"Leaving Everything behind to Open a Casa Particular in Cuba!" the Case of International Entrepreneurs in Socialist Havana: Negotiating Inequalities in the Global South

This presentation is based on an ethnographic research conducted in Havana over a nine-month fieldwork period (2019-2024). Grounded in a transnational perspective, it explores the globalization processes reshaping (post)socialist Havana, with a focus on the complex interplay between international mobility and urban entrepreneurship. Since the 1990s, Cuba has embraced economic reforms, opening key sectors to private investment, and tourism. This shift has attracted international investors, many from Italy, who are increasingly settling in Havana either permanently or temporarily. Their entrepreneurial ventures, such as casas particulares (guest houses), restaurants, boutique hotels, bars, and tourist agencies, contribute significantly to the urban transformation of the Cuban capital.

These entrepreneurs often follow diverse migratory pathways—tourist, entrepreneurial, cooperative, or even activist—and come predominantly from the Global North. They are typically white, economically privileged men, a profile that seemingly aligns with patterns of postcolonial domination. However, the Cuban context complicates this narrative. Cuba’s unique socio-political fabric, shaped by decades of revolutionary ideals rooted in socialism, anti-imperialism, and national sovereignty, creates a distinct environment where the privileges associated with being from the Global North must be constantly renegotiated.

To succeed in the Havana tourism industry, these transnational actors cannot rely solely on their economic capital or international status. Instead, they must engage in complex processes of negotiation with local stakeholders, who possess valuable indigenous, cultural, and social capital. These interactions reveal a dynamic where privilege is neither static nor absolute but rather contingent on socio-spatial contexts and personal networks.

This paper delves into the economic, social, and intimate negotiations that international entrepreneurs must navigate to achieve their migratory and business careers in Havana. By examining these processes, the study sheds light on how global inequalities are both reproduced and contested within localized frameworks, and how privilege is constantly redefined through transnational mobilities and urban transformations.