398 Chapter 18
The main distinctions between the two categories concern the audi-
ence, which in rumba turística is made up primarily of foreign tourists,
and the entrance fee charged to see each type of performance. While
rumba de concierto usually costs between $10-40 moneda nacional
(national currency or MN, which is equivalent to $0.50-1.50 Cuban
convertible dollars or CUC) for Cubans and $1-5 CUC for foreigners,
rumba turística can cost up to $15 CUC (ibid.).
I appreciate Van Nispen’s expansion of Daniel’s categories and his
consideration of rumba performed in religious and tourist-oriented
contexts, which can be explained at least in part by the fact that their
respective fieldworks were conducted in very different social and eco-
nomic contexts. Daniel’s was conducted in the later 1980s when there
was little Western tourism on the island and when religious practice
was still heavily marginalized by the Revolution’s ideology of scientific
atheism. In contrast, Van Nispen’s fieldwork was conducted in 2002,
in the context of a hybrid economy and much greater religious toler-
ance by state officials. However, in my experience, the distinction Van
Nispen makes between rumba de concierto as primarily for Cuban audi-
ences and rumba turística as primarily for tourists is in fact quite hazy,
for I have witnessed much more audience crossover than is suggested
by his classification. For instance, the event he uses as an example of
rumba turística is the Saturday Rumba sponsored by the Conjunto
Folklórico Nacional (National Folkloric Group, or CFN), which is
currently patronized by many more Cubans than tourists. Although it
is a frequent stop on the cultural tourism circuit in Havana, I would
estimate that the ratio of Cubans to tourists on any given Saturday in
the five years that I conducted my research, 2004 to 2008, was 70 to
30%. In addition, the entrance fee at this event is also at odds with
Van Nispen’s criteria for rumba turística, as it has historically been the
cheapest for Cubans of any of the rumba events for which a fee is
charged: $5 MN ($0.25 CUC). If the CFN truly viewed their event as
exclusively rumba turística, they would charge a much higher entrance
fee.