social movements
A recent scholarly debate at ICA 2021 covered various media interpretations of social protests and implications for PD.
Cuba is in a position where it could use some soft power appeal, particularly on the same social issues—like unemployment or the treatment of Afro-Latinos—that neighboring countries are going through. If Cuba is aiming to have a rap scene with actual international appeal beyond the club circuit, the state should relax its hold.
Rap, once disdained in Cuba for its American origins, is being appropriated by the state to push a pro-party line. But the state would win more by allowing artists to work freely.
Once you're networked via social media...you're open to profound changes in "who you are and what your personal space is". The idea of any seemingly arbitrary authority standing in the way of all that can easily become an affront – and at the same time, your means of communication offers you a method of opposition and resistance: online, in the real world, or both.
PDiN Monitor Editorial Staff
Sherine B. Walton, Editor-in-Chief
Naomi Leight, Managing Editor
Marissa Cruz-Enriquez, Associate Editor