The politics of Afrocuban cultural expression in New York City

This paper examines Afrocuban cultural practices in New York City, specifically the 'folkloric' music and dance complex known as rumba. I look at these cultural performances as arenas in which black Cubans from the post-1980 migratory cohorts (among others) craft and negotiate identifications that are shaped-discursively and spatially-by the larger social contexts, but are also sites for contesting hegemonic constructions of Cuban identity. Although most participants claim they are not political, I argue that they are engaged in a politics of recognition.