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This introductory article briefly surveys the most recent approaches to material culture in Cuban studies.

Candidata a Doctora en Sociología en The New School for Social Research. Ha trabajado en la Oficina Nacional de Diseño Industrial (ONDI) en Cuba e impartido seminarios sobre cultura y sociedad en Parsons, The New School for Design, en Nueva York. Su tesis doctoral analiza las relaciones entre moda y política durante el socialismo cubano. Es la autora del blog Cuba Material, que desde el 2013 se dedica a archivar imágenes y textos relacionados con la cultura material cubana, y ganadora del New Challenge Award for Social Innovation.Resumen: El texto explora el rol de las dinámicas de la moda en la consolidación del socialismo de estado de tipo soviético en Cuba. Se afirma que la moda participó de dinámicas de dominación, legitimación y control en los años 1960s y 1970s. Se sostiene que el régimen cubano promovió significados denotativos de la cultura material que conectaron de manera directa valores políticos y estilos de la moda, y se ofrecen ejemplos que acercan el estudio de este país a los estudios contemporáneos de la cultura material en Europa del Este y la URSS. Palabras Clave: cultura material, moda, significados denotativos, socialismo, Cuba. Abstract:The text explores the role that fashion dynamics played in the consolidation of a Soviettype state socialist regime in Cuba, where they participated of mechanisms of domination, legitimation, and control. It is argued that denotative understandings of material culture were promoted by the Cuban regime, which straightforwardly connected political values with fashion styles. Examples are provided, bringing the study of this country closer to the studies of material culture in Eastern Europe, region with which comparisons are made.

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This article focuses on sartorial visions put forth by institutions and representatives of the Cuban regime throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, in particular the visions of modernity produced by and circulated through the institutions of fashion and clothing production of the Cuban state. It presents these visions as oriented to put forth a figured world of power aimed at persuading individuals to participate in the construction of the communist future by catering to the aspirational dreams of the middle class. The article concludes that such an imaginary helped in the short term to consolidate and legitimize the Cuban state socialist regime, allowing the new socialist middle classes to reinvent themselves as consumers, while participating in the construction of socialism. Yet, at the same time, for many people these visions were mostly a mirage, as fashionable clothes were not for sale.