Introduction

The Introduction recounts the author’s motivation to study Cuban music in diaspora, after her journey from Cuba to New York, Mexico, and Miami amid the 1990s crisis, defecting from a diplomatic career in the United Nations. The chapter exposes the global dispersion of Cuban musicians post-crisis. The author explores the impact of the crisis on Cuban arts, challenging traditional Cold War narratives, and revealing distinct perspectives on Cuban diaspora culture since the turn of the twenty-first century. The text is motivated by the need to study alternative music circuits and rethink Cuban culture in a changing global context. Inspired by postcolonial scholars, the manuscript aims to contribute to Cuban and Ethnomusicology Studies, providing a critical lens on transnational Cuban cultural production since the twenty-first century.