Abstract

This project studies how Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger, addresses representations of everyday life in contemporary Cuba. Her blog, “Generation Y”, depicts the personal and collective experiences of living under surveillance. Sánchez proposes a new reading of the concept of surveillance; one in which the role of the watcher and those who are watched is reversed. This switch is possible due to the use of technology and creative ways to defy Cuban State security whose traditional role has been to oversee, control, and repress without accountability. This paper also shows how the dichotomy of visibility and invisibility that was so distinct for the Cuban government now transcends the controlled space of the state. There exists an alternative virtual world that defies the rigid structures of surveillance.