Open AccessSex, Seduction, and Care for the Other in Touristic Cuba *
Author(s) -
Valerio Simoni
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
téoros
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1923-2705
pISSN - 0712-8657
DOI - 10.7202/1055636ar
Subject(s) - tourism , eroticism , human sexuality , ethnography , gender studies , sociology , colonialism , narrative , aesthetics , history , art , anthropology , literature , archaeology
In continuity with stereotypes that can be traced back to colonialtimes, present-day tourism images of Cuba tend to emphasize the sensual natureof this Caribbean destination, highlighting the cheerfulness and amiability ofits inhabitants as well as their alleged “hotness” and exuberant sexuality.Based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Cuba between2005 and 2016, the article discusses Cuban men’s narratives and practices ofseduction of foreign tourist women. The focus is on gendered processes ofself-definition that reproduce a global image of Cuba as a place charged withsensuality and eroticism while highlighting these men’s sexual, loving, andcaring abilities. By moving beyond reductive readings of sex tourism and sexwork, the article highlights the broader range of competences, sensitivities,and moral attunements that these intimate relationships bring into play, and theway they inform Cuban men’s subjectivities, their seduction practices, and theirhopes and possibilities to establish long-term relationships with their touristpartners.