ror.org/007ygn379
Abstracts
Abstract
In continuity with stereotypes that can be traced back to colonial times, present-day tourism images of Cuba tend to emphasize the sensual nature of this Caribbean destination, highlighting the cheerfulness and amiability of its inhabitants as well as their alleged “hotness” and exuberant sexuality. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Cuba between 2005 and 2016, the article discusses Cuban men’s narratives and practices of seduction of foreign tourist women. The focus is on gendered processes of self-definition that reproduce a global image of Cuba as a place charged with sensuality and eroticism while highlighting these men’s sexual, loving, and caring abilities. By moving beyond reductive readings of sex tourism and sex work, the article highlights the broader range of competences, sensitivities, and moral attunements that these intimate relationships bring into play, and the way they inform Cuban men’s subjectivities, their seduction practices, and their hopes and possibilities to establish long-term relationships with their tourist partners.
Keywords:
- seduction,
- sex,
- romance,
- care,
- Cuba,
- tourism.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Alcázar Campos, Ana, 2009, “Turismo sexual, jineterismo, turismo de romance. Fronteras difusas en la interacción con el otro en Cuba” [Sex Tourism, Jineterismo, and Romance Tourism. Diffuse Borders in the Interaction with the Other in Cuba], Gazeta de Antropología , vol. 25, no. 1, n.p., < http://digibug.ugr.es/handle/10481/6856 >, accessed May 14, 2012. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Allen, Jafari Sinclaire, 2007, “Means of Desire’s Production: Male Sex Labor in Cuba,” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, vol. 14, nos. 1-2, p. 183‑202.10.1080/10702890601102647 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Berlant, Lauren, 2011, Cruel Optimism , Durham and London, Duke University Press. 10.1215/9780822394716 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Bowman, Glenn, 1996, “Passion, Power and Politics in a Palestinian Tourist Market,” in Tom Selwyn (ed.), The Tourist Image: Myths and Myth Making in Tourism, Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, p. 84‑103. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Brennan, Denise, 2004, What’s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic , Durham, NC, Duke University Press. 10.1215/9780822385400 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Brown, Naomi, 1992, “Beachboys as Culture Brokers in Bakau Town, The Gambia,” Community Development Journal, vol. 27, no. 4, p. 361‑370.10.1093/oxfordjournals.cdj.a038626 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Cabezas, Amalia L., 1998, “Discourses of Prostitution: The Case of Cuba,” in Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema (eds.), Global Sex Workers. Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition, London, Routledge, p. 79‑86.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Cabezas, Amalia L., 2004, “Between Love and Money: Sex, Tourism, and Citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic,” Signs , vol. 29, no. 4, p. 984-1015. 10.1086/382627 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Cabezas, Amalia L., 2009, Economies of Desire: Sex and Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic , Philadelphia, Temple University Press. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Clancy, Michael, 2002, “The Globalization of Sex Tourism and Cuba: A Commodity Chains Approach,” Studies in Comparative International Development, vol. 36, no. 4, p. 63‑88.10.1007/BF02686333 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Cohen, Erik, 1996, Thai Tourism: Hill Tribes, Islands, and Open-ended Prostitution , Bangkok, White Lotus. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Constable, Nicole, 2009, “The Commodification of Intimacy: Marriage, Sex, and Reproductive Labor,” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 38, p. 49‑64.10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085133 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Couceiro Rodríguez, Avelino Victor, 2006, “Los Pingueros y sus Clientes” [Pingueros and their Clients], in Proceedings of the VIII Conferencia Internacional de Antropologia, Havana, Cuba (CD-Rom).Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Crick, Malcolm, 1992, “Life in the Informal Sector: Streets Guides in Kandy, Sri Lanka,” in David Harrison (ed.), Tourism and the Less Developed Countries, London, Belhaven Press; New York and Toronto, Halsted Press, p. 135‑147.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Dahles, Heidi and Karin Bras, 1999, “Entrepreneurs in Romance: Tourism in Indonesia,” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 267‑293.10.1016/S0160-7383(98)00098-X Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Daigle, Megan D., 2015, From Cuba with Love: Sex and Money in the Twenty-first Century , Oakland, University of California Press. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- de Albuquerque, Klaus, 1998, “In Search of the Big Bamboo,” Transitions, no. 77, p. 48‑57.