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Assignment 11: Amalia L. Cabezas

In Amalia L. Cabezas’ article, “Between Love and Money”, she talks about sex, tourism, and citizenship in
Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Globalization has a big impact to these countries on how sexuality is tied with citizenship. She interviews multiple workers that work in the tourist area. The tourism industry is the primary economic development strategy in both Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The information that Cabezas gets from the workers at the resorts are very interesting. The people from Cuba and the Dominican Republic talk about pingueros and sanky pankys which are men who look for foreign tourists, providing sexual services and companionship to both men and women, straight and gay. Some young men that are considered to be pingueros admitted that being a pinguero is a business which helps them provide for themselves and even provides for their family. One of the most important social impact of tourism is the fact that it involves sex tourism.  Many of the young men and women hope that their connections with foreigners will lead to marriage and migration. Cabezas also mentions how studies show that  that most pingueros, jineteras, and sanky pankys prefer to accept gifts of clothing, jewelry, and meals from tourists rather than to negotiate money for sex. They prefer that because accepting direct cash is basically prostitution which they do not desire. Getting married is one of their hopes so they can end up getting a visa. This right here shows how sex tourism does complicate the traditional views about citizenship and nationality. Also tourism deals with occupational segregation because the training and distribution of work are organized according to racial, sexual, and gender considerations. Most of the front desk workers are lighter skinned Cubans, while entertainment workers and back-kitchen help are mainly black. Race plays a big role in whether or not you are considered a sex worker. A mulata from Santiago living in Havana is automatically categorized as a sex worker meanwhile a pale skinned university student, who only dates foreigners and eventually marries a Frenchman, is not considered a sex worker.