What do you think of when someone says, ‘Cuba’?
Cigars, vintage cars? Smoky bars and Havana jazz? Gloria Estafan? T-shirts printed with the face of Che Guevara?
Perhaps, in light of recent events, Chanel? Or Khloe Kardashian?
It is fascinating to consider how, over the course of the last four decades, Cuban culture has been appropriated to American pop culture. All whilst its citizens remained in isolation under one of the most oppressive regimes the modern world has seen.
Off the back of this week’s Chanel 2017 Cruise Collection show in Havana, social media has been overrun with snaps from celebrities and the fashion elite reveling in the novelty of, well, being in Cuba.
But perhaps it was Khloe Kardashian’s poor show on Instagram yesterday that really raised eyebrows: posing seductively underneath a Fidel Castro monument in Havana. As in, Fidel Castro, dictator.
South Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said to People Magazine, “Another day in Cuba seems to bring another selfie in Havana for the Kardashians. While Khloe is taking photos with a sign that says Fidel, she should have at least some awareness that Fidel would have prohibited a Kardashians-style show.”
Hammer, meet nail. Nail, meet head.
“More than anything it’s disappointing that someone who exercises her free speech right in the U.S. is blind to the lack free speech when she takes a selfie glorifying a serial repressor.”
Kardashian is in town with sisters Kourtney and Kim, filming their new season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. They arrived on Tuesday night, one day after a U.S. cruise ship touched a Havana port for the first time in 48 years; and one day before Fidel Castro’s grandson Antonio walked the runway for Chanel.
What a time to be alive.
Also in Cuba on the Chanel bankroll were Tilda Swinton, Vin Diesel, Vanessa Paradis, Gisele Bündchen, Alice Dellal, Caroline de Maigret, and Langley Fox Hemingway, who rubbed shoulders with the Castro clan during the show.
Their online photos show the colourful street parade in full swing: beautiful vintage cars, dancers, Cuban bands, colourful costumes, and the chintzy new Chanel collection. Hey, it looked like fun!