However, this framework has become steadily more fragile over the past decades. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) left Cuba largely without political and economic, but also ideological allies. In order to cope with the accompanying crisis and to preserve the socialist system, the state leadership adopted a series of economic reforms. This included, among other things, the promotion of international tourism in Cuba - a project that was to prove economically very successful. In addition to tropical beaches, decaying colonial architecture and imaginations of cigars, rum and music, the 'flair' of the revolution is a not insignificant reason for many visitors to visit Cuba. Local players in the tourism industry recognize this demand and react with the marketing ( and thus commodification) of revolutionary content in a variety of ways, which at the same time the alienation of this (former) sense and identity-creating construct goes along.

The aim of the dissertation project is to investigate the effects of the commodification of revolutionary heritage in tourism on Cubans and their personal identity constructions and to describe their consequences. At the same time, the described processes of commodification were only made possible by the transformation of social and individual values ??and the dissolution of the revolution from the core of Cuban identities. To what extent the marketing (and thus usually meaninglessness) of revolutionary narratives and explanatory patterns leads to identity crises, or whether (and how) Cubans use these processes as new freedom for the self-determined construction of alternative self-images, is examined in the project by a qualitative research design. It conducts guided interviews, both with Cubans working in tourism and with people who can not participate in tourism.