I thought the Left hated cultural appropriation? Well, not when it comes to Britain’s entertainment industry and Cuban culture.
I note this in light of a photo my brother sent me on Wednesday. It shows a bar in Bristol, England. And as its name suggests, Revolucion de Cuba is not exactly hostile toward Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the communist revolutionaries who have ruled Cuba in despotism since 1959, and now help repress starving Venezuelans.
While the owners of Revolucion de Cuba do not appear to be Cuban emigres, or even of Cuban ancestry, it is striking that they celebrate Cuban identity as the Cuban revolution. It’s striking, because the vast majority of Cubans living outside of Cuba do not share that conception of their identity at all.
It’s not just this bar in Bristol. Near to where I attended college in London was a Cuban bar named Cubana. There, I remember fake Kalashnikov rifles and photos of the heroes of the revolution decorating the walls. And I remember upsetting the bar staff, deliberately, by asking if they sold American Budweiser rather than the lesser Czech version.
Today, Cubana is still going strong, still serving the revolution in that finest of communist forms: by making big profits off the back of yuppie Londoners who know little about Cuban food, less about Cuban culture, and basically nothing about Cuban history. Evidencing as much is this Cubana homage to the Cuban revolution’s rallying cry for perpetual revolution — which in practice became the perfect excuse for perpetual authoritarianism. “El futuro de nuestra patria sera un eterno baragua” — “the future of our country will be an eternal struggle for the masses.”
This delusional cultural appropriation is sadly the rule in Cuban-themed bars across Britain.
It matters, because it perpetrates a false notion of Cuba and Cubans. Don’t believe me? Then, go to that area of the world outside of Cuba that knows Cuba best — Miami, and Little Havana in particular. Cuban bars and restaurants that operate in that home of the Cuban diaspora rarely celebrate the revolution. Even those who know that Fulgencio Batista was a corrupt despot also know Fidel and Raul Castro were grotesquely corrupt despots. And Che Guevara was a possibly psychotic idiot. Cubans outside of Cuba overwhelmingly lament the Castro dictatorship and aspire to their island’s future freedom. Their establishments, if political at all, tend to reflect that.
Is cultural appropriation is a bad thing? Not for the British owners of Cuban bars.
