Conga! A Cuban celebration, featuring Cuba Pride 2018

Every year I lead a group for Cuba’s annual Pride celebration, celebrated in conjunction with the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT).

The festivities always include a conga, which is a dancing-in-the-streets kind of parade. A street band plays drums, horns, and other percussion, more rhythm than melody. Occasionally they play riffs from a popular song, and the crowd sings along. People dance down the street with the music or just dance in place. This is a big part of what makes the Pride celebrations here distinctly Cuban.

This year’s conga had a dance troupe that made my day. Here are some photos and videos of them. The conga ended at a park, and the band camped out in the park and kept playing as people danced. In the third video, they’re riffing on a popular song, and everyone’s singing along.

Members of a dance troupe pose as they wait for the conga to begin

The dance troupe included twirlers – see video below

I made t-shirts this year, and we all wore them for Havana’s Pride conga. They’re an inside joke about Cuba’s Day of the Farmer, which is May 17, the same day as IDAHOT. The shirts say “Happy Day of the Cuban Farmer!” So the big joke is, everyone knows that’s not what we’re really there celebrating. Like rural folks in the U.S., Cuba’s farmers tend to be more conservative… and some aren’t thrilled to be sharing their day with the queer community. So the joke pokes fun at that tension.

A lot of Cubans loved the humor and wanted to take our picture. At some point, I started taking their picture back. So here we are in the shirts, plus a few of the folks who took our picture.

Happy Day of the Cuban Farmer!

These are the official t-shirts for Cuba’s campaign against homophobia and transphobia. The slogan reads: “Me Incluyo!” – “I’m In!”

Last but not least, people gyrating on a Pride parade float Cuban-style. Notice the absence of Budweiser or other corporate logos! Refreshing.