Illuminating the other the construction of otherness in the Cuban heritage public space

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines how tourism and dollarisation reshape heritage public spaces in Trinidad, Cuba, generating new forms of social exclusion and symbolic violence. Drawing on urban sociology, criminology, and cultural geography, the study employs ethnographic methods, including participant observation, visual ethnography, historical–logical analysis, and mapping. Findings reveal how economic differentiation is embedded in the city’s spatial and symbolic landscape. Access to goods, services, and even basic infrastructure increasingly depends on foreign currency, producing ‘dollarised’ subjects and redefining who can inhabit public space. In this context, light and darkness are more than a social metaphor: illuminated zones signal privilege, while darkened areas mark social exclusion. Heritage public spaces, far from neutral sites of preservation, operate as arenas of power where material and symbolic hierarchies are continuously reproduced. By linking otherness, social exclusion, and symbolic violence, this article demonstrates how economic logics transform heritage governance and urban experience. The analysis calls for policies grounded in social justice and spatial equity to ensure that heritage public space remains inclusive rather than becoming a selective environment shaped by tourism and dollarisation.