Rumba Performance and the Politics of Place in the Era of Cultural Tourism 411
not to invest in promoting tourism in Matanzas, preferring to focus
their energy and resources on Varadero. This situation forces
Matanceros (Matanzas natives) to travel to Varadero if they want to go
out dancing or to eat at a restaurant that serves more than pizza, fried
chicken, or hamburgers. In my experience, Matanceros enjoy a better
standard of living than many Havana residents due to the lack of over-
crowding, pollution, and crime. In addition, some Matanzas natives
have been able to secure employment in the Varadero tourist sector.
Nevertheless, a better standard of living does not necessarily translate
to more material or economic wealth; it is also related to the broader
social relations within a given place. Thus, while life is calmer and less
chaotic in Matanzas than in the capital (a factor that I believe aug-
ments the standard of living), the majority of Matanceros do not have
the disposable income to travel to Varadero, eat at one of its expensive
restaurants, or party at one of its nightclubs. Even the musicians and
dancers of Afrocuba, who during my research period performed a
regular bimonthly gig in one of the Varadero hotels for which they
were paid in dollars, rarely had more than a few dollars in their pock-
ets at any given time and that money would usually be spent quickly
on food for their households.
Rumba venues in Matanzas.
Matanzas is widely considered to be la mata de la rumba (the “tree” or
birthplace of rumba), although there are still debates in Cuban music
scholarship about whether the most popular and oft-performed style
of rumba, guaguancó, emerged in Havana or Matanzas. As in the capital,
there are several historic Afro-Cuban neighborhoods in Matanzas,
such as Simpson and Pueblo Nuevo, that have been linked to rumba
performance since the late nineteenth century. Cuban musicologist
Nancy Grasso González asserts that the middle classes were histori-
cally concentrated in the central part of the city, which locals refer to
as “Matanzas,” and in the Versailles and La Marina neighborhoods
(Grasso González 1989: 5). Nevertheless, during my fieldwork in
Matanzas, I came to know La Marina as a barrio with a longstanding,
deep history of Afro-Cuban religious practice and rumba perfor-