Love, Jealousy and Gender in Post-Soviet Havana

The efforts of the Cuban socialist state to create a ‘New Man’ shared basic characteristics with endeavours in Eastern European and Soviet state socialisms, including the promotion of gender equality and stable marital relationships. In Cuba, this also included the goal of creating greater stability in the largely matrifocal family relationships. Ethnographic evidence from contemporary Havana suggests that Cubans have widely embraced some aspects of the state’s notions of socialist marital relationships, but insecurities still play a significant role in love relationships. Infidelity, ‘plotting’ and shaky trust in their romantic partner are of constant concern for Cubans. Exploring how Cubans negotiate doubts and trust in love relationships, this paper relates jealousy to uncertainties endemic in the transformations of contemporary Cuban socialism. The material deficiencies and dissatisfactions of post-Soviet Cuba, indissociable from a major increase in international tourism, intertwine with local notions of masculinity and femininity and fuel insecurities in relationships. While Caribbean family relationships have for long been described as fragile and unstable, this paper examines new insecurities that have emerged in post-Soviet Havana as part of important changes in contemporary Cuban socialism rather than of longue-durée.Non peer reviewe