Cuba in the shadow of change
Subtitle: daily life in the twilight of the revolution
By: Amelia Rosenberg Weinreb.
Series: Contemporary cuba
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Gainesville, Fla
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780813033693
Subjects: Ethnology -- Cuba; Economic anthropology -- Cuba; Social classes -- Cuba; Social change -- Cuba; Consumption (Economics) -- Cuba; Cuba -- History -- Revolution, 1959; Cuba -- Economic conditions -- 21st century; Cuba -- Social life and customs
Description: "Amelia Weinreb takes readers deep inside the everyday life of middle-class Cubans - arguably the majority of citizens on the island. Un-theorized and under-described, it is a group that is portrayed honestly, accurately, and empathetically. The political and economic systems of Cuba in the post-Soviet period pose ongoing challenges to ordinary Cubans as they struggle in the waning years of the Castro regime. Weinreb demonstrates that the major reason they have been ignored in the scholarly literature is because remaining obscure is one of their strategies for coping with these challenges. Weinreb has made repeated visits to the island, frequently living in local communities along with her family. Thus her ethnography of this 'shadow public' is based upon traditional participant-observer methodology. Her experiences - from the clothesline, the back bedroom, the kitchen table, and the living room sofa - allow her an unprecedented opportunity to bring to outside readers the reality of daily life in Cuba, and she includes an epilogue that addresses citizen and consumer changes that have taken place since Raúl Castro became president in February 2008"--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Historical overview: tracing discontent; title: Private; title: Private space; title: Private experience; title: Means; title: Words and means: the special period lexicon; title: What goods mean in cuba; title: Dollars, means, and the new cuban class system; title: Free; title: Un-migration; title: Freedom offstage; title: Conclusion: citizens, consumers, and shadow publics in time and space.