Nieve sobre La Habana: el ideal soviĕtico en la cultura cubana pos-noventa PDF
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University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2010 Nieve sobre La Habana: el ideal soviético en la cultura cubana pos-noventa Damaris Puñales Alpízar University of Iowa Copyright 2010 Damaris Puñales Alpízar This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/579 Recommended Citation Puñales Alpízar, Damaris. "Nieve sobre La Habana: el ideal soviético en la cultura cubana pos-noventa." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2010. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.i3vpvz2w Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of theSpanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons NIEVE SOBRE LA HABANA: EL IDEAL SOVIETICO EN LA CULTURA CUBANA POS-NOVENTA by Damaris Puñales Alpízar An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2010 Thesis Supervisors: Associate Professor Kathleen Newman Professor Daniel Balderston 1 ABSTRACT My dissertation explores how the concepts of collective memory, identity and nostalgia are defined in Cuban culture after the end of the Soviet Union, and how these definitions relate to the presence of Soviet culture in Cuban daily life during at least thirty years, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The presence of Soviet aesthetics and symbols in Cuban literature and cinema from the 1990s to onward appears not just as physical traces but also as the representation of a nostalgic space and as the allegory of an identity in transition. I argue that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a group of Cuban authors experienced a sense of nostalgia that is linked to the loss of a collective memory from the period when their nation thrived as an ideological partner of the Soviet Union. I also argue that despite the fact that the Communist Party continues to hold power, with the de- penalization of American currency, Cuba is a post–socialist country. These circumstances contributed to the emergence of an imagined Soviet–Cuban sentimental community, which despite ideological differences among its members, retains a common focal point: a generation‘s memories. The consumption of certain cultural products, among them cartoons, allowed the formation of a Cuban identity marked by affection towards Soviet cultural forms. Daily contact with the Soviet experience brought about an aesthetic where the use of Soviet symbols is frequent: words in Russian, music, graphic arts and other Soviet references. There are many young Cubans with Russian names; also, in the houses and on the streets there are still cars and appliances from the Soviet period. This Soviet aesthetic includes literature, cinematography, music, theatrical performances, and even online sites. 2 The Cuban Soviet past continues in the Cuban present as one of the crucial cultural imaginaries. There is not an ideological nostalgia; nostalgia is a means for mourning the end of a world. The end of this world, finally, has allowed the birth of multiple, unstable and personal worlds, some of them related to the Soviet era in Cuba. I center my analysis on authors such as Anna Lidia Vega Serova, Jesús Díaz, Adelaida Fernández de Juan, Gleyvis Coro Montanet, Antonio José Ponte and José Manuel Prieto. In their novels and short stories we encounter traces of Soviet presence. At the same time, there has been a flourishing of documentaries after the 1990s that explore what the Soviets left behind in Cuban society after their country disappeared. Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date NIEVE SOBRE LA HABANA: EL IDEAL SOVIETICO EN LA CULTURA CUBANA POS-NOVENTA by Damaris Puñales Alpízar A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2010 Thesis Supervisors: Associate Professor Kathleen Newman Professor Daniel Balderston Copyright by DAMARIS PUÑALES ALPÍZAR 2010 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _______________________ PH.D. THESIS _________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Damaris Puñales Alpízar has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish at the May 2010 graduation Thesis Committee: _______________________________ Kathleen Newman, Thesis Supervisor _______________________________ Daniel Balderston, Thesis Supervisor _______________________________ Luis Martin-Estudillo _______________________________ Tom Lewis _______________________________ Michel Gobat _______________________________ Russell Valentino To my Mom To Cristian without them, this dissertation would not be possible ii The memories of one generation locked irretrievable, as it were, in the brains and bodies of that generation Paul Connerton. How Societes Remember iii ACKNOWLEGMENTS This dissertation is the result of a year of daily hard work and the collaboration of many friends and colleagues. First of all I want to thank Laura Ruiz Montes: she not only made the final editing review of my dissertation but during the whole process she was really helpful with information, books, articles, ideas and contacts. I am in eternal gratitude with her. I also thank Xenia Reloba de la Cruz, who provided me information and books in Havana and who was my best company in my trip to Camaguey during the summer of 2009. Vladimir Smith, from the United Kingdom, who without knowing me personally, made easier my search for sources and books. All his recommendations were taken into consideration and were very helpful to my work. I also am in debt with Juan Antonio García Borrero, Gustavo Pérez and Oneyda González who shared their work and offered me their sincere friendship and wide knowledge about Cuban cinema. Tania Pérez Cano not just shared ideas and anecdotes with me, but also provided me important books to complete my dissertation. Other people I would like to thank for their generosity in having contributed with ideas, articles, comments, suggestions and personal experience are: José Miguel Sánchez (Yoss), Dmitri Prieto Samsonov, Polina Martínez Shvietsova, Zoia Barash, Jacqueline Loss and Otoniel Denis Alpízar. I profoundly appreciate my advisers, Daniel Balderston and Kathleen Newman, because they trusted and supported me during the whole process. Cristián Gómez Olivares was my biggest fan and supporter during the endless hours of work. His brilliant comments, ideas and wide literary knowledge have been like having a live library at hand all the time. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, who encouraged me all the way long and always believed in me. iv
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