Articles by María A Cabrera Arús
Visual Studies, 2020
This article examines the visual politics of Cuban postrevolutionary banknotes, focusing on the s... more This article examines the visual politics of Cuban postrevolutionary banknotes, focusing on the series minted in 1961. It is argued that the iconography of this series – which stresses the revolutionary merits of Fidel Castro and his movement, and associates the latter with the independence wars – portrays the Castro-led Cuban Revolution as the fulfilment of the nation’s aspiration to sovereignty. The article maintains that the design of the 1961 banknote series articulates tropes that convey a fidelista imaginary, presenting the visual rhetoric of currencies as a mechanism of propaganda and persuasion.
PICTURING CUBA: ART, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY ON THE ISLAND AND IN THE DIASPORA, Sep 2019
Picturing Cuba explores the evolution of Cuban visual art and its links to cubanía, or Cuban cult... more Picturing Cuba explores the evolution of Cuban visual art and its links to cubanía, or Cuban cultural identity. Featuring artwork from the Spanish colonial, republican, and postrevolutionary periods of Cuban history, as well as the contemporary diaspora, these richly illustrated essays trace the creation of Cuban art through shifting political, social, and cultural circumstances.
Contributors examine colonial-era lithographs of Cuba’s landscape, architecture, people, and customs that portrayed the island as an exotic, tropical location. They show how the avant-garde painters of the vanguardia, or Havana School, wrestled with the significance of the island’s African and indigenous roots, and they also highlight subversive photography that depicts the harsh realities of life after the Cuban Revolution. They explore art created by the first generation of postrevolutionary exiles, which reflects a new identity—lo cubanoamericano, Cuban-Americanness—and expresses the sense of displacement experienced by Cubans who resettled in another country. A concluding chapter evaluates contemporary attitudes toward collecting and exhibiting post-revolutionary Cuban art in the United States.
Encompassing works by Cubans on the island, in exile, and born in America, this volume delves into defining moments in Cuban art across three centuries, offering a kaleidoscopic view of the island’s people, culture, and history.
The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures, 2019
This article focuses on sartorial visions put forth by institutions and representatives of the Cu... more This article focuses on sartorial visions put forth by institutions and representatives of the Cuban regime throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, in particular the visions of modernity produced by and circulated through the institutions of fashion and clothing production of the Cuban state. It presents these visions as oriented to put forth a figured world of power aimed at persuading individuals to participate in the construction of the communist future by catering to the aspirational dreams of the middle class. The article concludes that such an imaginary helped in the short term to consolidate and legitimize the Cuban state socialist regime, allowing the new socialist middle classes to reinvent themselves as consumers and to participate in the construction of socialism. Yet, at the same time, for many people these visions were mostly a mirage, as they were unable to buy anything fashionable at all.
The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980, 2019
(link to book page)
Pp. 189-244 in The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980, edited by M. Bust... more (link to book page)
Pp. 189-244 in The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980, edited by M. Bustamante and J. Lambe. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Cuban Studies, 2019
Este artículo analiza la representación de la moda en la literatura posterior al triunfo de la Re... more Este artículo analiza la representación de la moda en la literatura posterior al triunfo de la Revolución cubana, deteniéndose en un conjunto de textos literarios producidos durante los años sesenta y setenta. La investigación recorre las representaciones del vestir y sus significaciones en relación con la ideología del socialismo de Estado cubano y la entelequia del hombre nuevo. Las autoras analizan las representaciones literarias del uniforme verde olivo y de milicias y de la ropa de trabajo; así como los inventos artesanales con que los cubanos intentaron sortear la escasez. Las autoras concluyen que la moda jugó un papel significativo comunicando afiliaciones políticas y valores, con lo que lo mismo amplificó los mecanismos de espectacularidad en los que se apoyó el poder político como permitió emitir críticas más o menos sutiles de dicho poder.
Contexts, 2018
(link provided) María A. Cabrera Arús on Emma González’s sartorial symbolism.
International Perspectives in Publishing Platforms, 2019
(link to book website)
Theory and Society, Nov 8, 2017
(link provided) This article presents fashion as a mechanism of domination and political legitima... more (link provided) This article presents fashion as a mechanism of domination and political legitimacy, focusing on Soviet-type state socialist regimes. In particular, it documentssome dynamics shaping the politics of fashion in the socio-political context of 1960sCuba arguing that the consolidation of a radically new political order in the country wasbased, in part, on the production of denotative logistics that associated clothes withpolitical values. The article concludes that denotative logistics are activated as mech-anisms of impersonal rule in periods of political transition or regime change, such asafter the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. In those moments, they articulate processesof social engineering oriented toward producing a new society and a new man.
