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Queer Bolero: Bolero Music as an Emotional and Psychological Space for Gay Men in Cuba
Moshe Morad
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5542/2015.10.003
Ono Academic College & Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
While researching musical genres and events as a space for identity among gay men in Cuba during the period of austerity known as the Special Period, I came across the role of sentimental and nostalgic Bolero music as an emotional and psychological space. This essay describes and analyses the characteristics of bolero music and poetry, such as its hybrid nature, the “self victimization” themes of its lyrics and their gender ambiguity, and its heroes/divas’ life stories, and shows how they resonate with the life and psychology of older generation gay men in Cuba. It also describes and analyses the unique “private” ways of consumption of bolero, once a glamorous night-club genre, by gay Cubans during the Special Period, and how it became a strong vehicle for emotional therapy and an object for identification.
Gay, homosexuality, queer, Cuba, bolero, music, emotional space
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