Introduction

Abstract

The Introduction recounts the author’s motivation to study Cuban music in diaspora, after her journey from Cuba to New York, Mexico, and Miami amid the 1990s crisis, defecting from a diplomatic career in the United Nations. The chapter exposes the global dispersion of Cuban musicians post-crisis. The author explores the impact of the crisis on Cuban arts, challenging traditional Cold War narratives, and revealing distinct perspectives on Cuban diaspora culture since the turn of the twenty-first century. The text is motivated by the need to study alternative music circuits and rethink Cuban culture in a changing global context. Inspired by postcolonial scholars, the manuscript aims to contribute to Cuban and Ethnomusicology Studies, providing a critical lens on transnational Cuban cultural production since the twenty-first century.