Cuba's Digital Revolution: Citizen Innovation and State Policy

349 Pages·2021·7.871 MB·English

by  Ted A. Henken and Sara Garcia Santamaria

Cuba’s Digital Revolution
Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America

C U B A’ S
D I G I TA L R E VO L U T I O N
Citizen Innovation and State Policy
Edited by
Ted A. Henken and Sara Garcia Santamaria
University of Florida Press
Gainesville
Copyright 2021 by Ted A. Henken and Sara Garcia Santamaria
All rights reserved
Chapter 1 “The Past, Present, and Future of the Cuban Internet” by Larry Press is licensed
under CC BY 4.0.
Published in the United States of America.
26 25 24 23 22 21 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Henken, Ted, editor. | Garcia Santamaria, Sara, 1984– editor.
Title: Cuba’s digital revolution : citizen innovation and state policy /
edited by Ted A. Henken and Sara Garcia Santamaria.
Description: Gainesville : University of Florida Press, [2021] | Series:
Reframing media, technology, and culture in Latin/o America | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020045517 (print) | LCCN 2020045518 (ebook) | ISBN
9781683402022 (hardback) | ISBN 9781683402374 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Information technology—Cuba. | Technological
innovations—Social aspects—Cuba. | Information society—Cuba. |
Digital communications—Cuba. | Written communication—Technological
innovations—Cuba.
Classification: LCC HC79.T4 C83 2021 (print) | LCC HC79.T4 (ebook) | DDC
303.48/3097291—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045517
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045518
University of Florida Press
2046 NE Waldo Road
Suite 2100
Gainesville, FL 32609
http://upress.ufl.edu
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Introduction: In Medias Res; Who Will Control Cuba’s Digital
Revolution? 1
Ted A. Henken
Part I. History, Media, and Technology
1. The Past, Present, and Future of the Cuban Internet 29
Larry Press
2. Historical Itineraries and Cyclic Trajectories: Alternative Media,
Communication Technologies, and Social Change in Cuba 51
Edel Lima Sarmiento
Part II. Politics
3. Information and Communication Technology, State Power, and
Civil Society: Cuban Internet Development in the Context of the
Normalization of Relations with the United States 73
Olga Khrustaleva
4. Ghost in the Machine: The Incompatibility of Cuba’s State Media
Monopoly with the Existence of Independent Digital Media and the
Democratization of Communication 95
Alexei Padilla Herrera and Eloy Viera Cañive
5. The Press Model in Cuba: Between Ideological Hegemony and the
Reinvention of Civic Journalism 116
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Arechavaleta
6. Digital Critique in Cuba 136
Marie Laure Geoffray
Part III. Journalism
7. From Generación Y to 14ymedio: Beyond the Blog on Cuba’s Digital
Frontier 157
Ted A. Henken
8. Independent Journalism in Cuba: Between Fantasy and
the Ontological Rupture 180
Sara Garcia Santamaria
9. Perceptions of and Strategies for Autonomy among Journalists
Working for Cuban State Media 200
Anne Natvig
10. Independent Media on the Margins: Two Cases of Journalistic
Professionalization in Cuba’s Digital Media Ecosystem 219
Abel Somohano Fernández and Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
Part IV. Business and Economy
11. Online Marketing of Touristic Cuba: Branding a “Tech-Free”
Destination 241
Rebecca Ogden
12. “A Una Cuba Alternativa”? Digital Millennials, Social Influencing,
and Cuentapropismo in Havana 262
Jennifer Cearns
Part V. Culture and Society
13. Without Initiation Ceremonies: Cuban Literary and Cultural E-zines,
2000–2010 285
Walfrido Dorta
14. Images of Ourselves: Cuban Mediascapes and the Postsocialist
“Woman of Fashion” 306
Paloma Duong
List of Contributors 327
Index 333
Figures
0.1. “Propiedad privada” (private property), political cartoon, Omar
Santana, El Nuevo Herald, Miami, 2018 3
0.2. El paquete—The Internet without Internet 5
0.3. “Real Life vs. Twitter,” Twitter feed, Camilo Condis, March 11, 2019 9
0.4. “The Spaniard, the Taíno, and Technological Sovereignty” (cartoon,
Lázaro Saavedra) 14
0.5. “The Anti-Internet Authoritarian and Imposed Consensus” (cartoon,
Lázaro Saavedra) 16
1.1. Generations of Internet regulation policy 36
3.1. Free Wi-Fi at Kcho’s Studio 79
3.2. “With Internet I can . . .” 86
7.1. “Censoring the Heretical, from Rome to Havana” (cartoon, Lázaro
Saavedra) 162
7.2. The minidisk 164
7.3. Ventana 14’s YouTube page 171
7.4. Screenshot of 14ymedio’s membership page 172
7.5. “Reimagining José Martí’s Patria as a Blog” (cartoon, Lázaro
Saavedra) 174
8.1. “Sensitizing Concepts in Discourse Theory: Expanding the Field of
Discursivity” 184
11.1. Stills from the “Auténtica Cuba” promotional video 249
11.2. Still from The Wind Collective’s “Mi Cuba querida” video 251
11.3. Still from The Wind Collective’s “Mi Cuba querida” video 253
11.4. Still from The Wind Collective’s “Mi Cuba querida” video 254
12.1. WhatsApp thread seeking “alternative” lesbian cultural events 272
viii · Figures
13.1. Cover image of Cacharro(s)—Issue 2, September–October 2003 292
13.2. Cover image of The Revolution Evening Post—Episode 5, 2006 298
14.1. “Yindra” fashion advertisement 311
Tables
1.1. Cuban IDI and sub-index rankings 34
2.1. Periods of emergence of alternative media in Cuban history, 1868 to
present 66