396 Chapter 18
ies within the cultural tourism industry respectively influence their
musicians’ livelihoods and access to supplemental income. This paper
ultimately views contemporary rumba performance as a case study
through which to highlight the geographically uneven ways in which
the Cuban state has invested in its tourism infrastructure.
The various types and contexts of rumba performance in
Havana
Rumba is performed in a variety of contexts in contemporary Cuba,
with some performances involving professional musicians and danc-
ers and others involving amateur performers and/or community par-
ticipants. In her book Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary
Cuba, Yvonne Daniel presents three distinct categories of rumba per-
formance: “spontaneous” or traditional rumba, “prepared” or profes-
sional rumba, and “prepared spontaneous rumba,” which starts off as
a prepared performance and evolves into a spontaneous one (Daniel
1995: 101-05). She makes a further distinction between professional
dance companies and traditional rumba groups, who also have profes-
sional status but, in contrast with the larger companies, usually have
two or three dance pairs, are not trained in dance technique, and place
less emphasis on theatrical elements of the performance such as cos-
tumes (ibid: 98-99). The groups with whom I conducted research in
Havana (Yoruba Andabo, Clave y Guaguancó and Los Ibellis) and
Matanzas (Afrocuba de Matanzas), would all be considered traditional
rumba groups according to Daniel’s criteria, as the majority of the
members are “culture bearers” who grew up practicing these tradi-
tions. While it is important to outline the distinctions between “spon-
taneous” and “prepared” types of rumba, Daniel’s categories and
terms seem somewhat rigid when examined in relation to contempo-
rary performance practice. For example, the groups with whom I con-
ducted research can be characterized as both “traditional rumba” and
“professional rumba;” although they are professionals and their
shows are often prepared in terms of the sequence of songs, their per-