In Havana, however, head-banging is
far less popular than hip-grinding.
At one hot spot, located in an abandoned
and roofless movie theater and only open
on weekend nights, young, mostly black Cubans
dance the "perrito" (the little dog) and
the "mariposa" (the butterfly) to pirated
cassette tapes of Keith Sweat and Dr. Dre.
The entrance fee is in Cuban pesos and
the locals are there to enjoy themselves,
not to hustle gringos for sex or illicit
commerce. If anything the opposite is true:
New Yorkers in particular are treated
like royalty because their city is held
in such high esteem.
The experience for foreigners at
private clubs is nothing like the
frenzy inside the dollar-denominated
dance halls in large hotels, where
local women flaunting black-market
lingerie gyrate to attract hard currency.
When tourism first started making a
comeback in Cuba in 1991, the clientele
at these clubs was primarily young
young Cuban women and older Spanish
men. The women always looked like
they were trying to dance their
partners to exhaustion so they
wouldn't have to put out as
much in the bedroom.
Since the Cuban government made
it legal for Cubans to earn and
spend dollars in 1993, it's
more of a mixed crowd. Cuban
couples out for a night on the town
dance side by side with the
acrobatic "jineteras" (literally
"jockeys;" in Cuba, it's the term
for prostitutes and hustlers).
