Audiovisual Remittances and Transnational Subjectivities

Abstract

In the summer of 2000 in Havana, Pedro Fariñ a former member of the acclaimed Cuban folkloric troupe Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, asked me to videotape a rehearsal of a his new rumba group.1 A few days later, he came to pick up a copy of the tape. Or so I thought. He demanded that I get my video camera out and rolling, and started to sing. He then began a 20-minute monologue addressed to Cuban folkloric performers who had migrated to New York such as Orlando “Puntilla” Rios. He greeted each by name, bragged about the new group, and then admonished them to show they had not forgotten those who remained in Cuba by sending a token or better yet, an invitation to the United States. He finished with stern instructions to show both his diatribe and the rehearsal to everyone named.