Fiesta de diez pesos: Music and Gay Identity in Special Period Cuba

The ‘Special Period’ in Cuba was an extended era of economic depression starting in the early 1990s, characterised by the collapse of revolutionary values and social norms, and a way of life conducted by improvised solutions for survival. In the course of eight visits between 1995 and 2007 Moshe Morad became absorbed in Havana’s thriving, yet necessarily clandestine, gay scene, where he observed patterns of behaviour and communication. He discovered the role of music in this scene as a marker of identity, a source of queer codifications and identifications, a medium of interaction, an outlet for emotion and a way to escape from a reality of scarcity, oppression and despair.