| This ethnography investigates Cuban museums as sites of Afro-Cuban heritage production. Afro-Cuban religions, in particular Regla de Ocha, have become important museum narratives of a shared Cuban past. Official heritage narratives have reframed daily social life and reinterpreted the Cuban past. I explore the consequences of the Cuban state's heritage ideals, particularly the relationship between the state as "the exhibitor" and citizens as "the exhibited" of Cuban heritage.; Using Trouillot's notion of historical production to explore heritage in Cuba, my study reveals that museums serve as important theaters of creation and sites of rival interpretations, not merely as static heritage displays. Grounded in Kearney's notion of "containment," I explore the exhibition of Afro-Cuban heritage in museums as a political strategy in the state's pursuit of a socialist national identity. Scott's concept of hidden transcripts serves as a framework for understanding how social actors have responded to the social policies that integrate heritage and daily life. Finally, I explore museum exhibitions of Afro-Cuban religious artifacts, as "displays of order" that illustrate that, in Cuba, bureaucratic spectacle and ritual are interdependent performances, rather than oppositional tropes.; Cuban heritage production is a complex and contradictory collaboration between socialist state actors and non-state actors in social life. For many heritage workers, museums are evidence of Cuban socialist development, particularly the expansion of social services and cultural opportunities. During 1960s, Cuban museums and their collections became public idioms for displaying artifacts and narratives about a shared past and the birth of the Cuban nation. These Cuban heritage narratives, which describe the emergence of Afro-Cuban religion as the birth of the Cuban nation, demonstrate the workings of politics, culture, and identity in the post-Cold War era.; In pursuit of processes and sites of heritage production, I examine official representations of Afro-Cuban religions in state museums, unofficial narratives of social life and personal identity, and independent Afro-Cuban exhibition spaces. This ethnographic study reveals heritage production as an emergent strategy that state social actors not only perform in the name of the state, but also as a practice that citizens employ in their pursuit of personal development and daily survival. |
