Sexual Revolutions in Cuba: Passion, Politics, and Memory
Carrie Hamilton
2012, University of North Carolina Press
298 pages, hardback
SEXUAL politics has always been an important theme in the study of Cuban history and culture, not least because of how discourses on sexuality intersected with the emancipatory aims of the Revolution, whose leaders cultivated a picture of moral and physical decadence under the regime of the dictator Batista and US neo-colonial rule, but also because of the endeavour to create new, model citizens under socialism that sought to establish greater equity between the genders while eschewing non-conformist relationships and the apparent hedonistic individualism of homosexuality. Carrie Hamilton has made an interesting contribution to this field in her examination of the relationship between sex and politics, providing a valuable history of sexuality on the Caribbean island since 1959. She explores how the transformation brought about by revolution affected the sexual lives of Cuban citizens and examines these in the context of economic and political change to explore the cultural dynamic that exists between sexual desire and repression. – EC