Author(s): Gabriel Fuentes
Since granted world heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982, Old Havana has been the site of contested heritage practices. Critics consider UNESCO鈥檚 definition of the 143 hectare walled city center a discriminatory delineation strategy that primes the colonial core for tourist consumption at the expense of other parts of the city. To neatly bound Havana鈥檚 collective memory/history within its 鈥渙ld鈥 core, they say, is to museumize the city as 鈥漟rozen in time,鈥 sharply distinguishing the 鈥渉istoric鈥 from the 鈥渧ernacular.鈥漌hile many consider heritage practices to resist globalization, in Havana they embody a complex entanglement of global and local forces. The Soviet Union鈥檚 collapse in 1991 triggered a crippling recession during what Fidel Castro called a鈥淪pecial Period in a Time of Peace.鈥 In response, Castro redeveloped international tourism鈥攍ong demonized by the Revolution as associated with capitalist 鈥渆vils鈥濃攊n order to capture the foreign currency needed to maintain the state鈥檚 centralized economy. Paradoxically, the re-emergence of international tourism in socialist Cuba triggered similar inequalities found in pre-Revolutionary Havana: a dual-currency economy, government-owned retail (capturing U.S. dollars at the expense of Cuban Pesos), and zoning mechanisms to 鈥減rotect鈥 Cubanos from the 鈥渆vils鈥 of the tourism, hospitality, and leisure industries. Using the tropes of 鈥渉eritage鈥漚nd 鈥渋dentity,鈥 preservation practices fueled tourism while allocating the proceeds toward urban development, using capitalism to sustain socialism. This paper briefly traces the geopolitics of 20th century development in Havana, particularly in relation to tourism. It then analyzes tourism in relation to preservation / restoration practices in Old Havana using the Plaza Vieja (Old Square)鈥擮ld Havana鈥檚second oldest and most restored urban space鈥攁s a case study. In doing so, it exposes preservation/ restoration as a dynamic and politically complex practice that operates across scales and ideologies, institutionalizing history and memory as an urban design and identity construction strategy. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications of such practices for a rapidly changing Cuba.
Volume Editors
Alfredo Andia, Dana Cupkova, Macarena Cortes, Umberto Bonomo & Vera Parlac
ISBN
978-1-944214-10-4