Cultural Politics and Political Cultures of the Cuban Revolution

The McMullen Museum and the Cuban American Student Association (CASA) are pleased to welcome Associate Professor of History and the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami Michael Bustamante for this virtual lecture, which explores the intransigent inseparability between culture and political change in revolutionary Cuba. Why did Cuban “revolutionaries” seem to display such a concern with the ways “the Revolution” was represented in various cultural and artistic forms? How did cultural bureaucrats attempt to enforce these ground rules (including through censorship), and how did artists and creators respond? Exploring such questions helps us come to terms with not only questions of aesthetic promotion and regulation in revolutionary Cuba (as the term política cultural, or cultural policy, in part suggests), but also a wider cultural politics and political culture (cultura política) of revolutionary society. Contemplating these dynamics is crucial to understanding Mariano Rodríguez’s life, legacy, and work, given his role as painter and cultural official after 1959.

This event is free and open to the public. Please register ahead of time at https://bccte.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItd-6pqTsiE93nDPISJ0DFtr7REU75REs5.

Michael J. Bustamante (PhD, Yale University) is Associate Professor of History and the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. He previously served as Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Florida International University. He is the author of Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile (2021). With Jennifer Lambe (Brown University), he is co-editor of (and contributor to) The Revolution from Within: Cuba, 1959–1980 (2019). In 2019, he joined the editorial board of the journal Cuban Studies.