Tourist valorization of african identity in Trinidad (Cuba) from a multiscalar approach

Abstract

This article provides an interdisciplinary point of view where geography and tourism converge. Patrimonialization processes that lead to tourist valorization of resources present in peripheral spaces of global capitalism, recreating tensions generated by local-global relationship, imposing patrimonialization processes related to spanish conquest in Trinidad (Cuba) that evoke global logic of another historical moment where the organization of territory was also carried out according to foreign interests on the local sphere. In this framework, the aim of this article is to illustrate how heritage is imposed from an external point of view, which values the tangible heritage inherited from spanish colonization and makes it invisible some features of african identity, which black slaves contributed to shaping latin american space. Multiscalarity is adopted as a methodological resource that allows us to analyze/ identify social actors - located at different scales - involved in activation processes, complemented by bibliographic review and interpretation of reports prepared by international organizations (UNESCO; ICOMOS). Results obtained from the case of study "Trinidad y el Valle de los Ingenios" present concrete evidences of this interaction that shows how local environments are reconfigured by actions that come from the global sphere.