Isle of Rum: Havana Club, Cultural Mediation, and the Fight for Cuban Authenticity

By: Christopher Chávez

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Synopsis: Focusing on Havana Club rum as a case study, Isle of Rum examines the ways in which Western cultural producers, working in collaboration with the Cuban state, have assumed responsibility for representing Cuba to the outside world. Christopher Chávez focuses specifically on the role of advertising practitioners, musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists, who stand to benefit economically by selling an image of Cuba to consumers who desperately crave authentic experiences that exist outside of the purview of the marketplace. Rather than laying claim to authentic Cuban culture, Chávez explores which aspects of Cuban culture are deemed most compelling and, therefore, most profitable by corporate marketers. As a joint venture between the Cuban state and Pernod Ricard, a global spirits marketer based in Paris, Havana Club embodies the larger process of economic reform, which was meant to reintegrate Cuba into global markets during Cuba’s Special Period in a Time of Peace.