The New Cubans by Jean-François Bouchard was profiled in Huck ahead of its release this November:
“I started seeing a new phenomenon – for the first time, youth culture was greatly impacted by what they were witnessing from around the world,” he says. “Access to the internet was very a cumbersome affair back then. You had to go into parks and they had Wi-Fi stations, so you saw people standing with laptops in parks – it was very weird – but then in 2019 it accelerated because of smartphones and it became very ubiquitous.”
Downloading Instagram gave them greater connectivity with each other, but also other young people across the world and they could easily see alternative ways of life and fashion. “They all got on it – I’ve never seen a young Cuban who is not on Instagram,” he continues. “Sometimes people introduce themselves using their Instagram [handle] as opposed to their names. Beyond the usual clichés that we think of [about Cuba], there’s a very progressive, modern, youth culture that is both inspired by what’s happening in the rest of the world and these younger folks are also bringing their own flavour and creativity to the mix.”
Read more about the book HERE
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