Towards a Post-national Cuban Imaginary: Theoretical and Historical Context

This chapter provides a historical contextualization of the process of negotiation of narratives of Cubanness since the emergence of the Cuban nation in the nineteenth century. The author critically examines some relevant theoretical debates about nationalism, Cubanness and transnationalism within and outside the island. That review is complemented by an analysis of some key moments in the relationship between culture and politics and its impact on the Cuban cultural production after 1959. The manuscript also provides a theoretical and historical background of moments of transnationalism in Cuban music since the nineteenth century, which contextualizes the subsequent analysis of alternative and transnational explosion of narratives of Cubanness in music at the turn of the twenty-first century provided in Chap. 3 .