Public Scholarship by María A Cabrera Arús
La cosa, 2018
Este documento es una compilación de (casi) todos los cambios, ajustes, ampliaciones o eliminacio... more Este documento es una compilación de (casi) todos los cambios, ajustes, ampliaciones o eliminaciones propuestas al Proyecto de Constitución de la República de Cuba que desde el mes de agosto de 2018 el gobierno cubano ha puesto en circulación, formuladas por académicos e intelectuales cubanos en el blog La cosa, que mantiene el académico Julio César Guanche. Quiero con ello documentar las particularidades de un debate caracterizado por la diversidad demográfica, generacional, geográfica, profesional e ideológica, para que los estudiosos e historiadores del constitucionalismo cubano y, sobre todo, los funcionarios del gobierno de la isla que actualmente se ocupan en la reforma constitucional cuenten con un resumen de los aportes críticos de un grupo de actores de y pensadores sobre la sociedad cubana. He incluido solamente los cambios puntuales que han sido propuestos, ignorando los debates generales de carácter jurídico, político, social, económico, cultural e, incluso, identitario que en muchos casos han acompañado las posturas compiladas. También he ignorado la racionalidad o justificación de cada una de las propuestas aquí recogidas. En ciertos casos, dicha explicación huelga, mas en otros habrá que remitirse al citado blog. He reunido así las correcciones, adiciones y sustracciones al Proyecto de Constitución sugeridas por: Las propuestas anotadas resumen los comentarios de estos autores, publicados en el blog La cosa durante el período que el gobierno cubano dispuso para el debate del texto constitucional. En muchos casos, para simplificar la lectura y comprensión de las reformas propuestas, he modificado la redacción original. En otros, traduje algunas ideas generales de aplicación particular, o las incorporé a propuestas existentes. Como ya dije, he decidido ignorar muchas ideas y opiniones generales que, sin embargo, pueden consultarse en La cosa. Los nombres antes enumerados corresponden solamente a aquellos autores cuyas propuestas han sido plasmadas, de manera particular y específica, en el texto que he compilado, pero el debate publicado en La cosa, así como en otros sitios digitales tales como Cuba posible, OnCuba, Diario de Cuba y Posdata, entre otros, y en la página de Facebook habilitada a tal efecto, trasciende
La cosa (blog), 2018
(publicado en el blog La cosa, de Julio César Guanche, en ocasión del debate en torno al Proyecto... more (publicado en el blog La cosa, de Julio César Guanche, en ocasión del debate en torno al Proyecto de Constitución de la República de Cuba. 18 de septiembre de 2018)
Hypermedia Magazine, 2019
Sobre la colección "Glorias Deportivas" de Clandestina.
Hypermedia Magazine, 2019
Art OnCUba, 2016
(Publicado en Art OnCuba 13(2016): 82-85)
Age of Revolutions, 2018
https://ageofrevolutions.com/2018/01/22/for-sale-cubas-revolutionary-figured-world/
Cuba Counterpoints, 2015
https://cubacounterpoints.com/archives/1892
Cuba Counterpoints, 2015
https://cubacounterpoints.com/archives/1106
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Articles by María A Cabrera Arús
Contributors examine colonial-era lithographs of Cuba’s landscape, architecture, people, and customs that portrayed the island as an exotic, tropical location. They show how the avant-garde painters of the vanguardia, or Havana School, wrestled with the significance of the island’s African and indigenous roots, and they also highlight subversive photography that depicts the harsh realities of life after the Cuban Revolution. They explore art created by the first generation of postrevolutionary exiles, which reflects a new identity—lo cubanoamericano, Cuban-Americanness—and expresses the sense of displacement experienced by Cubans who resettled in another country. A concluding chapter evaluates contemporary attitudes toward collecting and exhibiting post-revolutionary Cuban art in the United States.
Encompassing works by Cubans on the island, in exile, and born in America, this volume delves into defining moments in Cuban art across three centuries, offering a kaleidoscopic view of the island’s people, culture, and history.
Pp. 189-244 in The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980, edited by M. Bustamante and J. Lambe. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Public Scholarship by María A Cabrera Arús
Contributors examine colonial-era lithographs of Cuba’s landscape, architecture, people, and customs that portrayed the island as an exotic, tropical location. They show how the avant-garde painters of the vanguardia, or Havana School, wrestled with the significance of the island’s African and indigenous roots, and they also highlight subversive photography that depicts the harsh realities of life after the Cuban Revolution. They explore art created by the first generation of postrevolutionary exiles, which reflects a new identity—lo cubanoamericano, Cuban-Americanness—and expresses the sense of displacement experienced by Cubans who resettled in another country. A concluding chapter evaluates contemporary attitudes toward collecting and exhibiting post-revolutionary Cuban art in the United States.
Encompassing works by Cubans on the island, in exile, and born in America, this volume delves into defining moments in Cuban art across three centuries, offering a kaleidoscopic view of the island’s people, culture, and history.
Pp. 189-244 in The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980, edited by M. Bustamante and J. Lambe. Durham, NC: Duke University Press