IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 124

Young Identities
Marcia Cairo
Havana, Cuba

T

here are three predominant social
groups among Cuban adolescents
and youth: Mikis, Frikis and
Reparteros
(barrio
boys).
They
predominate due to their characteristics,
forms of conduct, and preferences. The
first group is called the Mikis. Many of
these youth come from well-to-do
families (by Cuban standards) and stand
out because they are well dressed, with a
mix of elegant style and fashionable
practicality. The guys wear suit jackets
and sneakers, the girls, short skirts or
short and heels. Those who stand out
among them are known as hijos de papá
(children
of
managers,
famous
musicians, high military officials,
owners of lucrative businesses, etc.):
they can buy brand name perfumes and
clothes, and move about in cars or
motorbikes. Those with less money try
to keep up with their wealthier cohort
and pressure their parents to look as
though they have a status they don’t
really have. They listen to pop and
electronic music, and frequent discos.
Lately, they’ve begun to hang out at the
Fábrica de Arte Cubano (a new arts
location), but they are hardly interested
in the exhibits: they get together there to
socialize, drink, and smoke. Their
conversations can be characterized has
having a touch of sophisticated banality.
The second group is the Frikis, who love
the night, regularly dress in black and
wear boots. They have tattoos, and dark
accessories in their hair and on their

wrists. They tend to stay up all night,
talking in parks while laying on the
ground or grass, talking about simple
things as though they were deep
meditations. Rock music is their favorite
music, and they love going to concerts.
Over past decades, they’ve been
stigmatized for their experimentation
with
hallucinogenic
substances.
Members of this subset of them are
known as the Emos. These are immature
youth who celebrate depression,
introversion, and sorrow. Some of them
even self-inflict pain, scratching and
cutting their skin, but these are a
minority. Most of them are more
interested in what is in fashion, for
example, wearing multicolored, tight
clothing, and high-top, Converse All
Stars. They wear their hair straight and
smooth, with bangs covering part of
their faces. Emos tend to practice a form
of silly, purposeless rebellion, and favor
social isolation to distance themselves
from their studies and families. They
like alternative rock, pop punk, posthardcore, and other musical subgenres.
Others are the inheritors of the Emo
movement that cropped up in the United
States during the 1980s; they created
their own subculture based on music
bands. Frikis and Emos are attracted to
wristbands, rings, and nose, brow and lip
piercings. To be respectable, they must
dress well: they cannot look badly
dressed or not having certain kinds of

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