Havana Transcultured: The Cultural Becoming of a Neobaroque City

  When thinking of the Baroque, the figures of gold-filled and elegant seventeenth-century churches in Europe and Latin America are more likely to come to one's mind rather than a Caribbean island more renowned for sugar, cohibas, and Fidel Castro. Nonetheless, in the twentieth century the Baroque was a particularly important tool for conceptualizing Cuban culture. We know that out of Cuba came a contingent of twentieth-century writings circulating the theme of the Baroque, however the question of why the Baroque migrated into Cuban contexts can seem rather obscure.This article explores this issue and analyzes the impact that the city of Havana has had in the cultural and architectural advances of the Neobaroque.