Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba

5. The Joy Train: Dance Spaces in Havana

chapter 5 The Joy Train: Dance Spaces in Havana Nowadays the transformation of our customs, easy eroticism and the growing mechanization of life have calmed the frenzy for dance in Cuba; but still dance continues to be the main and most enthusiastic pastime of the Cuban people, its most genuine product, its most universal export. —fernando ortiz In this epigraph, published in 1951 during a moment of economic ascent for Cuba’s elite, technological advances, and the increased presence of U.S. tourism, Fernando Ortiz recalls a past that he perceives as healthier because the true Cuban values were still alive, not yet compromised to the detriment of Cuban culture (Ortiz 1951, 188). Ortiz describes a present and near future where the importance of dance among Cubans would decrease due to the accelerated pace and changed customs of modern life. Whether or not he was correct in these visions, Ortiz was right-on in af‹rming the central place of dance among Cubans. By that time, Afro-Cubans were already very limited in terms of spaces in which to express their cultural perspective. More than half a century after Ortiz’s writing, dance in Cuba continues to be a great deal more than a pastime or simple diversion, but rather a national compulsion, part of the Cubanness of faith, hope, and love that Ortiz calls cubanía (in Suárez 1996, 8). This chapter continues to examine spaces where timba is the medium for the performance of identities, but here I look speci‹cally at public dances in contrast to events at tourist-oriented spaces such as La Casa de la Música, and at a related “intermediary dance space” called La Tropical. Each represents a site with different characteristics, while all named spaces share timba music as the medium for social (inter)action. Building on previous chapters, I approach these phenomena as important environments for negotiating space in the ongoing evolution of Afro-Cuban identity and Cubanness through performance. The free open-air public dance, or baile público, is signaled as one of the most 106 10. Alegría/Joy, 2003. dynamic social settings in Cuba due to the diversity of the people who are present and the power of their uni‹ed action through music and dance. I suggest again that in the absence of cabildos, sociedades, and so forth, public dances take on some of the functions of historical black social spaces. Thus they are important for the continued development of Cuban society and culture at large. In his book Gallos y toros en Cuba, about the signi‹cance of cock- ‹ghts and bull‹ghts in Cuban identity formation, historian Pablo Riaño considers “la formación de la cubanidad” (the making of Cubanness), taking into account economic and political factors as well as the role of cultural expressions in the process (Riaño 2002, 12). Riaño’s understanding of cock‹ghts and bull‹ghts as “everyday play and spectacle” (performance ) and as “espacios de sociabilidad” (social or performance spaces), crucibles for social interaction, is useful in considering the signi‹cance of dance spaces in Cuba. He analyzes how the social dynamics of these spaces—what took place, who interacted, and how—have determined the elevation and nature of one or various national cultures (12). He introduces the idea that the struggle to determine how cock‹ghts and bull‹ghts ‹t into national culture at the turn of the twentieth century de‹nitively affected the use of public spaces in Cuba. Always at issue are the questions, Which part of the Cuban population is affected? What are their traditions? To what do they aspire in their diversity? Today, at the start of a new century, public spaces are still important in the process of creating Cuban identity and culture. With Riaño in mind, I focus on dance spaces that host the performance of identity for Cuba in general and for Afro Cuba especially. Because of their particular characteristics the public dances are the black cultural spaces par excellence of contemporary Cuba. Throughout Cuba’s history, instrumental music, dance, and song have been common and of great importance. The areítos of the native populations of Cuba (soon eradicated by the conquering Spaniards) are a precursor of the public dances of today. Fray Bartolomé de las Casas writes that “they loved their dances, to the rhythm of songs. . . . their beat, in their voices...