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The Special Period was declared in Cuba when the collapse of the Soviet Bloc plunged the country into economic crisis. Overnight the island lost 86 per cent of its trade, and many Cubans were forced to live a harsh daily existence in the midst of severe material shortages. As Cuba adapted to a newly globalised world, the revolutionary process and the value system it had promoted since 1959 faced new and unprecedented challenges. The introduction of reforms designed to alleviate the crisis, such as the legalisation of the US dollar and partial marketisation, led to the creation of a dual economy, rising social inequalities, an influx of foreigners and increasing commercialism. To the surprise of many, the revolution's socialist project survived and embarked on a process of redefinition. Within this process, culture was deemed to be the key battleground in the regime's continued resistance to neoliberal hegemony. Ariana Hernandez-Reguant's edited volume, about the culture and ideology of the Special Period, is a welcome addition to the already considerable literature on this difficult but fascinating moment in Cuban history.
The book gathers together a multidisciplinary group of scholars, including anthropologists, ethnographers, musicologists and literary, film and art critics, who address the dual impact of the Special Period reforms and the official turn to culture across a range of Cuban cultural fields. The well-researched essays, covering topics as diverse as literature, art, santería, cinema, rap and issues of identity and ethnicity, provide rich accounts of the key themes and contradictions of the Special Period and how they affected specific groups of cultural producers and expressive communities. Linking them together is the question of how...