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- De Sousa e Santos, Dina, 2009, “Reading Beyond the Love Lines: Examining Cuban Jineteras’ Discourses of Love for Europeans,” Mobilities, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 407‑426.10.1080/17450100903195565 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Fernandez, Nadine, 1999, “Back to the Future? Women, Race, and Tourism in Cuba,” in Kamala Kempadoo (ed.), Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield, p. 81‑89.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Fernandez, Nadine, 2010, Revolutionizing Romance: Interracial Couples in Contemporary Cuba , New Brunswick, NJ, and London, Rutgers University Press. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Fosado, Gisela C., 2005, “Gay Sex Tourism, Ambiguity and Transnational Love in Havana,” in Damian J. Fernández (ed.), Cuba Transnational, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, p. 61‑78.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Frohlick, Susan, 2007, “Fluid Exchanges: The Negotiation of Intimacy between Tourist Women and Local Men in a Transnational Town in Caribbean Costa Rica,” City and Society, vol. 19, no. 1, p. 139‑168.10.1525/city.2007.19.1.139 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Frohlick, Susan, 2009, “Pathos of Love in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica: Emotion, Travel and Migration,” Mobilities, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 389‑405.10.1080/17450100903195524 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Fusco, Coco, 1997, “Jineteras en Cuba” [Jineteras in Cuba], Encuentro de la cultura cubana, nos. 4-5, p. 52‑64. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Gloaguen, Philippe (ed.), 2007, Le Guide du Routard : Cuba , Paris, Hachette. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Graburn, Nelson H.H., 1978, “Tourism: The Sacred Journey,” in Valene L. Smith (ed.), Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, p. 17‑31.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Herold, Edward, Rafael Garcia and Tony DeMoya, 2001, “Female Tourists and Beach Boys: Romance or Sex Tourism?” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 28, no. 4, p. 978‑997.10.1016/S0160-7383(01)00003-2 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Hodge, Derrick G., 2001, “Colonization of the Cuban Body: The Growth of Male Sex Work in Havana,” NACLA [North American Congress on Latin America] Report on the Americas, vol. 34, no. 5, p. 20‑44. 10.1080/10714839.2001.11722597 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Hume, Lynne and Jane Mulcock (eds.), 2004, Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation , New York and Chichester, Columbia University Press. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Jeffreys, Sheila, 2003, “Sex Tourism: Do Women Do It Too?,” Leisure Studies, vol. 22, no. 3, p. 223‑238.10.1080/026143603200075452 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Jolly, Margaret and Lenore Manderson, 1997, “Introduction: Sites of Desire / Economies of Pleasure in Asia and the Pacific,” in Lenore Manderson and Margaret Jolly (eds.), Sites of Desire/Economies of Pleasure: Sexualities in Asia and the Pacific, Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, p. 1‑26.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Kempadoo, Kamala (ed.), 1999, Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean , Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Kempadoo, Kamala, 2004, Sexing the Caribbean: Gender, Race, and Sexual Labor , New York and London, Routledge. 10.4324/9780203338087 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Kummels, Ingrid, 2005, “Love in the Time of Diaspora: Global Markets and Local Meaning in Prostitution, Marriage and Womanhood in Cuba,” Iberoamericana, vol. 5, no. 20, p. 7‑26.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Lundgren, Silje, 2011, Heterosexual Havana: Ideals and Hierarchies of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Cuba , unpublished Ph.D. thesis in cultural anthropology, Uppsala University . Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Michel, Franck, 1998, “Le tourisme international : une bouée de sauvetage pour Cuba ?,” in Franck Michel (ed.), Tourismes, Touristes, Sociétés , Paris, L’Harmattan, p. 251 ‑ 287. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Nyanzi, Stella, Ousman Rosenberg‐Jallow, Ousman Bah and Susan Nyanzi, 2005, “Bumsters, Big Black Organs and Old White Gold: Embodied Racial Myths in Sexual Relationships of Gambian Beach Boys,” Culture, Health and Sexuality, vol. 7, no. 6, p. 557‑569.10.1080/13691050500245687 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- O’Connell Davidson, Julia, 1996, “Sex Tourism in Cuba,” Race and Class, vol. 38, no. 1, p. 39‑48.10.1177/030639689603800103 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- O’Connell Davidson, Julia and Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, 1999, “Fantasy Islands: Exploring the Demand for Sex Tourism,” in Kamala Kempadoo (ed.), Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield, p. 37‑54.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Phillips, Joan L., 2002, “The Beach Boys of Barbados: Post-colonial Entrepreneurs,” in Susanne Thorbek and Bandana Pattanaik (eds.), Transnational Prostitution: Changing Global Patterns, New York, Zed Books, p. 42‑45.