ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which politics and aesthetics are wedded through musical practices during carnival in Santiago de Cuba. In particular, it examines the aesthetic construction and promotion of political communities, identities, and values through carnival-related acts of musicking in an increasingly nationalist Cuba. The chapter proposes using the concept of political aesthetics to shed light on the active role that aesthetic perceptions (both visual and auditory) play in the formation of political values and communities in Cuba. By showing how aesthetics shapes politics in different community formations, the chapter provides new insight into the politics of music and aesthetics in today’s Cuba and elsewhere.
