959 to 1969

“…However, depending on the identity in question, the regime’s attempts to reconcile extant social differences with its vision of revolutionary unity varied. For example, in the case of sexual minorities—and gay men in particular—the regime turned to intimidation and repression (Bejel 2001; Cabrera Arús 2017). When confronting racial diversity, on the other hand, leaders recycled long-standing rhetoric of Cuban racial homogeneity and tacitly endorsed a policy of “patriotic silence” around the topics of racial difference and discrimination (de la Fuente 2001a, 2001b).…”

“… 4. For different perspectives on this question, see Cabrera Arús 2017; Fagen 1969; Gonzalez 1974; Guerra 2010a. …”

“… 7. For more on the debates surrounding the periodization of the Cuban revolution, see Bustamante and Lambe 2019; Cabrera Arús 2017; Grenier et al 2019; Guerra 2012; Pérez-Stable 1999. …”

“…Furthermore, participation in the regime’s programs and projects was not always voluntary. Forced labor camps, euphemistically referred to as UMAP (Military Units to Aid production), are an important example of participation through coercion (Bejel 2001; Cabrera Arús 2017; Hynson 2020).…”