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Piscitelli, Adriana, 2006, “Transnational Sex Travels: Negotiating Identities in a Brazilian ‘Tropical Paradise,’” Translocalities/Translocalidades: Feminist Politics of Translation in Latin America . Amherst, University of Massachusetts, < http://www.pagu.unicamp.br >, accessed July 24, 2012. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Piscitelli, Adriana, 2007, “Shifting Boundaries: Sex and Money in the Northeast of Brazil,” Sexualities, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 489‑500.10.1177/1363460707080986 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Pruitt, Deborah and Suzanne LaFont, 1995, “Love and Money: Romance Tourism in Jamaica,” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 422‑440.10.1016/0160-7383(94)00084-0 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Quintana, Rogelio, Manuel Figuerola and Mariano Chirivella, 2005, Efectos y futuro del turismo en la economía cubana [Effects and Future of Tourism in the Cuban Economy], Havana, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Económicas. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Roland, Kaifa L., 2011, Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha : An Ethnography of Racial Meaning , New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Roux, Sébastien, 2010, “Patpong, entre sexe et commerce,” EspacesTemps.net , n.p., < https://www.espacestemps.net/articles/patpong-commerce/ >, accessed April 3, 2010. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Sanchez Taylor, Jacqueline, 2000, “Tourism and ‘Embodied’ Commodities: Sex Tourism in the Caribbean,” in Stephen Clift and Simon Carter (eds.), Tourism and Sex: Culture, Commerce and Coercion, London and New York, Pinter, p. 41‑53.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Schwartz, Rosalie, 1999, PleasureIsland: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba, Lincoln and London, University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Sheller, Mimi, 2003, Consuming the Caribbean: From Arawaks to Zombies, Oxon and New York, Routledge. 10.4324/9780203417942 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Sierra Madero, Abel, 2013, “ Cuerpos en venta: Pinguerismo y masculinidad negociada en la Cuba contemporánea” [Bodies for Sale: Pinguerismo and Negotiated Masculinity in Contemporary Cuba], Nómadas , vol. 38, p. 167 ‑ 183. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2011, “L’interculturalité comme justification : Sexe ‘couleur locale’ dans la Cuba touristique,” in Anne Lavanchy, Fred Dervin and Anahy Gajardo (eds.), Anthropologies de l’interculturalité , Paris, L’Harmattan, p. 197 ‑ 225. 10.1080/14766825.2014.915093 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2013, “Intimate Stereotypes: The Vicissitudes of Being Caliente in Touristic Cuba,” Civilisations vol. 62, nos. 1-2, p. 181‑197.10.4000/etnografica.4039 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2014, “Coping with Ambiguous Relationships: Sex, Tourism and Transformation in Cuba.” Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 166‑183.10.3167/ca.2015.330204 Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2015a, “Breadwinners, Sex Machines and Romantic Lovers: Entangling Masculinities, Moralities, and Pragmatic Concerns in Touristic Cuba,” Etnografica, vol. 19, no. 2, p. 389‑411.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2015b, “Intimacy and Belonging in Cuban Tourism and Migration,” The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, vol. 33, no. 2, p. 26‑41.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2016a, Tourism and Informal Encounters in Cuba, Oxford and New York, Berghahn Books. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2016b, “Ethnography, Mutuality, and the Utopia of Love and Friendship in Touristic Cuba,” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 143‑167.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Simoni, Valerio, 2018, “True Love and Cunning Love: Negotiating Intimacy, Deception and Belonging in Touristic Cuba,” in Christian Groes and Nadine Fernandez (eds.), Intimate Mobilities: Sexual Economies, Marriage and Migration in a Disparate World, Oxford and New York, Berghahn Books, p. 189-212. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Smith, Valene L., 1978, “Eskimo Tourism: Micromodels and Marginal Men,” in Valene L. Smith (ed.), Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, p. 51‑70.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Stout, Noelle, 2007, “Feminists, Queers and Critics: Debating the Cuban Sex Trade,” Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, p. 721‑742.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Stout, Noelle, 2014, After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba, Durham, NC, and London, Duke University Press.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Time Out. Havana and the Best of Cuba, 2004, London, Penguin.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Valle, Amir, 2006, Jineteras , Bogotá, Planeta. Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
- Zelizer, Viviana A, 2005, The Purchase of Intimacy, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar