More than a simple biography, this book is an affective exploration of the life and works of Cuban American composer Tania León in relation to questions of identity politics, nostalgia, ethnicity, absence, and diaspora. The book explores the composer’s upbringing in Cuba, the reasons to leave the island at a complicated political moment after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, her adaptation to U.S. culture through her involvement in a number of historically important African American artistic projects at the end of the civil rights movement, and the development of her unique compositional v ... More

More than a simple biography, this book is an affective exploration of the life and works of Cuban American composer Tania León in relation to questions of identity politics, nostalgia, ethnicity, absence, and diaspora. The book explores the composer’s upbringing in Cuba, the reasons to leave the island at a complicated political moment after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, her adaptation to U.S. culture through her involvement in a number of historically important African American artistic projects at the end of the civil rights movement, and the development of her unique compositional voice. Attention is paid to the current process of canonization of León and her music vis-à-vis issues of identity, representation, and self-representation that are often at odds. By focusing on León’s extraordinary life, this book provides a point of entry into understanding how regular folks have experienced apparently impersonal historical events such as the Cuban revolution, the Cold War, the struggle for civil rights, or identity politics in everyday U.S. life.