Transforming ideology into heritage: A return of nation and identity in late socialist Cuba?

Abstract

This article explores the role of cultural heritage and museums in the materialization and spread of the new ideological and symbolic order in post-1990 late socialist Cuba. It suggests that the Cuban government has developed a new way of articulating ideology, identity and history that reflects a transition from real to symbolic wars against real and perceived external enemies. In the process of transforming ideology into heritage, the Cuban regime draws on the meta-cultural discourse of heritage in an attempt to generate a sense of historic depth and local identification with the new ideological campaigns of the regime, including the Battle of Ideas or the liberation of the Cuban Five. Drawing on ethnographic and original archive material, the article illustrates this process through the study of changes in monument and museum practices in Havana.