More than 65 years after the Cuban Revolution began, the country’s artistic community still faces censorship and strict controls on their cultural creativity, according to a new book.

Written by Dr Guy Baron from Aberystwyth University and Professor Antonio Néstor Álvarez Pitaluga from the University of Costa Rica, A Cultural History of the Cuban Revolution draws on the most up-to-date sources to examine one of the most significant and controversial historical events in Latin America in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The authors focus on landmark cultural events from the different periods of the Cuban Revolution between 1959 and 2022, exploring the country’s revolutionary culture and the extent of its regulation by the state.

The book provides a chronological account of censorship and the control of culture, of how the Cuban state has monitored cultural production and distribution, and how artists and cultural producers have responded to and negotiated that control.

Dr Guy Baron, a Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Modern Languages, said: “After more than 65 years of revolution in Cuba - a revolution that has undoubtedly provided numerous benefits to the Cuban population - there are political prisoners in the country’s jails today who have been imprisoned for protesting against the Cuban government and its authoritarian rule, by using rap music, street art and other forms of cultural protest.

“This book examines how it came to this by delving into Cuba’s cultural history from the beginning of the revolution in 1959 - and how Cuba began a process of cultural transformation towards a socialist utopia - to the present day.

“Our findings are that the government has had to revert to tried and tested means of authoritarian rule in order to maintain its control over Cuba’s culture – its window to the world.”

The book is published by Peter Lang press.