Transformismo: Performing Trans/Queer Cuba.

This ethnographic study focuses on the politics, aesthetics, and community-building of Cuba's trans/queer performers, known as transformistas, exploring how their drag performances engage with issues of race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic change in post-socialist Cuba. Through extensive fieldwork, the research traces transformismo across diverse settings—from Havana's tourist-oriented cabarets to rural queer spaces—highlighting its evolution from a censored practice to a complex, state-sanctioned art form shaped by local and global forces. The study emphasizes how transformistas, particularly Black transgender and lesbian performers, negotiate identity and resistance within Cuban society, fostering networks of solidarity and envisioning trans/queer liberation beyond dominant political frameworks. Including archival materials and detailed ethnographic accounts, the work contributes to trans/queer studies en las Americas by illuminating the intersections of performance, social transformation, and community resilience in Cuba.