Reggaeton in Cuba: Censorship, ostentation and cracks in media policies

Abstract

Building on the censorship of a videoclip in Cuban media systems, the controversies arising from the presence of reggaeton in Cuba are addressed in this paper. A musical genre that is strongly anchored in the Caribbean diasporas in the United States, reggaeton stages discussions on the construction of a notion of transnational, youthful and cosmopolitan Pan-Latinity, marked by consumption and ostentation, which seems to question the uniqueness of Cuba as a socialist nation in Latin America. The problem around the performance of the "successful man" who owns mansions and cars in a country whose economy is strongly mediated by the state emerges; conflicts with other Cuban musical genres are noted; and it is claimed that alternative unofficial forms of production and dissemination-which make global identity actions explicit-undermine national policies on "being Cuban.".