Open AccessInhaling the Nation: The Cultural Translation and Symbolic Performance of the Cigar in Cuba
Author(s) -
Stephen Cruikshank
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
transcultural
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1920-0323
DOI - 10.21992/t9tp78
Subject(s) - symbol (formal) , trace (psycholinguistics) , representation (politics) , cultural heritage , nationalism , cultural history , poetry , the symbolic , history , aesthetics , literature , sociology , linguistics , anthropology , art , psychology , political science , law , archaeology , politics , philosophy , psychoanalysis
The following article uses a mixture of poetry and text to trace the cigar through various stages of Cuban history and highlights how the cigar has been translated and as a symbol useful to the construction of Cuban nationalism. In what ways does the cultural representation of the cigar throughout Cuban history create a performance of cultural values, identities, and heritage? As this paper reveals, such a question require us to translate the cigar smoke, to breathe in Cuban history, and to exhale the performance of metaphors.