414 Chapter 18
In contrast to the situation in Havana, the venues in which Afrocuba
performs often predetermine or at least delimit the nationality of the
audience members. In other words, when the group performs in small
towns in the Matanzas province, or for local festivals or political/civic
events, the spectators are almost invariably Cuban. Conversely, when
Afrocuba performs in Varadero or at a private show for a specific
group of tourists, the audience is necessarily composed of foreigners
exclusively. Thus, there is less mixing of Cubans and foreigners at
Afrocuba shows, and at rumba and folkloric events in Matanzas, in
general, than in Havana. The few foreigners who do attend these
events are usually in Matanzas for the purposes of academic research,
individual cultural tourism—such as taking music or dance lessons
with a local folkloric musician—or for religious reasons—such as
being initiated into Santería or visiting their padrinos or madrinas (reli-
gious godfathers or godmothers). Matanzas is considered by many to
be the center of Afro-Cuban sacred practice, where various religions
are practiced in their most authentic manifestations. For this reason,
many foreigners wishing to be initiated into Santería choose a house
and godmother/father in Matanzas rather than Havana; they feel that
the initiation will be conducted in a more traditional and “correct”
fashion.
Local audiences who attend rumba events in Matanzas tend to be
black or of mixed race and most are initiates of at least one Afro-
Cuban religion. While the city still has a substantial white population, I
have not observed as large a degree of interracial socializing in Matan-
zas as is characteristic in Havana. However, one context in which
interracial mixing is fairly common is within religious worship: there
are “houses” of Santería into which both white and black practitioners
have been initiated, and this automatically ties them to each other as
hermanos en la religión (siblings in religion). Because there are no “for-
profit” gigs in cabarets as in Havana, and all events are free, it is hard
to generalize about the class status (measured by one’s access to dol-
lars) of rumba audiences in Matanzas. Some audience members have
more access to dollars through jobs in the Varadero tourist sector,