Rumba Performance and the Politics of Place in the Era of Cultural Tourism 405
to take home the money collected at the door, or a fixed amount is
agreed upon beforehand with the cabaret manager (p.c. with Daniel
Rodríguez, September 2006 and Lucas Rodríguez, July 2008). In both
cases the total sum, minus the percentage owed to the empresa, is
divided equally among the members. While this may seem like a lucra-
tive opportunity for rumberos to engage with the new market-oriented
economy, the amount of money each performer takes home after
these events can vary widely from group to group and performance to
performance. For example, I have been at a cabaret performance by
one rumba group where the audience never reached more than ten or
fifteen people. With an average of eight Cubans to every two foreign-
ers, the total door income would be around $13 CUC ($25 MN or $1
CUC for Cubans and $2-3 CUC for foreigners). This would then be
split among the eleven or twelve group members (including dancers,
singers and percussionists), averaging just over $1 CUC per person,
and without factoring in the percentage reserved for the empresa. On
the other hand, on an average Saturday afternoon, Yoruba Andabo
packs the Cabaret Las Vegas, their weekly nightclub gig, and easily
takes in at least $100 CUC.
Between August 2006 and May 2008, I became familiar with and
attended regular rumba events at several cabarets in Havana, including
three in the Vedado and three in Centro Habana. Judging from the
dilapidated exterior of these venues, most of them appear to be relics
of the 1950s, the golden age of Havana nightlife, when American
tourists boarded weekend ferries to the island to party and gamble.
These cabaret venues are all compact and generally have a small raised
stage for the percussionists and singers with designated floor space
for the dancers, which is surrounded by tables and chairs for the audi-
ence. As suggested above, the audience is largely Cuban, a function of
the fact that these venues are relatively new spaces for rumba perfor-
mance and may not be mentioned as such in tour guides. These ven-
ues are not obvious stops on the cultural tourism circuit, and
foreigners generally need to have formed some sort of a relationship
with a local musician to find out about them.